Last summer, I picked up a Charango from a Bolivian musician who was travelling to the states. I initially went to meet him because we had been corresponding and he was going to bring some Andean flutes to try out. He had some great flutes and I bought a few. I am mostly a flute player. He asked me if I knew anybody that wanted to buy a Charango. And so on impulse I said, yeah, ME!I knew I was in trouble because I didn't know anybody that could play it and I'm up to my eyeballs with different world flutes trying to make those happen.
Anywho, I purchased a great book on amazon, The Mel Bay Charango Method. Pretty complete introduction to advanced material with a CD. A guy from Chili knows the author and said to me it's one of the best books and a 2nd volume is apparently somewhere out there but don't see it in English.
Most of Andean Music is in A mi and E mi so once you get those basic chords for the "Huayno" seems like spending a lot of time nailing the rhythmic conception of the music and all the variations. But if I want to play western music like Beatle tunes, I have to venture into some of the other less often used chords. Not that guys aren't doing it. It's just not traditional.
I don't have huge hands. Small and a little pudgy but who would have thunk you would need big hands for this instrument??? Not me said the first time poster.
There are some chords that seem absolutely impossible. The one I am thinking of is a simple D mi chord. No sharps, no flats, no extensions.
Here is the fingering that's in the Mel Bay book that I got from another online finger chart.
You have the ring finger and pinky on the 1st fret, 3rd and 1st string. And then, there is no way without taking my 3rd finger out of it's socket that I'm going to reach all the way up to the 4th string and then bring that pinky finger all the way to the 5th string unless I am Houdini. Obviously, I'm doing something fundamentally wrong, or my hands are simply not cut out to play anymore than the basic chords.
Even if I can figure out how to get my fingers in that position (rounded fingers, holding the hand to the side whatever) can't see moving gracefully moving in and out of that position. Then there is this chord chart,
Which leaves the 5th string open which is a G note. I never got the memo but unless I entered the twilight zone there is no G in a D mi chord unless they only want me to figure out how to strum four strings instead of five fingers.
Ok, yes, I see it coming. Why don't you play the D mi on the 5th fret as a bar chord (again with that open G) Well, 1st I'd be admitting defeat and than I'd only have to deal with the next obstacle, getting clean bar chords with small fingers, on a ten string instrument without being committed to an insane asylum.
I realize this is a Ukulele forum and there seems to be a minimum of people with Charango's but some very occasional mention. It's a Ukulele on steroids.
Anybody have any advice/insight outside of throw the instrument out of the window, buy a Ukulele. Maybe the guitar players, have some insights on how to play really awkward chords with small hands. Any lead would help.
Thanks
