Charango

[hellindc]

I've had a charango for a few years and finally am getting around to learning it. Other than "El Condor Pasa," which is really a Chilean tune with lyrics translated to English, has anybody heard any adaptations in the U.S.? I'm learning some Andean music, but I'd really like to figure out one or two folk-country-bluegrass-blues or anything else for which it might work.

If you read Spanish, here's a site that might be of interest, including some allusions to the relationship of the charango to the mandolin.

[John Craton]

I'll have to Babelfish the Spanish, but I hope you can post the link you mentioned.

[MartinD_GibsonA]

Check out this site (http://www.dromedarymusic.com/) I saw these guys do a double-bill with Jonathan Byrd in Cary, NC one night and Andrew was flatpicking fiddle tunes on the charango. If you email him, maybe he can point you to some help.

Don Smith

[glauber]

I've seen charango used mostly as an accompaning instrument (strummed chords) in Andean music. I'm sure some people use it for melody, though, because it just makes sense.

[johnwalser]

I saw this tuning information at: http://www.ancient-future.com/guitar/charango.html
Is this Correct? If so, good luck with this project. I will stick to the simpler and more straightforward mandolin tuning to match my very simple brain.
John

[Jim Garber]

It is basically tuned very similarly to a ukulele: Gceae. It just has an additional e on top and octaves for the middle course.

I have a small manual in Spanish that I got with mine which has a few tunes. I bought it from Joe Todaro a few years ago at the Philadelphia Guitar Show.

Jim

[hellindc]

Here'a rhw link I mentioned above. Sorry I forgot to include it earlier.

http://www.charango.cl/

And thanks for the messages. The dromedary site looks especially promissing, although it I didn't find any of their charago tunes loaded up. Thanks again.

[Arto]

Thank you so much for this Hector Soto site! I especially like those sheet music/tab examples. Hey - I might even some day play the darn thing! I bough a charango last year but get reminded by my kids that money could have been spent much more usefully (buying computer games, etc) as I don´t even play the thing...

thanks, Arto

[Potosimando]

I have been to South America several times and always was interested in the C.--played mando with some street groups with C.s on a couple of occasions (worked OK except for intonation problems). #

This summer in Peru I had a long talk with two of the fellows who were doing a particularly good job of making music on C.s and they showed me their very strange picks--a couple of different picks for different types of music. #You might want to give some in-depth looking around at the picks that are traditionally used on the C. if you haven't already. #You'd never make one of those to sound like the S.A. fellows without one of their picks.

Good luck. #Very cool thing to gain some expertise on. #A lot of importance in the wrist to be sure, I assume you know that (which is where those weird picks come in).

Que tenga suerte, chico.

[Arto]

Picks? That´s interesting - I have thought that people play charangos with fingers (fingerpicking and especially rasguedo-type strumming). This is what I have seen in the streets, in videos and some charango tutors, one of which suggested also growing longer nails in the right hand, classical-guitar wise. What kind of pick were they - flatpicks, fingerpicks? It would be nice to hear more. Websites about this style, too?

BTW: maybe stupid beginner question: could somebody help with hints about learning bar chords on charango? I have small hands and am used to mandolin fretboard. Charango´s fretboard is pretty wide because of double courses and flat like Earth before 16th century. I find it really hard (well, impossible, to be honest) to play bar chords clearly. My instrument´s action is not bad, so it must be me and not the set-up.

thanks, Arto

[TommyK]

I took a stroll down the charango hiway last year. #It seems this diminutive, home spun, South American copy of a guitar?, mando?, ukulele?, tiple? (pron.'tee-play' not 'tip-l')
All are made of materials at hand. #I think there used to be a link on this site to an eBay offering made from an armadillo shell. #Most new offerings I've seen are carved from a single hunk of wood, headstock to button end, the bowl part usually a burl. Most are absolute works of art.

Tuning? #Histrically, whatever the local villagers agreed upon. #I suppose in the big cities down south of south of the border they've come to agree up on a common format, but if you go off into the bush where communication is poor, ... whatever the locals do.

Pick? # Well I suppose if the instrument is tuned any way you wanna, made of whatever you wanna, you can pick it what ever way you wanna. #Maybe, if you want to use a pick, burled (whatever it was carved outta) would be appropriate. You could even save the big chunks of the bowl shavings!

[TommyK]

Hey I just had a brain flatulence! #Try this tuning:
Try this: "mi perro tiene pulgas"



Okay, okay, I'll save you a trip to Babelfish:
"my dog has fleas"
not being a ukulele player, I don't know what that means, but that, as I understand it, is the standard tuning or a mnemonic thereof.

[TommyK]

... but get reminded by my kids that money could have been spent much more usefully ...

thanks, Arto

Arto,
I think you've just solved the $62,000.00 question...
How do I justify a new mando / guitar / charango...

Compared to the cost of video games
$300.00 for the player unit (Playstation PS2) and a base model controller...
49.99 and up a pop...
13.95 for the game 'cheat' magazine so you can hurry up and 'beat the game already so you 'need' to buy a...
51.99 new game disc (they're going up all the time)...
13.95 for the game 'cheat' magazine...
55.95 high tech, vibrate in your hands controller...
PLUS ...
400.00± #in 2 yrs when PS2 is replaced by PS3 and you need to reboot the whole thing again! #nah make that 12 mos.

I'd say you could pay for a really, really nice, new, scrolly, sunbursted mando, music, lessons, studio grade music stand, Hard Shell case, and tuning pipe and room humidifier for the five year cost of the 'gotta' have it video game. #AND... properly cared for your kid's kids can play it at your funeral, then take it out once a year at Christmas and play the memories.

Ask yourself this as well. #Where is that 5 year old PS...1 ? #What's it worth? #Does anyone PLAY it? Seriously folks (moms and dads) count the game discs, multiply by $50.00.. you'd better be sittin' down!

New spruce is looking cheaper by the minute! #

Arto... You are a genius!

[Arto]

Thanks, TommyK! I´ll forward that to my kids! #

[TommyK]

Ya know, Arto, and moms and dads... I sounded almost selfish in my rant. I forgot the most important part. Don't buy a mando for yourself, instead of a toy for the kids costing more money than your first car... buy a mando or instrument for the kids. After that, the rest comes easy.

[Potosimando]

Re. picks, yes from what I have seen in South America, usually these C's are played with fingernails only. #Lot of character, especially when you are on location and come across a group "jamming" or street performing--the more remote the village, the cooler the experience, as it seems, although there doesn't appear to be much emphasis on tuning (but tuning doesn't matter in that these fellows...yes, usually fellows...are really getting a kick out of just making music and part of the beauty is the rawness of the music and the overall experience).

I ran across the C. picks this summer in the city of Arequipa, which is about as sophisticated a place as exists in S.A. as far as I can tell. #The group was a professional group, and their music was exquisite (on the C.'s and in general). The picks they were using were perhaps 1/2" wide and maybe 3" long--one was extremely flexible, while the other was less so (to clarify, one pick at a time for different moods/types of music). #The tone they got from using the picks was extremely refined--ethereal. #Took my breath away and made my imagination soar like a condor.

So, I'd agree. #From what I've seen it's mostly fingernails (in S.A. at least) for C's, but there is another wonderful level that can be achieved with the correct pick. #No USA pick I've seen would suffice at any level on the C.

[lucho]

First, "El condor pasa" is a peruvian song popularized by Simon and Garfunkel in the 60s. Second, all better charango handbooks I know are in Spanish with notation and tablature combined or just notation. With regard to uses of charango... I agree that most traditional andean music players use more struming with "repique" plus chord tremolo than anything else, but also you could play classical tunes or like myself even celtic music with fingerpicking or flatpicking combined with strumming and arpeggios with it (www.nimloth.tk). Fellows like Horacio Durán from Inti Illimani, Hector Soto or bands like The Orquesta de instrumentos andinos de Ecuador have even a charango section in the orchestra with 5 charangos, plus 3 ecuadorian bandolins, 2 tiples, 3 guitars, plus andean wood winds playing things from classical stuff to Piazzola. Of course, standard tuning is not always like that and even there is a fellow in internet a.k.a. Thinman in California who sells through e bay an instrument stringed as mandolin he calls charangolin.
salu2,

[hellindc]

I'm trying to learn from a little book I bought in Chile: Ernesto Cavour. The trouble is, I didn't realize it came with a tape until I got home. I've found a place to order the tape, but I need a CD version, and I haven't found that. The tablature in the book is clear enough or the fingers, but the timing is not clear at all.

I've got a few Inti-Illimani, Illapu, and Quilapayun CDs, but none have the tunes in the Cavour book. I'll get by though.

Using a pick is new to me. Most of what I've wseen is that the instrument traditionally is strumbed or "scratched" with the fingernail of the index finger, with short bursts of picking double stops in between.

Also, the first four (double) strings are tuned like the ukele, with the fifth string being an additional E -- though I suspect that a varety of tunings is found.

One reason you find groups all over Europe is that there was a great diasphora of Andeans during the years of dictatorship in the region.

[NYClassical]

i've never heard or seen one played with a pick. it's possible, though. in andean music it's played with the fingers... strumming, and some melodies.

one big difference from the tiple, bandolin, or mandolin, is that these things have nylon strings... fun instrument to play.... i have an old method book somewhere... a book can show you some chords and things, but i think the best way to learn is to listen to andean music and try to watch some people play. if you live in a major city in the US or Europe you should be able to find andean bands playing on the street and selling CD's. some of them are not so good but some are great.

there was a guy who came through san fransciso about 10 years ago when i was living there who was sort of a charango virtuoso. played mozart etc. plus traditional music. don't remember his name, unfortunately.

adam

[hellindc]

You're kidding. Mozart!

[Arto]

"You're kidding. #Mozart!"

The more I hear music, the more I think that anything can be played on any instrument. And I love it! Listen to this Canadian virtuoso playing "Flight of the Bumblebee" on ukulele...

Arto

[Irénée]

Charango is tuned in A7th, this tuning come from the Ukulele C6th tuning, herited from the portuguese "Machete" https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/portu...le-being-cruz/ from Madeira and the "Cavaquino", it's why the gCEa became GG-CC-eE-AA-ee

[allenhopkins]

Be aware this thread is 13 years old.

I traded my armadillo-shell charango back to John Bernunzio; he said he missed it. I do have a set of charango strings, from Todaro's, to remind me I owned it for several years. I strummed it once in that time. Guess it wasn't meant to be.

[Jim Garber]

Irénée: Yes, you have resurrected/revived about 6 12 and 13 year old threads about charangos. Any reason?

Yes, standard tuning is based on C6 or Am7 (A minor 7).

[Jim Garber]

Hi Irénée: you may find out that if you post the same thing on 6 different threads you will have to check all of them in order to see the replies. None of us know which thread to reply to, though at least Allen and I have replied to this one.

Your modified charango looks very nice. Was this made originally for steel strings and intended to be tuned in fifths like a mandolin? Can you post some sounds files? Does it have a flat back? Did you make this one yourself?