Tuesdays Try: The Development of Music Related Story.

Welcome back to another entry of Tuesdays Try my free-topic section in this blog. It is funny how this week aligned into consecutive music entries. Once you see what I have right here, you'll understand why.

During the last days of April, I was looking for a musician to entrust one of my instruments. Someone gave me a good review of a young musicians from town and how having this own instrument would be a great fit. So I didn't think it twice and got in contact. The Venezuelan Cuatro was delivered and he's been enjoying it and doing some great things.

Besides myself, only my teacher has appeared on videos doing some sound test on instruments. This time I bring something different. My friend Saul, owner of Venezuelan Cuatro number 7 (Mardi), recorded himself playing soloist style. Needless to say, there's no comparison to be drawn between the two. He's way younger than me and has had been playing since very early age. He also studied music since is part of Alma Llanera, the section of El Sistema dedicated to traditional Venezuelan music.

The skills he displays bring out all the good qualities of the tool I made. There's no greater joy for a luthier than watching an instrument made by effort with one's own hands getting played with such passion and technique.

Looking back the time when I didn't know what to do with that Venezuelan Cuatro, I don't regret one bit entrusting it to Saul. He's been using it day and night to keep learning new things and developing his skills as a musician and Cuatro player.

In the future, I wish I have the resources to help some our young regional talents like I did here. I mean just look at the guy playing. If you were a luthier wouldn't you want him playing one of your instruments?

But let's talk about the performance. It's been so long since I did a review. I hope it's half as good as the ones I used to make on comments for my dear @mipiano.

The piece Saul is playing is a part of a larger concert called Aires de Venezuela . A piece composed by Jan Gerard Pam. It is comprised of segments of different genres of traditional music. The first time this song was played was as a zarzuela (think about an Opera but in Spanish) in 1914. It's popularity grew so much over the years that the segment later referred as Alma Llanera (the Joropo at the end of the piece) is considered Venezuela' second National Anthem.

About the arrangement played here, we can see the use of arpegios to make a string start. It is similar to what a harp or bandola would do in the first measures of a Joropo. Then, Saul makes a nice addition of his own. He plays a golpe (anñ fixed chord pattern) common for traditional music in the east. That one is called Golpe de Arpa. Afterwards, he goes into the actual song.

The technical aspects of both hands are incredible. The independence of each one is on point. Also look the right wrist doing all the work for that hand. That's something many professional players do for playing so fast. And I can see he's learn some tricks to keep the sound clean in the higher positions. It might be difficult to spot, but when playing the high notes, he changes the strumming motion to the index finger alone. This isn't just for showing strength, but it makes the sound cleaning for the treble.

Tempo stays consistent on each of the parts of the arrangement and the addition of the percussion at the end is a nice touch to highlight the versatility of both instrument and player.

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