Cuban Rhythm playing on a Tres Cubano

[Dolamon]

I won't post this video here as it is very long ... fifteen minutes and it's in French with English subtitles. I spent a good part of February in eastern Cuba and the music and the choice of instruments baffled me, then I found this offering on You Tube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nm6vKe7DStc

The instrument is tuned E C G but both the technique and sounds could be replicated on an octave or Tenor Guitar. There are explanations of the various sounds and methods followed by recorded demonstrations.

At the least, this is a good intro to a method and technique which is really difficult to isolate if you have only been exposed to the Havana interpretations which use a lot of brass playing rhythm. The more rural versions such as this video demonstrates, seem a bit closer to the original string settings from about a hundred or so years ago.

I had to watch this a few times before I began to be able to duplicate the sounds on a tenor or a mandola. There are also a lot of associated videos available on You Tube, but this seems to be the only one which really explains and demonstrates the method and rhythms.

Enjoy

[DavidKOS]

Just a note on the tuning -

the two outside strings are in octaves, so the tuning is really low to high:

Gg cc Ee