Talk:Cuatro (instrument)

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 20 January 2021 and 12 May 2021. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Sgonz19.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 18:45, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

Untitled
I think that this article should be split, since these instruments have nothing to do with each other, besides the name. --4.250.9.207 20:10, 30 December 2006 (UTC)


 * Yes, they are different instruments. I created an entry for each one: Cuatro (Venezuela) and Cuatro (Puerto Rico), and copied the information there. --Opus88888 (talk) 20:29, 6 June 2009 (UTC)


 * They are all related instruments. The generic term "Cuatro" covers a large number of instrument variants, just as does the term "guitar".  There should be a generic article for "Cuatro", with links to more specific subcategories, just as there is a generic article for "guitar: with internal links to more detailed articles on various types of guitar (steel-string; classical; electric; etc.)  The article should be kept.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.95.43.249 (talk) 01:19, 24 July 2013 (UTC)


 * I would dispute that the Venezuelan and Puerto Rican Cuatros are related. True they are both stringed instruments. But their histories, sound, methods of construction and playing, are very different. They are as related to the kinds of guitar you list as they are to each other. I'd be interested to know of the other kinds of cuatro you mention. James Fryer (talk) 06:35, 24 July 2013 (UTC)

Further to the above, having reverted an edit that implied the Puerto Rican Cuatro was a descendent of the Venezuelan instrument, I think there is a problem with the opening sentence:

> The cuatro is a family of Latin American instruments found in South America, and in Puerto Rico and other parts of the West Indies. Although some have viola-like shapes, many cuatros resemble a small to mid-sized classical guitar.

I would say calling them a "family" is too strong, they are two unrelated instruments that happen to share a name. Therefore I will change this opening sentence unless there is disagreement here. James Fryer (talk) 13:11, 10 January 2019 (UTC)

I think that the different categories should include more information. For example, basic history, music it is typically integrated in, how is played and such. Sgonz19 (talk) 02:33, 7 May 2021 (UTC)

History
I think it will be great to talk about the general history of the instrument, which can then lead to the many different cuatro categories that are already in this page. Sgonz19 (talk) 02:59, 7 May 2021 (UTC)

Techniques
It might also be nice to talk about playing techniques (cf. golpe) —The preceding unsigned comment was added by TimNelson (talk • contribs) 12:45, 20 March 2007 (UTC).

Quatro
I had read somewhere that the name "quatro" refers to the tuning, as they are usually tuned in 4ths: BEADG, for the usual 5 string-pair instruments. I would suspect that the name is related more to the tuning than to the number of strings. Can anybody shed any further light on this?Cd195 (talk) 17:04, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

That is partially true, although it also refers to the number of strings that the instrument initially had. The cuatro was first made with only four strings, which were later doubled, and eventually a fifth double string was added and tuned in 4ths Sgonz19 (talk) 02:30, 7 May 2021 (UTC)