The ukulele, also called a uke, is a member of the lute family of instruments of Portuguese origin and popularized in Hawaii. It generally employs four nylon strings.
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 during colonialization. The instrument is widespread throughout the Andean regions of Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, northern Chile and northwestern Argentina, where it is a popular musical instrument that exists in many variant forms.
The musical bow is a simple string instrument used by a number of South African peoples, which is also found in the Americas via slave trade. It consists of a flexible, usually wooden, stick 1.5 to 10 feet long, and strung end to end with a taut cord, usually metal. It can be played with the hands or a wooden stick or branch. It is uncertain if the musical bow developed from the hunting bow, though the San or Bushmen people of the Kalahari Desert do convert their hunting bows to musical use.
The bouzouki is a musical instrument popular in Greece. It is a member of the long-necked lute family, with a round body with a flat top and a long neck with a fretted fingerboard. It has steel strings and is played with a plectrum producing a sharp metallic sound, reminiscent of a mandolin but pitched lower. There are two main types of bouzouki: the trichordo (three-course) has three pairs of strings and the tetrachordo (four-course) has four pairs of strings. The instrument was brought to Greece in the early 1900s by Greek refugees from Anatolia, and quickly became the central instrument to the rebetiko genre and its music branches. It is now an important element of modern Laïko pop Greek music.
Peruvian music is an amalgamation of sounds and styles drawing on Peru's Andean, Spanish, and African roots. Andean influences can perhaps be best heard in wind instruments and the shape of the melodies, while the African influences can be heard in the rhythm and percussion instruments, and European influences can be heard in the harmonies and stringed instruments. Pre-Columbian Andean music was played on drums and string instruments, like the European pipe and tabor tradition. Andean tritonic and pentatonic scales were elaborated during the colonial period into hexatonic, and in some cases, diatonic scales.
The cavaquinho is a small Portuguese string instrument in the European guitar family, with four wires or gut strings.
Huayno is a genre of popular Andean music and dance. It is especially common in Peru, Western Bolivia, Northern Argentina and Northern Chile, and is practiced by a variety of ethnic groups, especially the Quechua people. The history of Huayno dates back to colonial Peru as a combination of traditional rural folk music and popular urban dance music. High-pitched vocals are accompanied by a variety of instruments, including quena (flute), harp, siku (panpipe), accordion, saxophone, charango, lute, violin, guitar, and mandolin. Some elements of huayno originate in the music of the pre-Columbian Andes, especially on the territory of the former Inca Empire. Huayno utilizes a distinctive rhythm in which the first beat is stressed and followed by two short beats.
The yueqin, also called a moon lute or moon guitar, is a traditional Chinese string instrument. It is a lute with a round, hollow soundboard, a short fretted neck, and usually four strings. It is an important instrument in the Peking opera orchestra, often taking the role of main melodic instrument in lieu of the bowed string section.
The Charangón is a small lute-like fretted stringed instrument, of the charango family.
The name chillador can refer either to two related types of charango. The First type, simple called chillador is a type of charango which has a flat back and is usually steel-strung. It exists in both 10-and 12-string forms. When strung with 10-strings it is tuned the same as a charango. With 12 strings, courses 2 and 4 are triple-strung, and the (re-entrant) tuning is more like that of a charangon or ronroco in Argentine tuning. The chillador charango is a standardly-tuned charango but with a body built from bent sides and a flat back like a (smaller) guitar,
On a stringed instrument, a break in an otherwise ascending order of string pitches is known as a re-entry. A re-entrant tuning, therefore, is a tuning which does not order all the strings from the lowest pitch to the highest pitch.
Peruvians are the citizens of Peru. What is now Peru has been inhabited for several millennia by cultures such as the Caral before the Spanish conquest in the 16th century. Peruvian population decreased from an estimated 5–9 million in the 1520s to around 600,000 in 1620 mainly because of infectious diseases carried by the Spanish. Spaniards and Africans arrived in large numbers in 1532 under colonial rule, mixing widely with each other and with Native Peruvians. During the Republic, there has been a gradual immigration of European people. Chinese and Japanese arrived in large numbers at the end of the 19th century.
There are many varieties of ten-string guitar, including:
Gabriela Lena Frank is an American pianist and composer of contemporary classical music.
The octavina or Ecuadorian-Peruvian octavina is a guitar-shaped Ecuadorian-Peruvian instrument with a tuning similar to the laúd. Originally a Spanish instrument, the octavina was soon incorporated into other cultures, notably including culture of Ecuador and culture of Peru.
The Chinlili, also known as the Chinlilo, is a chordophone from Ayacucho, Peru. It is a variant of the Charango tuned to a lower tone. The frets are laid out diatonically, and it has 6 courses of 8 metal strings much like a dulcimer. The doubled courses on the instrument are tuned to an octave. The traditional tuning, known as the "temple tuning" of the courses is E - B - G - D - B - G. The Chinlili was prevalent in Chimaycha songs which portrayed scenes about courtship, love or poverty using metaphors from nature. Historically, the performers were herders who would meet while herding and compose music together. Current indigenous music in cities focuses on social problems and partying. The music is still a forum for people to connect through common issues, but those issues have changed.
The khonkhota or ponputu is a stringed instrument from San Pedro de Buenavista, Potosí, Bolivia. It is now played in much of the surrounding region also. It has flowers decorating the soundboard, which symbolise fertility. The name roughly translates as harmonics, and it often only has five frets, which alternate between black and white wood. It is usually very rustically made.
The hatun charango is a small plucked chordophone from Peru, related to the guitars and lutes. Specifically, it is a form of charango, which has either seven or (usually) eight strings arranged in seven courses.
The Charanguita is a modern instrument created in the traditional Bolivian style of stringed instruments., resembling an upside-down guitar, with the body of the instrument nearer to the head of the performer, like a violin.
