I just put down my new charango to type this. Boy, I love that thing. But here's the deal: I got this as a birthday gift and went to the web page(http://www.rumillajta.com/) of the place she bought it from. There, they instructed me of the proper tuning: EAECG. All string pairs unison except the center pair, which is an octave.

I haven't tried that tuning yet. I'm still using the one I THINK Bob showed us at his last weekend workshop: DGBEC. As I remember it, Bob had them tuned "like the four high strings of a guitar plus a C."

Do I have this right, Bob? and what of the tuning on the web page. I seem to remember you mentioning that you could tune it "like a ukelele plus one", but I don't remember specifically enough.

My guess is that EAECG is the "standard" charango tuning, and DGBEC is an alternate tuning. If that's true, are there other alternate tunings? any good place for more info? chords in either tuning (the web site has some good ones for "standard" tuning).

I tune as follows (from face to feet)backwards from how you wrote it in your posting.

F Bb D G D (5th to 1st).
Some tune to G C E A E, which is what you saw on the website, in reverse order.

These 2 tunings are the same, just the second one is a step higher. Either one sounds great, the higher one is brighter, but I feel is a little dangerous in hot climates! I have had 3 charangos explode already, one in Calcutta, One in Okinawa, and on on Reunion.

I don't know any alternate tunings, there is so much to explore in this one!

An "Em" fingering in the low tuning is concert Gm. A "G" fingering yields Bb.

lower middle string: same as E (1st) on guitar

higher middle string and next-to-feet pair: an octave above E (1st)

next to face pair: an octave above G string of guitar

second-next-to-face pair: tune to 5th fret of charango G pair

Second-next-to-feet pair: tune to 2nd fret of charango G pair

I myself always get confused when telling other guitar players "second string, third fret" or whatever. Even if I'm "right", I'm worried that they won't know the high E = bottom string = first string combination. I think it's down to the high string being on the bottom for confusing me.

So anyway, I'll go re-tune my charango and try again. I think, though, that I have indeed discovered an alternate tuning - DGBEC works pretty well. This may be why it's not staying in tune, however.

But I can use the chords from the www.rumillajta.com website.

Check out:

[URL=http://www.ancient-future.com/guitar/charango.html]

[URL=http://www.ancient-future.com/links/index.html]

[URL=http://www.music.gla.ac.uk/HTMLFolder/Research/UGResearch/Daniel/htm/charango.htm]

[URL=http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/4301/elcharango.htm]

[URL=http://www.rumillajta.com/meto.html]

[URL=http://www.rumillajta.com/prosol.html]

yeah, I know what you mean. When I pick up my charango, my National feels neglected, and so does my wood guitar, and my electrics, and my basses. Repeat ad infinitum.

There's a tuning listed at ancient-future that is an octave lower than Leo's posted tuning for some strings. Which is more correct or traditional? Leo's sounds wonderful (like a Mando) but I don't want to break the charango. See following links for further clarification of the question:

To see and hear the difference:
www.randsullivan.com/IGSMUSIC/charangotuning.htm
(Depending on your computer OS and browser version you may have problems gettting Scorch to work.)

If that does not work on your computer, you can see it here:
www.randsullivan.com/IGSMUSIC/charango.pdf

Thanks for your help!

Simple example (single tone calypso "Uncle Joe" or "Blow Wind Blow"):
psuedo Em: 20000
psuedo Am: 22100 --> 22101
psuedo B7: 21010 --> 21014
psuedo Em: 20000 --> 20005

F = 2nd fret E string on guitar (1st string high string)
Bb = 6th fret E string
D/D8vb = 10th fret E/3rd fret B
G = 3rd fret E string
D = 10th fret E string

Your example is incorrect...guitar music is written 1 octave higher than it sounds...so
Leo's description is the same as the desciption on ancient-future.

[This message has been edited by mikeln (edited July 23, 2002).]

Thanks for responding so thoroughly. Unfortunately, I've only seen intro information about tuning pitches written relative to the piano and standard notation. It didn't occur to me that they were using guitar specific notation to identify the pitches. I guess the description of it as a ten string lute was the clue I missed.

When you're tuned down, do you find it more difficult to vamp on a tune in E or A? I'm assuming you don't capo these suckers.

I've tuned down to your tuning and my charango doesn't seem to resonate with it as well as the standard one. I've had this experience with guitars as well. Sometimes they just don't respond as well to certain tunings.

Thanks again!

When I play "duets" with a guitar, generally the guitar capos up. Don't generally try to play concert pitch.

how do you finger that pseudo Am?

I did find out something interesting in my wanderings around the web. It is traditional to change Charango tunings according to the season. I suspect the tradition may be a practical matter and may help avoid the widely reported exploding charango problem. I am hoping my intuition and Bob's advice is correct that you want to tune down during dry weather but maybe humidity weakens them? Clearly, minimizing temperature and humidity changes is a good idea for any string instrument.

Incidentally the best site I have seen so far for Charango is
Hectar Soto. He has lots of tabs, mp3's, and chords and a huge list of CD's of charango players.

Thanks.

dieg0

quote:

---

Originally posted by Leo Stepanek:
Hi Bob and Tom, funny to read about the misunderstanding of tunings. Generally it seems that the latin part of the world (South America and some parts of Europe) describe tunings from high to low (or from feet to face, which considering the tuning of the charango, is more appropriate - gratulations Bob for bringing it to the point) while english, german and scandinavian speaking people rather think the other way round. Don't know about other cultures, though.
By the way, charango explosions don't seem to be limited to hot climates. Mine exploded in Innsbruck, Austria, during wintertime. We definitely don't have a hot climate here in winter (some even doubt that summers in Innsbruck do justice to their name).
Because of the order of the charango strings I tune them to a guitar as follows:

lower middle string: same as E (1st) on guitar

higher middle string and next-to-feet pair: an octave above E (1st)

next to face pair: an octave above G string of guitar

second-next-to-face pair: tune to 5th fret of charango G pair

Second-next-to-feet pair: tune to 2nd fret of charango G pair

Besides the guitar-like relation between the four string-pairs next to the face there's also a mandolin like relation betweeen the two pairs next to the feet. End of confusion.

---

I gather when you say explosion you mean the strings all popped off together attached to the wooden bridge? Mind did, and just when I started to make some interesting sounds...

I just got it back from repairs, and the first thing they asked was the Charango hot when it exploded...did you notice that with yours?

My Charango was bought in Chile after searching what seems like every little town from Argentina to the mid North Chile for a decent one...so I was quite frustrated when it exploded.

The idea of playing it like a guitar crossed my mind. I may try that one because I am so much more comfortable with the guitar settings. But holding the darn thing is a challenge....its so awkward to hold.

Cheers & greetings from Armidale

You wrote
By the way, charango explosions don't seem to be limited to hot climates. Mine exploded in Innsbruck, Austria, during wintertime. We definitely don't have a hot climate here in winter (some even doubt that summers in Innsbruck do justice to their name).

john

G/G Is that G4 or G3 ?
C/C Is that C4 or C3 ?
E/e etc
A/A
E/E

Tuning low string to G4 makes me (too) nervous tuning too G3 results in the charango goes out of tune.. Gawd Im neurotic..

Well Ill try the Brozmann version after all this is not a cello.. I have a thing about stringing too hard..