The viola de cocho is a singular plucked string instrument

Plucked string instrument

Plucked string instruments are a subcategory of string instruments that are played by plucking the strings. Plucking is a way of pulling and releasing the string in such as way as to give it an impulse that causes the string to vibrate...

 from Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

. It is typical from the states of Mato Grosso

Mato Grosso

Mato Grosso is one of the states of Brazil, the third largest in area, located in the western part of the country.Neighboring states are Rondônia, Amazonas, Pará, Tocantins, Goiás and Mato Grosso do Sul. It also borders Bolivia to the southwest...

 and Mato Grosso do Sul

Mato Grosso do Sul

Mato Grosso do Sul is one of the states of Brazil.Neighboring Brazilian states are Mato Grosso, Goiás, Minas Gerais, São Paulo and Paraná. It also borders the countries of Paraguay and Bolivia to the west. The economy of the state is largely based on agriculture and cattle-raising...

 and it was record as an untangible national patrimony by Iphan - the brazilian institution which is responsible for the preservation of the national cultural patrimony. It is unusual in that it has fret

Fret

A fret is a raised portion on the neck of a stringed instrument, that extends generally across the full width of the neck. On most modern western instruments, frets are metal strips inserted into the fingerboard...

s, but only 3 at most. It is also unusually left unvarnished. The portuguese word cocho used by the man in the field, identifies a log of wood excavated, forming a sort of container. The cocho is widely used, for example, to add salt to the cattle on grassland farms.

Design

The viola-de-cocho is a musical instrument of the group of short lutes, produced by master craftsmen. After choosing the wood, cut the trunk into two flat parts. With a cast the wood is scratch and on which is carved a sounding board. Once carved the body of the instrument, the soundboard is glued and then are posted the easel, mirrors, pegs and to fuse, which then placed the frets and strings. Some instruments have a small circular hole on top, sometimes not. The viola without hole is something new. Some viola players justified that the viola with hole gave a lot of work, because always came by this hole, spiders or other animals, damaging the instrument's sound. Some former viola players prefer it to the hole because, in the words of one, the hole gives a better sound..

Tuning

With unique shape and sound, the viola-de-cocho has always five orders of strings, called prima, contra, corda do meio, canotio and resposta. The strings are tuned in two different ways, canotio solto (released) and canotio preso (arrested): bottom-up, re, la, mi, re, sol, and re, la, mi, do, sol.

Notable performers

Braz da Viola

Braz da Viola

Braz da Viola is a Brazilian multi-instrumentalist musician, luthier, conductor and teacher. He runs workshops of viola caipira in several cities in Brazil. He played with several guitar players in Brazil, such as Roberto Corrêa, Paulo Freire, Renato Andrade, Pereira da Viola, Ivan Vilela and dual...

, besides being an virtuoso instrumentalist is also a constructor of beautiful violas-de-cocho. Another well known performer of the viola-de-cocho is the brazilian instrumentalist Roberto Corrêa.