Colombian Andean Music: A guide to starting to play

To start playing Colombian Andean music, choose your role in the typical trio (the play at the bandola, the scrape and harmony at the tiple, or the bass at the guitar), first learn a corridor or a dance and leave the bambuco for as soon as your pulse is firm. Listen to trios and student as you practice: the style is learned with both his ear and his fingers.

The guide explain how the trio works, how best to learn first, how to set up a practice plan and what mistakes to avoid, come from the guitar or start from scratch.

To sum up

Colombian Andean music was born in the mountainous regions of the centre and its iconic format was the trio of bandola, tiple and guitar.
At the trio, the bandola sings the melody, the tiple holds harmony and rhythm, and the guitar does the bass.
The essential air are the corridor, the bamboo, the dance, the guabine and the whirlwind and the corridor and the dance are good entrance gates.
If you play guitar, tiple's a natural step: its tuning relates to the first four guitar strings.
It's music as a whole: playing with others from an early stage accelerates style learning.

What's Colombian Andean music?

It's the traditional music of the mountain regions of the centre of the country, as Antioquia, the Coffee Tube, Cundinamarca, Boyacá, Santander, Tolima and Huila. It mixes European heritage, as the pellet and the waltz, with indigenous and African roots, and is recognized for its three-tiered air, its lyrism and its metal sound.

It sounds about serenatas, family meetings, festivals and competitions and about the students of many schools and universities. The most common forms are:

Typical Andean trio or trio: bandola, tiple and guitar, the most recognized format.
Vowel duet: Two voices accompanied by guitar and tiple, closely linked to the bambuco and singing corridors.
Student: A bigger grouping with several banners, tiples and guitars sometimes with other instruments.
A body set: at Boyacá and Santander, with tiple, refifth, guitar and guacharaca, with a peasant and festive tone.

The Andean trio: who does what

To choose an instrument is, at its bottom, to choose a role within the whole. Think less about what looks easier and more about what part of the music you get excited about when you listen to it.

The roles of the Andean trio
Instrumento	Paper on the trio	Key technique	It's for you if...
Andean bandola	Melody, ornaments and variations	Plectro, trumolus and cross-sections of string	You like to have the main voice and the bright sound.
Tiple	Harmony and rhythm, sometimes sharp melody	Rashes with an off and chord on string orders	Enjoy accompanying and marking the character of each air.
Guitar	The Netherlands that walk with chords and harmony	independent thumb and melodic low	You play guitar or get caught up with serious lines.

The voice also has its place: many bambucos and corridors are songs, and the duet with two voices is a tradition in itself. If your thing is to sing, singing classes can also focus on this repertoire.

The Andean rhythms that should be learned first

Andean Argentina and how to approach them at first
Aire	Character	To start with
Pasillo	3 / 4, an heir to the Waltz, can be agile and festive or slow and nostalgic	A good starting point: The 3-bar is clear and felt at once.
Danza	In 2 / 4, slow and romantic, serenade	Ideal to care for sound, chord changes and expression.
Bambuco	Singing and with a steamplay, it's written in 6 / 8 or 3 / 4 and its accents play with both	Drop it for as soon as your pulse's stable and count out loud while practising.
Guabina	Three times, a peasant tone and his association with Santander, Boyacá, Tolima and Huila	He hears many versions: his character weighs more than his technical difficulties.
Torbellino	3 times, repetitive and danced, by Santander, Boyacá and Cundinamarca	A good exercise of endurance and regularity at the scrape.

If you want to understand how each figure and accentuates itself, we explain with examples [the Colombian rhythms: bamboo, corridor and cumbia]](/blog/ritmos-colombianos-bambuco-pasillo-y-cumbia-explicados).

How to start, step by step

Choose your instrument for the role you likeThat doesn't seem easier.
Get a well-calibrated instrument. A tipple or a boulder with high strings discourages anyone and you have to ask your teacher to check them before buying them. Here we have you [how to choose a tipple or a boulette]](/blog/como-elegir-un-tiple-o-una-bandola).
Learn how to tune from first week. The tiple's octave and the bandola's orders are easily broken and an intersecting trio does not forgive. Use the [online tuner]](/herramientas/afinador) calmly before every practice.
Start with his pulse. Fold the three times of the corridor with his foot and count out as you scrape or aim at first with a very slow metronome.
Listen before you play. He chose recordings of trios and students and hears the same piece several times, following each and every different instrument.
Finish a complete piece soonTouch a slow corridor from start to end motivates more than accumulate loose exercises.
Play with others as soon as you can: a guitar friend, a high school student or a university, or your teacher with you in class.

If you come from the guitar

The tiple shares the tuning of the first four guitar strings and many chord positions are similar. The new thing is the force to step onto metal string orders and, above all, the right hand: Andean scrag combines upside and upward blows with turned off that define each air. If you doubt between them, read guitar or tiple: what to learn.

If you start from scratch

Can you start directly with [tiple]](/clases/tiple) or a boulette. To guide them, many children start them at about 8 years old, when their fingers have strength for metal ropes and before that age, guitar with nylon strings or musical initiation prepare their way very well. Adults can start at any age.

Repertoire: where to start

The Andean Repertoire is extensive: instrumental corridors thought for the light of the bandola, bambucos and singing dances, guabines and whirlpools with peasant root and works by composers that brought these air to the concert room. Many pieces are known with an ear in families, and that's an advantage to learn them. An order that usually works:

First, a dance or a slow corridor, to care for sound and chord changes.
Then an instrumental corridor at moderate tempo, to gain agility.
Later, a singing bamboo, perfect to practice accompaniment listening to the voice.
Later, guabines and whirlpools, who demand resistance and a very characteristic character.
And always, that song that was singing at your place: That's the one that's gonna motivate you most.

A good part of the repertoire circulates with encryption (the names of chords) and another part with scores for trio and student. Learning how to read both opens more doors to you and your teacher can combine them with your goal.

Common mistakes as we start with Andean music

To play the bamboo as if it were a waltz: lose its characteristic accentuation and vaivén.
Scratching the tiple with a tense wrist: The sound tightens and the hand gets tired in a few minutes.
To avoid tuning of the cords at octave, that purifies the whole set.
Learn only with chord boards without listening to recordings of the style.
Speed up the corridor before his pulse's stable.
To always study alone, when this is a music thought to play as a group.

In A medio tono you find tiple teachers, andine bandola and guitar that work this repertoire, in virtual or at home classes in and around Bogotá.

Frequently asked questions

What's the difference between an Andean trio and a student?

The trio has three musicians: bandola, tiple and guitar. The student's group is a bigger group with several bandola, tiples and guitars and sometimes other instruments that allow arrangements to several voices. Many schools and universities have a student's place and it's a great place to learn how to play together.

Why's bamboo hard to play?

His accents play between a 3 / 4 and 6 / 8 sensation and if you count him as a waltz his character loses his character. He becomes natural by listening to him a lot, with his best and his best and his best practice with someone who's already been with him.

What Andean instrument's easier to start with?

The tiple will soon be accompanied with scattering and chords. The bandola requires to master the pellet but gives you the melody from the start. For small children, the guitar with nylon strings will usually be a more comfortable first stage.

Can you learn Andean music in virtual classes?

Yeah. It works well if the camera clearly shows both hands and lays them up with peace before every class. To be recorded with a track or with your teacher helps you to review the rhythm, that's the best challenge of the style.