The cuatro is a family of Latin Americanstring instruments played in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Venezuela and other Latin American countries. It is derived from the Spanish guitar. Although some have viola-like shapes, most cuatros resemble a small to mid-sized classical guitar. In Puerto Rico and Venezuela, the cuatro is an ensemble instrument for secular and religious music, and is played at parties and traditional gatherings. :es:wiktionary:quatro|Cuatro means four in Spanish; the instrument's15th century predecessors were the Spanish vihuela and the Portuguese cavaquinho, the latter having four strings like the original cuatro. Modern cuatros come a variety of sizes and shapes, and number of strings. Cuatros can either have single-strings, like a guitar, or double- or triple-coursed strings like a mandolin, and vary in size from a large mandolin or small guitar, to the size of a full-size guitar. Depending on their particular stringing, cuatros are part of the guitar or mandolin subfamilies of the lute family.
Cuban Cuatro
The Cuban cuatro, is similar to a Cuban tres, but with 4 courses of doubled strings, instead of the usual 3 courses. It is usually tunedG4+G3 C4+C4 E4+E4 A4+A4.
The Puerto Rican cuatro is shaped more like a viola than a guitar, and is the most familiar of the three instruments of the Puerto Rican orquesta jíbara. The Puerto Rican cuatro has ten strings in five courses, tuned in fourths from low to high, with B and E in octaves and A, D, and G in unisons: B3+B2 E4+E3 A3+A3 D4+D4 G4+G4. Several sizes of the instrument exist, including a cuatro soprano, cuatro alto, cuatro tradicional, and cuatro bajo : All have 10 strings and are tuned in fourths. There is also a cuatro lírico, which is about the size of the tenor, but has a deep jellybean-shaped body; a cuatro sonero, which has 15 strings in 5 courses of 3 strings each; and a seis, which is a cuatro tradicional with an added two-string course, giving it a total of 12 strings in 6 courses.
The cuatro of Venezuela has four single nylon strings, tuned A3 D4 F4 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. Consequently, the same fingering can be used to shape the chords, but it produces a different inversion of each chord. There are variations on this instrument, having 5 strings or 6 strings. Other Venezuelan cuatro variants include: cinco cuatro ; seis cinco ; cinco y medio ; cuatro y medio ; and octavo.
