About the Charango
A brief explanation of the history of the instrument.
The Charango is an Andean folk instrument. The Andes are the mountain range that run the length of South America, and containing countries such as Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile and Peru. Home of llama's, Machu Pichu (one of the few Incan cities the Spanish managed not to destroy, pictured above) and Lake Titicaca, the worlds highest navigable lake.
My first practise charango with which Karmadillo started in Feb 2002
When the Spanish conquistadors came to South America, they bought with them the vihuela (an ancestor of the guitar). Originally, the South Americans in the treeless mountain regions could not spare the wood to make the soundbox and hit upon the bright idea of using Armadillos instead. The armadillo's scurried away as fast as their little legs could carry them, but some really did suffer for the sake of art. Not just armadillo's either - the museum of musical instruments in La Paz, Bolivia has charangos made from a whole varieties of animals and birds.
The sound of the charango is heard throughout the Andes – for one thing it is easier to carry around than a guitar! Nowadays it tends to be made of wood - the sound is better, it keeps it musical quality for longer and is kinder on the old armadillos. The whole, bulbous soundbox (or resonator) is impressively carved out of a single piece. It has 5 sets of paired strings. The ones I have are nylon, but steel strings are used on the armadillo based ones.
The charango has five pairs (or courses) of strings, concert tuning usually being GCEAE. However, to preserve life of the strings they are often tuned a tone lower than this, and in Karmadillo this is the standard setting. It suits my vocal range and sets of spare strings are very hard to come by.
Unlike most other stringed instruments, all ten strings are tuned inside one octave. The five courses are pitched as follows (from 5th to 1st course): gg cc eE aa ee. This tuning pattern is known as a re-entrant pattern because the pitches of the strings do not rise steadily from one string or course to the next.
The ramifications of the charango tuning is that there is a very narrow tonal range in most chords, and so there is a tremendous wall of sound.
Usually it is heard in conjuction with Andean pan-pipes. The charango buskers will always have El Condor Pasa in their repotoire as popularised by Simon and Garfunkel. Other recordings in the West are rare and may actually be obtainable from street busker types.
Charango Links
Other links on the web to Charango stuff is available at the following sites. Be aware that much charango information out there is on Spanish.
- Wikipedia offers a good starting point.
- BoliviaWeb - though links are in Spanish the music section has a good amount of stuff on the charango.
- The Yahoo charango groups board. There is a more active one for Spanish speakers as well.
- Photo Gallery of Charango's - watch out for the one with 5 necks!!! as well.
- Takashi Sano's web page - Japanese player in Bolivia a lot
- A Latin American online shopping experience with a musical instrument section featuring charango's.
And don't forget to experience the real thing itself if you ever visit Bolivia, Peru, Chile, Ecuador or Argentina. There are plenty of buskers and bands around, particularly in tourist areas. You can also buy one yourself! And also the UK!!!!
