After doing some research online and watching/listening to an accomplished player, I bought a truth nice one in a walking-street market yesterday.

After doing some research online and watching/listening to an accomplished player, I bought a truth nice one in a walking-street market yesterday. To start, the idea of a guitar- or ukulele-like to Inc couldn't possibly work because the strings are not evenly spaced so you can finger each string separately on the fretboard. Rather, they are in pairs with the two strings of each pair tuned to the same note. (The instrument is for playing melodies, not chords!)

The two heavier strings (the left ones looking at the face of the instrument, upright, with neck toward the top and body at the bottom) are tuned a musical fifth lower than the lighter ones.

When I got mine it was tuned to E-flat (lower) and B-flat (upper.) This would work well with band instruments (e.g. trumpets and saxes) whose native scales are in flats. To play with guitars that play more naturally in "sharp keys"--E-A-D-* etc. I tuned mine down a half-step so the lower pair I'd tuned to D and the higher pair to A.

Remember that the fret spacing gives you a diatonic scale (do-re-mi-fa...) rather than a chromatic scale like a guitar where you have all the sharps and flats available. Thus it's tuned for playing in a particular key. With.mine tuned to D-A it basically plays melodies in the keys of D major or B minor. With the tuning I got it with (Eb-Bb) it will play in E-flat major or C minor.

I think this should get you going. Enjoy!

Each pair is tuned in unison (both strings of a pair play the same note) and the higher-sounding pair is tuned a musical fifth above the lower-sounding (heavier-guage) strings. Since the fret spacing produces a diatonic scale the instrument is restricted to playing in only one key (and that key's relative minor key.)