

Air is thinner up in the Andean mountains, and it can be difficult to play an entire melody on one breath. A noteworthy stylistic element to come from the panpipes was the trenzado or “braided” style. A staple of Andean musical culture for centuries before the Inca empire, the panpipes came varied widely in size, tone, and number of pipes. Of course, no discussion of Andean instruments can be complete without mention of the panpipes. Other instruments that were popular during the 18th Century were the marimba – introduced from the African slave trade – and the harp.

As for the sounds, well, “its strings are short and therefore high-pitched charangos are typically accompanying instruments, strummed vigorously with fast rhythmic patterns that lend a driving percussive rhythm to a piece.” This shows that the fast-paced rhythm and high-pitched sounds were popular among the Andean peoples during the time of Spanish colonization. This adaptation of a new musical idea to the materials close to hand shows the ingenuity of the Andean peoples. Brill writes, “it is a small guitar descended from the Spanish vihuela whose resonating chamber is made from the shell of a small armadillo the neck is fretted, and there are usually 10 llama-gut strings tuned in pairs, though a charango can have as few as 4 and as many as 15 strings.” Basically, it’s a guitar made out of an armadillo shell with a widely variable number of strings. A prime example of this is the c harango, which was an adaptation of the Spanish stringed instruments. The charango is a small Andean stringed instrument, from the Quechua and Aymara populations in the territory of the Altiplano in post-Colonial times, after E. And in the 18th Century, this musical innovation did not stop. As Mark Brill writes, “Andean cultures had a greater variety of instruments than Mesoamerican cultures.” This suggests that the Andean peoples were capable of making more sounds in their music than their Central American counterparts. What is certain is that, before the arrival of the Spanish, the people of the Andes had many different musical instruments, particularly wind instruments. As such, similar to Central America, it is difficult to take 18th Century music and draw clear lines between the Natives and the Spanish. The Spanish had come centuries before, had toppled the indigenous kingdoms, and had heavily mixed with the local population. Famously the home of the Inca empire, the region by the 18th Century had a similar story to Central America. A charango player is called a charanguista.The South American mountain range known as the Andes has a long cultural tradition. It typically has 10 strings in five courses of 2 strings each, but other variations exist. Many contemporary charangos are now made with different types of wood. The charango is primarily played in traditional Andean music, but is sometimes used by other Latin American musicians.

About 66 cm long, the charango was traditionally made with the shell of the back of an armadillo, but also it can be made of wood which is informed as a better resonator than the first one and it's the most common material found today, eventually there can be found charangos for children made of any of these or of calabash. Charango The charango is a small Andean stringed instrument of the lute family, originated in Quichua and Aymara populations in post-Columbian times, after America met the stringed instruments as they were known in Europe, and surviving in what are today the Andean regions of Bolivia, Peru, north of Chile and the northwest of Argentina, where it is widespread as a popular music instrument.
