Charango: musical instrument of Bolivia

The charango is a small Andean stringed musical instrument that of the family of lute. It is 66cm long and traditionally made with the shell of the back on Armadillo. This musical instrument is primarily played in traditional Andean music and also it is sometimes used by other Latin American musicians. Many existing charangos are now carved with different types of wood and typically they are built to possess 10 strings in 5 courses of 2 strings each although many other variations are in existence. The player of this musical instrument is called charanguista

source of picture: flickrhivemind.net

This instrument was created in the early 18^th century in the Royal Audiencia of Charcas in what is now known as the Bolivia. When the Spanish conquistadores came to South America they were found with vihuela. It is not quite clear from which the Spanish stringed musical instrument the charango directly descended from.it may have come out of the vihuela, the mandolin or even the lute. There have been many stories of how the charango came to be carved with its different diminutive soundbox of armadillo.

The first historic information on the musical instrument was collected together by Vega as traced back to the 1814. He said that he found the carved sirens that are representing playing charangos in some of the colonial churches in the highlands of Bolivia. File #857 of the New Chronicle of Guaman Poma persuasively expressed under the suggestive title ‘Indian Criollos’ a drawing and text that is representing the indigenes of Peru and Bolivia performing a similar musical instrument. Assuming that the chroniclist is not representing the real charango, it is very essential to notice that the image he showed is dated back to the early 17^th century and he recorded the musical mestizaje of the chord instrument in Bolivia.  Some people also believe that the musical instrument became what it is today in the early part of the 18^th century in the city of Potosi in the Royal Audiencia of Charcas part of the Viceroyalty of Peru assumingly from Amerindian contact with the Spanish settlers.

Traditionally, the charango was produce with a dried armadillo shell for the back and wood was used for the neck and soundbox top. This tradition has changed as the instrument is now typically carved of wood with the bowled back merely imitating the shape of the armallido shell. Different from many other lutes, the body and the neck are typically produced of a single block of wood that is carved into shape. The 10 strings of the instrument require quite a large headstock that are sometimes approaching or even exceeding the size of its small sound box. Apart from these visual differences, it is similar to a small ukulele. The overall length of this musical instrument is about 66 cm with a string scale being about 37 cm long. Meanwhile the number of frets is seen to be ranging from 5 to 18. The representative construction is a one piece body and neck, just a classical guitar style peg-head and machine tuners, spruce top and some degree of decorations. Most recently, the acoustic-electric charangos that are built with solid body and hallowed body are coming on the stage. The solid bodies are built very much like a smaller electric guitars whereas the electrics are usually more like a standard acoustic charango. The musical instrument has 4 to 15 metal, gut or nylon strings.

The charangos has about five pairs of strings that are typically tuned GCEAE. Not minding octaves, this tuning is similar to the C-tuning of the ukulele or the Venezuelan cuatro with the addition of the second E-course. Different from other stringed musical instruments, the 10 strings are tuned inside one octave, and the 5 courses are pitched G4 G4 - C5 C5 - E5 E4 - A4 A4 -E5 E5. This style of tuning is best known as a re-entrant pattern. This is because the pitches of the strings do not rise steadily from one string or course to the other.

There are both steel and nylon string charango that are in existence. Some steel-stringed charangos have all 10 strings at the same gauge and also there is solid-body electric version of this musical instrument.