Retune a Ukulele and you get a Cuatro from Venezuela!

blue_knight_usa

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XR8Qc5mX2Uk Here is an interesting thing: The cuatro of Venezuela has four single nylon strings, tuned (A4,D5,F♯5,B4) or (A3,D4,F♯4,B3). It is similar in shape and tuning to the ukulele, but their character and playing technique are vastly different. It is tuned in a similar fashion to the ukulele's traditional D tuning, but the B is an octave lower. I recently had a visitor from Venezuela who has received numerous awards in various cities. Just imagine this through a PA, with some mixing and wow! His strumming style and pattern is what makes this music great. He played a few of my ukuleles and the songs worked perfectly. Different key but the fingering was exactly the same which is interesting. I did a video to demonstrate how this worked. Hope you enjoy.
 
Thanks for the video Jay; his strummin' style made the song. I watched the Joropo video that followed yous. Holy moly both the guys do blazing triplets. How the heck do they do that so fast?

Good seeing you back. I trust your dad is well and still playing the harmonica.
 
Why do cuatros have a different wood on the top quarter of the soundboard? Does this do something desirable to the sound? Is that wood thicker, or a laminate on top of the regular soundboard, or is the soundboard simply a splice at that joint of two different woods?
 
I certainly can't play the traditional style but I really like the cuatro tuning on ukulele. Southcoast has several sets you can add the cuatro first string to. Mine is Eb on tenor scale - up a half step from the traditional cuatro tuning.

I think the different wood is primarily a pickguard. If you watch some other cuatro videos, many players beat the crap out of that thing. I don't see how the instruments survive the first song. :)
 
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