I discovered the music of Gustavo Santaolalla by discovering and loving the film Diarios de Motocicleta (The Motorcycle Diaries). Towards the end of this film, director Walter Salles edits several black & white shots of villagers, workers, peasants and miners from South America. This montage and the music that accompanies it overwhelms me with emotion :

This music is De Ushuaia a La Quiaca, one of the most famous and emblematic composition of this musician. It was subsequently used many times, in commercials, documentaries, etc.

Digging a little deeper, I will discover all the work of this Argentinian musician, through the films (Babel, 21 grams, Biutiful, Brokeback Mountain, On The Road etc.), series (Making a Murderer, Narcos: Mexico…) and video games (The Last Of Us) for which he composed the soundtracks.

It was only during the pandemic and the various confinements that I discovered the common point of all this musical beauty : Santaolalla uses this very little-known instrument called ronroco, originating from Bolivia, derivated from the more-famous charango.

I then decided to buy my first ronroco. But I was disappointed to find almost no resources on the internet, and in particular no or very few sheet music in tablature.

So, I decided to transcribe this music that I loved so much by myself, with the help of my ear and the sheet music writing software Guitar Pro 7.

I then created this website to share my passion for the Ronroco and the result of this hard work. Here you can learn more about the instrument, about the musicians who are composing great music with the ronroco. And you can acquire precise sheet music for Ronroco solo. Each transcription took me a long time, I am not a great musician with a very fine ear, so it took me a lot of energy and motivation not to give up. I was also able to draw inspiration from the work of other musicians

I hope you’ll enjoy the simplicity of this website. I wanted it to reflet the simplicity and the quiteness of this beautiful music.

One last word, I want to thank the real artists, the creative people who first invented that music, including but not limited to the Master Gustavo Santaolalla and his fellow disciples Aukai, Ayun, Al Lethbridge.

Should their music live and run in our minds forever.