Cuban Tres Guitar Views
The first thing to understand about the Cuban tres is that it is a rhythm instrument. Even though it looks like a guitar, the actual playing of it is rhythmic with melodic lines. Chords are seldom “strummed”, and in many styles the Cuban tres strengthens the melody line a 3rd or a 6th above with rhythmic fills in between.
The big difference between the Cuban tres and the guitar is not in the shape or the size. Like the guitar, the Cuban tres is also a plucked string instrument. The major difference is in the playing of the instrument. The Cuban tres is a plucked string instrument that is played like a drum. You almost never play chords with a Cuban tres. You can do it, but that is not the traditional way to play the Cuban tres.
Note: In the above photograph Mario Hernandez is playing a Puerto-Rican style Tres. One of the most common forms of the Tres is a retrofitted guitar, i.e. a typical acoustic guitar strung with different gauge strings and tuned like a Tres (g-c-e)- See picture below. The Cuban Tres is sometimes referred to as the k"Tres Guitarw".
In Cuba, among the Creole class, the Son arose as a song and salon dance genre featuring the persistent sounds of a plucked string instrument alternatively playing the melodic lead and a four-bar ostinato passage called montuno. This repeating phrase forms a rhythmic foundation for the music. Originally, a guitar, tiple or bandola, played rhythm and lead in the son, but later these were replaced by a native-born instrument, a fusion of the three: the Cuban tres.
Cuban Tres Guitar Images
