Hello Steemit!
CHARANGO SESSIONS - Chapter One - Introducing Charango to Steemit
This will be the first of some posts I'm going to write about the Charango.
Some facts:
The Charango is a small stringed guitar-liked instrument from the Andes. Maybe it's an american adaptation of the vihuela, introduced by Spanish after 1500s.
It has 5 pairs of strings or courses, usually tuned like this:
| Course | Tuning | Frequency |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | G4 G4 | (391.99 Hz) |
| 4 | C5 C5 | (523.25 Hz) |
| 3 | E5 E4 | (659.26 Hz, 329.63 Hz) |
| 2 | A4 A4 | (440.00 Hz) |
| 1 | E5 E5 | (659.26 Hz) |
Nowadays its body is made of wood but traditionally it was made of armadillo shell.
The better ones are handcrafted by luthiers, mines are the work of Jonathan Garabello (you can see them in center of the image below.
There are different types of charango. Varies the number of strings and the material of them (metal or nylon). The more popular here in Argentina are three:
- Maulincho: smaller Charango usually tuned a fifth higher
- Charango: as descrived above in the table of tuning
- Ronroco: bigger charango usually tunes a fourth or a fifth lower than the charango
Finally I would like to share with you a piece I've composed during my stay in Palenque's jungle in Mexico.
Its name is Zamá -in local language it means dawn- since it was my first composition for the charango.
In this video, I'm playing a RONROCO.
In the next Charango Sessions, I'll be talking about playing techniques and sharing another music videos.
Thanks for coming by!
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