The Spark To My Musical Project
In all my years as a musician outside of Puerto Rico, I always get asked the following question everywhere I go: "What instrument is that? What are you playing?" To which I always reply: "It's a cuatro".
The Puerto Rican cuatro is a very peculiar instrument in the sense that its name is in Spanish, but it does not really describe the modern version of the instrument. The cuatro as an instrument has five double strings, ten strings total, but cuatro in Spanish means four, so why the reference to the number four?
Brief History
The origins of the instrument can be traced back to the end of the 18th century during Spanish colonial times. The original instrument had 4 single strings tuned A E A D. Research shows that the cuatro's major influences as an instrument are the vihuela, bandurria, and tiple (another Puerto Rican instrument evolved from the Spanish guitarrillo). Publications like "El Gíbaro"(Manuel Alonso, 1845) described the use of instruments like cuatro, tiple, guitar, and percussion during the traditional festivities. The instrument's major evolution would happen during the end of the 19th century. Based on literature and photos of the era, we can see the change from 4 single strings to 4 double strings (8 total), and later 5 double strings (10 total) with a different tuning B E A D G. The size and shape also evolved into what is considered now the "modern cuatro", a five double strings instrument with a violin guitar shape body.
There you have it, to answer a simple question and describe the instrument, I always have to give a brief history lesson. Cuatro is the name of the Puerto Rican national instrument. The name describes its origins, but the sound defines its future. I say this, because I usually have this history conversation at gigs not playing traditional folk music from Puerto Rico, (which is what I grew up playing and where the cuatro is the main featuring instrument), but playing music that the audience knows very well (like Carlos Santana, Mumford and Sons, Coldplay, Django Reinhardt, Al Di Meola, Pat Metheny, etc.) but with an instrument they have never seen or heard before but can't believe how well it fits in the music.
The Experience
As a freelance musician I’m constantly called to work on different settings with bands I have played before. But a lot of the time I’m part of a one day impromptu band made of musicians I’ve never met just because someone recommended me for the gig. That means I don’t know the instrumentation, tunes or arrangements we will be playing at that gig. Also, very rarely as the cuatro player I’ll have a specific chart to play in the arrangement. Most likely I’m given the piano chart or no chart at all and have to do my own thing on the spot. This is a great school in itself, because I have to open my ears and develop instincts to avoid clashing with the piano, or avoid conflicting with the horns, or not take the singer’s space. But if the band already has percussion, bass, piano, guitar, horn section and singers and you are none of them, you start to question if your presence is even needed for the show.
The Spark
That got me thinking, what if the cuatro could carry a band? What type of contemporary instrumental music I would need to play for the instrument to be so indispensable that without the cuatro is not the same?, similarly to how playing Puerto Rican folk music without the cuatro is just not the same. I've seen how people like when I play the cuatro outside of "it's element". What musical territories have not been explored with the cuatro in order to be considered more than just a "traditional" flavor to whatever song it's featuring?
Finding My Voice
The obvious route is to have the cuatro be the main instrument all the time, playing the melody with a backing band supporting whatever I do. That's fine and all but I'd like to be closer to the rhythm section. Besides if only one instrument plays the melody it becomes too predictable for the audience. What if the cuatro is in charge of the harmony? Replace the harmonic space normally covered by the 81 keys of the piano or the 6 strings of the guitar (sometimes both at the same time) with the five strings of the cuatro. Well that has been done in “son cubano” and Puerto Rican music. OK, how about I don’t play that music. Then what music would you play? I’ll write it myself!
That was sort of the inner monologue I had for a while as a way to convince, motivate, and inspire my artistic vision. Writing my own music helped organize the ideas I was looking for, and the interactions I wanted to have with other instruments. This process was so much fun, because it challenged me to discover the limitations of the instrument and mine as a musician, and find creative ways to use the strengths in my playing to fulfill a role I’m not normally fully in charge of. But I also realized that this is scary shit! With all the music that exists in the world, who am I to bring more music to life? Luckily I did not think about that until the music was written, and I wrote it the only way I know how to do things, diving head first!