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Charango progress made on long international trip

Posted: 22 Oct 2023 5:10 am
by David DeLoach
Just got home from some traveling with the family. I didn't take a guitar because of the uncertainty of carrying it on the many flights we took, so instead I took a small South American 10 string Charango which was very easy to carry on.

I'd never really delved into mapping the fretboard of a Charango, so before leaving home, I printed out many pages of the Charango fretboard I had created which showed every note on every string as well as some blank fretboard templates.

It is tuned G - C - E - A - E (low to high) with pairs of unison strings, except for the middle pair or E strings which are an octave apart.

On the long 7 - 9 hour flights I'd sit there studying those sheets and marking out various chord voicings/fingerings as well the some fingerings for different major scales, pentatonic scales, major/minor 6ths intervals, etc.

I made significant progress in understanding this instrument and now hope to record with it soon.

My son took this photo of me in the Naples, Italy airport where I had found a secluded area to actually play what I had mapped out on paper.

The Charango has such a unique and great sound and is surprisingly loud for its small size.

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Posted: 27 Oct 2023 2:36 pm
by Phillip Hermans
Looks like a nice one!

I also have one, that I rarely play... I did use it for a performance of Terry Riley's "In C" but thats about it.

I never thought about traveling with it as you did, thats not a bad idea! Maybe that will actually get me to play it...

Posted: 28 Oct 2023 6:04 am
by Carey Lainhart
Very cool. Could you share where you got it ? Thanks

Posted: 28 Oct 2023 7:10 am
by Jon Light
When I was a kid a good friend returned from a family trip to South America with one that looked like this. I have no idea if it was a serious instrument or just a tourist wall hanger. But I guarantee that I remember it well. Makes an impression.


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Posted: 29 Oct 2023 6:00 am
by David DeLoach
Carey Lainhart wrote:Very cool. Could you share where you got it ? Thanks
I have 2 Charangos. I bought the first one (on the left in the photo below) in Mendoza, Argentina in 2004 and my Peruvian son-in-law's mom brought the second one (on the right in the photo below) to me from Lima, Peru last year.

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Posted: 12 Nov 2023 7:10 pm
by Chris Brooks
I've become a fan of Peruvian cumbia. Charango is essential. Check out Chicas del Sol and their rather attractive charango player.