The charango
The small Andean guitar with five double courses and a re-entrant tuning that folds the top back on itself
Related
The charango is not an ancient Andean instrument. It is a post-colonial remake: a Spanish necked lute, an armadillo shell and a folded tuning, turned by Quechua and Aymara players into a new treble instrument.
The main line: shrink the guitar, fold the tuning back
About 66 cm long, five double courses (ten strings), tuned G4–C5–E5–A4–E5. The first three rise; the fourth, A4, drops below the E5 before it: re-entrant tuning. Chord tones crowd a narrow band, so strumming is dense and bright. It formed in the eighteenth century on the Altiplano. Stories naming the first city or maker are local legends without contemporary evidence.
Form: the shell is the resonator
A traditional back is one armadillo carapace: arched, light and hard, a bowl resonator. Wooden backs are more common today. The neck has 12–14 frets; players use nails or a plectrum, tremolo and strumming. The paired strings are slightly mistuned, producing a beating that thickens the tone.
Sound and relatives
High and penetrating, it strums harmony and rhythm while tremolo carries melody — the link between the two in huayno and cueca. Its range is commonly E4–G6, working G4–E6; because of the fold, that number is only an outer envelope.
It shares the lute's bowl back, the mandolin's double courses and tremolo, and the ukulele's re-entrant tuning; but the lute is staved, the mandolin has four courses tuned straight up, and the ukulele has four single strings. It is a recombination, not a copy.
Common misconceptions
- "It is an Inca instrument." It formed after Spanish strings arrived, around the eighteenth century.
- "Five courses means five strings." Five pairs, ten strings; the third course is often an octave pair E5 and E4.
- "A tuning must rise from low to high." This one folds: the fourth-course A4 is lower than the third-course E5.
HS classification and listening
| Item | Content |
|---|---|
| HS class | Chordophone · necked lute · bare-finger plucked |
| Sub-type | 321.321-5 (bowl resonator) · wooden versions near 321.322-5 (box) |
| Family | World · South American Andes (Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, northern Chile, north-west Argentina) |
| Key features | five double courses · armadillo-shell back · re-entrant tuning · high register |
| Compass | see the range fence (E4–G6, schematic) |
Tuned G4–C5–E5–A4–E5; the fourth-course A4 lies below the third-course E5, hence re-entrant. The figure gives E4–G6 for a common ten-string instrument, working G4–E6; written pitch is sounding pitch.
Three things to take away
1. Five double courses, ten strings: the third course is often an octave pair, which thickens and brightens the tone. 2. Re-entrant tuning: A4 sits below E5 and the chord tones are packed tightly; this is its most audible structural trait. 3. A product of colonial exchange: a Spanish body, an Andean shell and a local tuning habit became a new instrument.
Listen in the library
All tracks from midicn-lib — inline badge is the license tier (C1 commercial / C2 non-commercial / C3 study only).
Sources
- 形制、五组双弦、321.321-5 分类与 18 世纪成形说，参 Wikipedia "Charango" 与 Hornbostel–Sachs；发明地传说已标明；本文原创
- 定弦 G4–C5–E5–A4–E5、第三组八度对弦与 12–14 品，参通行乐器资料；木制背板替代犰狳壳，参制琴业与动物福利讨论；本文原创
Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.