The Portuguese Fado Guitar (also known as the Guitarra Portuguesa) resembles the cittern a bit more closely than a standard guitar. A teardrop shape, flat back, watchkey tuners and 12 strings gives the Portuguese guitar a unique appearance and sound. The name fado comes from the genre of music associated with the instrument, and translates to destiny and fate, themes which are prevalent in the mournful tunes and song lyrics of the genre...
PLAYING THE FADO GUITAR
The 12 steel strings of the Portuguese fado guitar are tuned in 6 courses of 2 strings. The first 3 courses are tuned in unison pairs, and the last 3 courses are in octave pairs (B'B'-A'A'-CC-BB'-AA'-DD'). The watchkey tuning (similar to English guitars) means that each end of the string has a loop fastened at either end.
To play the instrument in the figueta style, only two fingers on the picking hand are in use: the thumb and index finger. In the dedilho style, only the index finger is used. Instead of the typical plectrum-style pick, fado guitarists will make custom-fit picks that attach to the back of the fingernail. A false nail is aptly called the unha (meaning "fingernail" in Portuguese) and is generally of a rectangular shape, although the Coimbra style uhna has rounded edges compared to that of the Lisboa unha (Watch a video to see how to make your own finger picks here).
Two predominant styles of fado guitarra portuguesa exist: the Lisboa and the Coimbra. In the Lisboa tradition, the unhas are rectangular for a stronger attack, and Guitarra de Lisboa has a wider body in the shape of an apple (learn more about this here). By contrast, Coimbra picks are rounded to the natural curve of the fingernail, and the Guitarra de Coimbra is more of a pear shape. Because the Coimbra style was popularized by male university students who were serenading and singing along with the fado guitar, the pitch of the instrument was dropped a whole tone. So while the Coimbra style provides chordal accompaniment for a fadista (fado singer), the Lisboa style works in a call-and-response fashion with the fadista, trading melody lines.
FADO TRADITION
While fado music can be traced back to Lisbon Portugal in the 1820s, it likely goes back much further. Today, it's understood to be a folk genre of the poor urban neighborhoods around Lisbon – a way to escape and express the emotions of everyday life through song. Primal emotions such as sadness, joy, and love are all common themes in the fado tradition. A typical fado performance will involve a singer, a classical guitar, and a Portuguese guitar. A fadista will sing what they are feeling in the moment, in a very intuitive way (More on this here).
From 1926 to 1974, a military dictatorship in Portugal attempted to censor fado music, making it illegal to sing of certain politicized topics. Fortunately, this proved a harder thing to control than anticipated, with the recent advent of radio. Anyone could broadcast a show on air, and music records that were produced could pass hands any number of times without hardly a trace. In spite of the censorship and restrictions (requiring licenses to play, and going over lyrics ahead of performances), many musicians continued to make a living performing at fado houses undeterred (Learn more here).
EXAMPLES OF FADO PERFORMANCES:
- Amália Rodrigues, the "Queen of Fado"
- Argentina Santos
- Carminho
- Marta Pereira
- Carlos Peredes
Peruse our online Portuguese Fado Guitar Collection Here...