Description: The
charango is a small lute popular in the Quechua, 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. The Inca have a saying "the charango is to
screem like a cat", in the rural areas often the charango is strung
with metal strings whist most charango are strung with nylon strings.
| 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: The 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 located in the north-east of Lima close to the Ecuadorian boarder. This type of charango 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.
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 charango's with only 5 frets were
quite common, the intonation on the fingerboard stayed closest to the
frets
closest to the head stock. 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's do have the wooden tuning pegs available
to. Originally the bodies of the charango were often made with and
still are some cases today from the 9-banded armadillo shell. The
luthier would have a mold that was specifically made to fit 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.