Cavaquinho

The cavaquinho is a small four-string instrument, about fifty centimetres long, strummed rather than picked, and it is the rhythmic backbone of Minho folk music - played in groups with accordion, drum and singers at village festivals, weddings and the romarias, tuned in a way that suits fast chord strumming rather than melody. Madeira has its own version, the braguinha or machete. In 1879 the ship Ravenscrag brought Madeiran contract labourers to Hawaii to work the sugar plantations; among them were cabinetmakers, and the small instruments they played and then built there became the ukulele, which took its Hawaiian name and its shape almost directly from the braguinha. Cavaquinhos are still made by hand in Braga and Funchal, and the instrument also travelled to Brazil, where it became central to samba and choro.

What to look for

• The instrument - a four-string guitar about fifty centimetres long, strummed for rhythm.
• The Minho groups - cavaquinho with accordion and drum at village festivals.
• The 1879 voyage - Madeiran labourers whose braguinha became the Hawaiian ukulele.
• The Brazilian line - the same instrument as the basis of samba and choro rhythm.

When to go

Year-round; summer village festivals in the Minho are where it is most heard. Makers' workshops in Braga and Funchal take visitors by arrangement.

What to expect

There is no museum or fixed venue - hearing it means catching a festival or a folk group. Makers are small workshops and need contacting ahead. Instruments sold as souvenirs are usually not handmade.

Nearby

Braga and the Minho villages are the mainland heartland; Funchal makes the Madeiran braguinha.