The Charangón is a small

lute A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck (music), neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted. More specifically, the term "lu ...

-like fretted

stringed instrument In musical instrument classification, string instruments, or chordophones, are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer strums, plucks, strikes or sounds the strings in varying manners. Musicians play so ...

, of the

charango The charango is a small Andes, Andean stringed instrument of the lute family, from the Quechua people, Quechua and Aymara people, Aymara populations in the territory of the Altiplano in post-Colonial times, after European stringed instruments we ...

family. Its general shape and construction are very similar to the charango, but it is larger and is typically pitched 3 or 4

diatonic Diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are used to characterize scales. The terms are also applied to musical instruments, intervals, chords, notes, musical styles, and kinds of harmony. They are very often used as a pair ...

intervals lower (a "4th" or a "5th respectively) than a standard charango. The overall length varies from 70 to 80 cm, and the string length between 40 and 50 cm. The "re" charangón ( a "5th" below a standard charango) is typically tuned: do-do, fa-fa, la-LA, re-re, la-la (cc,ff,aA,dd,aa) where the "la" ("a") is "concert a" (between 415 and 450 Hz). Note that this will play a D minor 7th chord with the open strings. (In the above example, the "la" is the course closest to the floor in normal right-handed convention). The tuning above is re-entrant, so that the "do" of the 5th course is only one whole tone below the "re" course. See the

for details of this tuning arrangement. Other charangons are typically tuned with the same pattern, but may be either a whole tone up or down, or even a 4th lower. Sometimes courses other than the middle course have octave strings (typically a lower octave than shown). It is bigger than the Charango, hence the 'ón' ending on the name denoting the charangón's larger size.

References

Charangos Peruvian musical instruments {{Lute-stub