The huapanguera, guitarra quinta huapanguera or guitarra huapanguera is a Mexican

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

-like instrument that usually forms part of a conjunto huasteco ensemble, along with the jarana huasteca and

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

. Because of its large body and deeper structure, the huapanguera is able provide a much deeper sound compared to a regular acoustic guitar. Here it takes on the role of the bass instrument using a rhythmical strumming technique. Its physical construction features a large resonating body with a short neck. It normally has around 10

fret A fret is any of the thin strips of material, usually metal wire, inserted laterally at specific positions along the neck or fretboard of a stringed instrument. Frets usually extend across the full width of the neck. On some historical inst ...

s which stop at the point where the

fingerboard The fingerboard (also known as a fretboard on fretted instruments) is an important component of most stringed instruments. It is a thin, long strip of material, usually wood, that is laminated to the front of the neck of an instrument. The stri ...

meets the top. The stringing and tuning arrangement consists of 8 nylon strings in 5 courses. Standard tuning is G2+G2 – D3+D3 – G3+G3 – B3+ – E4 (GG – dd – gg – b – e in

Helmholtz pitch notation Helmholtz pitch notation is a system for naming musical notes of the Western chromatic scale. Fully described and normalized by the German scientist Hermann von Helmholtz, it uses a combination of upper and lower case letters (A to G), and t ...

), although there are many other string arrangements and tunings.

Son Huasteco

The quinta huapanguera is an instrument distinct of the

Huasteca La Huasteca is a geographical and cultural region located partially along the Gulf of Mexico and including parts of the states of Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Puebla, Hidalgo (state), Hidalgo, San Luis Potosí, Querétaro and Guanajuato. It is roughly d ...

region of Mexico. It is used when playing their specific folk genre called

son huasteco Son huasteco is one of eight Mexican song styles and is a traditional Mexican musical style originating in the six state area of Northeastern Mexico called La Huasteca. It dates back to the end of the 19th century and is influenced by Spanish a ...

. This style of Mexican music is characterized by a trio of instruments consisting of the violin, Jarana huasteca (a small five-string guitar) and the quinta huapanguera.

References

External links

Video of a musician trying out the sound of the quinta huapanguera
Guitar family instruments Mexican musical instruments {{guitar-stub