The Charangón is a small
lute
A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a 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 "lute" can re ...
-like
fretted stringed instrument
String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner.
Musicians play some string instruments by plucking the st ...
, of the
charango
The charango is a small Andean stringed instrument of the lute family, from the Quechua and Aymara populations in the territory of the Altiplano in post-Colonial times, after European stringed instruments were introduced by the Spanish duri ...
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 most often used to characterize scales, and are also applied to musical instruments, intervals, chords, notes, musical styles, and kinds of harmony. They are very often used as a p ...
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
charango
The charango is a small Andean stringed instrument of the lute family, from the Quechua and Aymara populations in the territory of the Altiplano in post-Colonial times, after European stringed instruments were introduced by the Spanish duri ...
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.
Charangos
Peruvian musical instruments
{{Lute-stub