The Ecuadorian music draws its influences from Amerindian and European civilizations. The musical instruments précolombiens included/understood flutes, drums and percussions built with shells and bones. Later, the string instruments such as the guitar, of the mandoline, the toothing-stone and the violin were introduced by the Spaniards. Charango is a semi-Spanish, mid- creation Indian; equipped with five double cords, its case of resonance is made carapace of an armadillo. Lastly, the marimba is a kind of xylophone made up of sound boards out of wooden hardened with fire, it is used by the black communities of the coast.

All these contributions influence the Ecuadorian music largely such as we know it today. One can still listen to it in the peñas, these places where young people and old come to dance with the sounds of an Ecuadorian folk music; most known are in Quito and Otavalo.