Why learn tiple or bandola? Andean music from inside
The tiple and the bandola are the heart of the Colombian Andean trio. We tell you what each contributes, where they play and what goes more with you.
Because they give you something that no other instrument matters to you: to play from within the Colombian Andean music, the bamboo, the corridor, the guabine and the whirlwind with the tools for which it was thought. The tiple brings the rhythmic and harmonic mattress and the bandola sings the melody with its trémol. At the guitar they form the Andean trio, one of the best-known formats of the country.
Also, they are tools that invite them to play with others: barely anyone learns tiple or baddola to stay alone in their room. Here we tell you what they each bring, where they play, how to choose between them and what challenges to expect.
To sum up
- The tiple carries the rhythm and harmony, and the bandola and the melody with a prectro and a trémol. The guitar forms an Andean trio.
- To learn them is to get into a repertoire and a way of feeling Colombia's own rhythm, and they are passed from musician to musician.
- Open the door to trios, students, tertulies, contest and festivals as Mune Núñez.
- If you play guitar, the tiple will be familiar with you and the bandola will ask you to learn about the prectro technique from the base.
- His challenges are: metal strings in order, more precise for his fingers, and an tuning that requires patience.
A music you have already been with with your ear
Many Colombians grow up listening to corridors and bambucos at their grandparents' house, at their school events or at family celebrations but few come to touch them. Learning tiple or bandola changes that relationship: you stop listening to Andean music as something far away and start to understand how it works inside.
That understanding is very concrete. The bambuco plays with accents that can be felt at three and two at the same time, and that's why we still discuss whether to write it at 3 / 4 or 6 / 8. The corridor, with three bars, completely changes its character if it's slow and sung or fast and instrumental. The guabine and the whirlwind have their own vaivé. That's true to understand when you play it. If you want to know those air before you take the instrument, read Colombian rhythms: bambuco, corridor and cumbia explain them..
A great part of this repertoire is learned from other musicians, in tertulies and essays, and while you play them you keep them alive. And this isn't a museum piece: there are composers who continue to write new works for these instruments.
Tipple and Bandola: What's Each Do On The Trio
At the Andean trio every instrument has a clear role and knowing them helps you decide where to start:
| Aspecto | Tiple | Andean bandola |
|---|---|---|
| Role at the trio | Rhythm and harmony: The mattress on which the melody goes. It can also score melodies as a solo player. | Main melody, ornaments and contracantos. |
| Cuerdas | Twelve metal strings in four orders of three. | Metal rods grouped into orders, in a more acute record. |
| Right hand | Scratch with your fingers and blow out that mark the air of every rhythm. | Plectro: alternates and trumolus to hold the notes. |
| Regular reading | A lot of chord cipher and score while tipping melodies. | Especially score, because she's wearing his melody in trio and student arrangements. |
| If you come from the guitar | Natural transition: shares the tuning of the first four strings. | The left hand helps you but the Plectro technique's new. |
| That's what you're up to if... | Enjoy accompanying and singing above and feel the rhythm in your hand. | You like to wear the melody and polish sound details. |
The guitar completes the trio with the bass and so-called embroidery and serious harmony. If your doubt is between guitar and tiple, in guitar or tiple we have been comparing the two routes.
Where to play: trios, españantines, tertulias and festivals
- Tries and duets. The most intimate format: bandola, tiple and guitar, or tiple and guitar with voices. It's easy to arm with two friends or with family.
- Students. A bigger association with several banners, tiples and guitars and sometimes with flaute, contraple or percussion. Many schools, universities and cultural houses have their own.
- Tertulies and serenades. Informal meetings where you play, sing and learn from your ear. They are a school itself.
- Contiades and festivals. Andean music has a strong tradition of meetings and competitions in different regions. The Mono Núñez Festival, in Geneva (Valle del Cauca), is a reference for many gender interpreters and there are others dedicated to bamboo, corridor or Andean music as a whole.
- Fusion and new projects. Groups that bring tiple and bandola to jazz, rock or songplay.
Do not have to compete to enjoy this music but listening to other live groups inspire a lot. And as in Bogotá and Andean cities it's common to find them, giving with whom to play usually gets easier than it looks.
What every instrument develops
with tiple
- A very precise sense of rhythm: the tiple holds up the air of the bamboo or corridor and if it's broken up, the trio's broken up.
- Practical harmony: you learn how to put chords and with the voice in different tones.
- The strength and endurance of the fingers, because each order are three strings that have to step at once.
With the bandola
- Fine right-hand monitoring: The trumole has to be mixed and relaxed so that the melody will sound continuous, nearly sung.
- Phrtle: decide where the melody breathes, what notes are adorned and how each sentence is mattered.
- Coordination between both hands at quick passages, very typical of instrumental corridors.
In both cases you develop something that Andean music requires a great deal: listening to the other two from the trio. No one plays at full volume at all times and dialogue is the rule.
Who's good with tipple or bandola?
- He's a guitar player and wants a second instrument with his own identity.
- He who grew up listening to this music and wants to play it with his family or at meetings.
- To adults and older people who seek a meaningful musical project and a group with which to share them.
- To musicians of other genres who wish to understand the Colombian rhythms to compose or merge.
If you want the complete picture before deciding, our [guide to start with Colombian Andean music]](/blog/musica-andina-colombiana-guia-para-empezar) explain the formats and repertoire in a general way.
Reactual challenges and how they are handled
- Fingers with pain at first. The metal strings in order demand more pressure than a nylon guitar. The short sessions and a well-calibrated instrument with the strings at a comfortable height make a difference.
- Filling takes time. They are many strings, some at octave, and they are broken with temperature changes, for example while travelling from Bogotá to hot ground. A chromatic tuner and patience are part of the routine.
- The quality of the instrument varies greatly. Many tiples and banners are made by hand and there are great differences between them. A teacher can help you to check one before you buy them or put up with what you have inherited.
- Less online material than for guitar. And the rhythms are best learned by seeing them and listening to them from someone who touches them, and here a teacher that knows the Repertoire weighs greatly.
- The trumole doesn't come out from day to day. At first it goes out unequal or tense and builds with a slow, with a methonomous and with a loose wrist.
Frequently asked questions
What's easier, tiple or bandola?
No one's easy or difficult in abstract. The tiple usually allows to accompany simple songs earlier, especially if you have already been playing guitar. The bindola requires from the start the Plectro technique but in turn let you play recognizable melodies soon. Choose from the role that appeals to you.
Can I learn both tools?
Yes, and many Andean musicians play them both. The usual thing is to start with one, to put up with the base and then to add the other, and what you understand about the rhythms with the first one serves you directly for the second.
Can you play tiple without reading score?
That's right. A good share of tiple accompaniment is learned with chord and ear encryption. The score becomes important if you want to aim melodies or play at a student with written arrangements, and you can learn in parallel.
How's the tiple sharpening?
His four orders take the notes from his first four guitar strings (me, si, sol, re) with some cords tuned to octave. We explain this step by step in how to tuning the tiple.