Charango sessions #1 - Introducing the Charango to Steemit

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:

• 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.