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Audio Recording "I put back the guitar and found out how ten strings would sound, and that was it for the guitar!"

"I put back the guitar and found out how ten strings would sound, and that was it for the guitar!"

About this Item

Title

  • "I put back the guitar and found out how ten strings would sound, and that was it for the guitar!"

Names

  • Rodriguez, Manuel (Narrator)
  • Carroll, Thomas D. (Interviewer)

Created / Published

  • 1994-09-15

Headings

  • -  Interviews
  • -  Musicians
  • -  Puerto Ricans
  • -  Oral history
  • -  Sound recordings
  • -  21st Avenue (Paterson, N. J.)
  • -  Ethnography
  • -  United States -- New Jersey -- Paterson

Genre

  • Ethnography
  • Interviews

Notes

  • -  Interview with musician Manuel Rodriguez.
  • -  Summary of audio segment: MR started playing cuatro, our typical instrument, he says. He started playing guitar when he was 11 or 12 years old, and from guitar got interested in the typical instrument, and in finding out how the ten strings would sound. And MR just kept on going, and that was it for the guitar! I loved our typical instrument, and that's the instrument I play now. Didn't have a teacher, just picked it up, would hear people playing, or hear the music on the radio, and played it back by ear. Most cuatroplayers play by ear, they don't read music, very few do. And would get together with other cuatro players, and someone who played guiro, a vegetable gourd, etc. MR thinks he used to sell newspapers, and saved money for a cuatro. He had a guitar which his parents bought for him, but his parents wouldn't buy him a cuatro, they said, you have a guitar, play the guitar. So bought one,and every since then has had a cuatro. It was handmade. Cost about $90. Were very cheap in those days. Today a good cuatro would cost $1000. MR thinks there's a cuatro maker in Newark, but makers here are very hard to find. He thinks there's one maker in Paterson, is looking for him, but hasn't found him.

Medium

  • Digital Audio Tape

Call Number/Physical Location

  • AFC 1995/028: WIP-TDC-A026

Source Collection

  • Working in Paterson Project Collection (AFC 1995/028)

Repository

  • American Folklife Center

Digital Id

Online Format

  • audio

Rights & Access

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Credit line

Working in Paterson Project collection, 1993-2002 (AFC 1995/028), American Folklife Center, Library of Congress

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Rodriguez, Manuel, and Thomas D Carroll. "I put back the guitar and found out how ten strings would sound, and that was it for the guitar!". -09-15, 1994. Audio. https://aj.sunback.homes/item/afcwip004016/.

APA citation style:

Rodriguez, M. & Carroll, T. D. (1994) "I put back the guitar and found out how ten strings would sound, and that was it for the guitar!". -09-15. [Audio] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://aj.sunback.homes/item/afcwip004016/.

MLA citation style:

Rodriguez, Manuel, and Thomas D Carroll. "I put back the guitar and found out how ten strings would sound, and that was it for the guitar!". -09-15, 1994. Audio. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <aj.sunback.homes/item/afcwip004016/>.