Description: The
charango is a small lute popular in the Kecha, Aymara, Mestizo groups.
The charango is spread through out the andean regions this includes
Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Northern Chile and North Western Argentina. It
is agreed upon by ethnomusicologists that Potosi Bolivia and Ayacucho
Peru are the major centers in charango lore. During the 1600's and
1770's the contact between the Spanish and the Indigenous
peoples gave rise to the development of the new-world chordophone what
we know today as the charango. The charango is a very melodic and
rhythmical instrument.| Name | Key |
Tuning |
| Standard | A min7 |
G-C-E-A-E |
Ab min 7 |
F#-B-Eb-Ab-Eb | |
| E-Minor | E min 7 |
G-C-B-E-B |
G min 7 |
E-Bb-D-G-D | |
| C-E-B-G-D | ||
| D-G-D-Bb-F | ||
Tunings for the Charango De Caja |
||
| Plain | E-A-D-G-B-E | |
| Temple Comuncha | E-B-G-D-B-G | |
| Temple Diablo | E-C-G-D-Bb-G | |
| Temple Arpa | E-B-F#-D-A-F# | |
The charango in detail: 10 string charangos are the more common variety although sometimes charango can be found with 12 strings. A rare form of charango having only four strings who was found in the Lambayeque department (north-east of Lima close to the Ecuadorian boarder area). Is documented by a 4 disc volume focusing on Peruvian traditional & regional musics. In Northern Chile one finds a board-zither with the same name. In North Western Argentina exists a charango who has only 5 frets from the middle of the fret-board to the body, this form of charango is quite rare.
Charango-De-Caja: The
charango-de-caja is a type of 12-stringed flat-backed charango which
resembles the guitar and is tuned three octaves above the guitar this
version of the charango is a direct relative to the chillador. This
form of charango is popular in Apurimac, Ayacucho and Puno regions.
The Anatomy of the charango: Most
of the charango we see today are strung with 10 nylon strings in pairs
or "courses" and 19 frets. Originally 5 frets were in common place and
most of the intonation on the fingerboard mainly stayed in the frets
closest to the head stock. Although many of the Indigenous peoples do
use the charangos strung with metal strings, the Inca have a saying in
which "the charango is supposed to scream like a cat". Most of the
charango today use the machine tuning gears. In the rural areas it’s
still quite common to find charangos with hand carved wooden tuning
pegs.
Some of the professional charango do have the wooden tuning pegs.
Traditionally the bodies of the charango were often made with and still
are some cases today from the 9-banded armadillo shell. In which the
luthier would have a mould that was made to the current shape of the
body of the charango. Some professional model charangos do include
graphic equalizers in which are small enough to fit into the body of
the charango, a hole is cut into the side and then the graphics
equalizer is added in they usually contain one or two audio channels
and of course a 1/4'th stereo audio jack to hook up the amplifier.
A Foot note: I
should point out some charangos are strung with metal strings as well
as with nylon. I have been told that the metal string charangos should
be handled carefully during the tuning process. The metal strings are
quite delicate when taught and are prone to snapping. The neck may also
warp in extreme cases. Nowadays many of the major guitar-string
manufacturing companies such as, D'dario and other string makers also
produce string-sets for charango to other ethnic-lutes.