Description
Origen of the cuatro
The Venezuelan Cuatro is an adaptation of the Renaissance guitar, also of four orders, the first single and the others doubles, which came to Venezuela with the Spaniards. This adaptation, of four simple orders, was called "four." With regard to the simplicity of its name, it is interesting to note that the semantic origin of the name guitar is the word târ, which in languages derived from Sanskrit- derived languages means string; thus, dotar means two strings, shetar means three strings and chartar, which derived in kitar, means four strings. In the mid-16th century there were already publications for the four-order guitar.
The four adopted the new temper of the Renaissance guitar: A, D, F # and B, but as in its origins the first string, the most acute and gutted, was easily broken by strumming, it was decided to use the same B note, but a lower octave, which made the four a reentrant tuning instrument with the strong sound that distinguishes it. Still today the technique of execution of the four using a strong and vertiginous strumming is one of the favorites.
Parts of the cuatro
The parts of the four are given the same name as the parts on many other stringed instruments using frets. Below is a diagram in which the names of those we refer to most frequently in these pages are indicated:
Various