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I cannot recall if I ever recorded this Venezuelan Merengue as a Venezuelan Cuatro Solo. And I'm far too lazy to go over the 300 and something videos to check it out. If I did it, I can tell it might not have been as good as it is now. Lately, I have been practicing this mash-up of Venezuelan Merengues. The mash-up starts with this piece by composer Luis Fraganchán.

In a time when staying in the north seems to be something of a whiff, this song is still relevant. El Norte es una Quimera is a reference to the idea of the American Dream and how some people would move to the United States to try their luck and fail. Some of those would come back to their motherland and brag about their good times. The song is a play on the ideas of exaggerating one's luck while being away. That is a far too common topic. And it is something that happens very often for people who travel to other countries. Not even talking about going up north.

It is written in the very complex time signature of 5/8. The tempo that is a nightmare to some musicians, but funny enough it is something that is used to teach people how to play their first songs in many of the instruments that are used in our traditional music.

That being said, this is also the kind of solo one would learn while threading the path of Soloist Venezuelan Cuatro. I still cannot recall ever playing it. However, this is my time to make amends with myself and upload a cover of the song. It is a short cover in the format AABB. I even went ahead and made an intro out of the final part of the chorus. And it works fine as an outro as well.

When the mash-up is ready, I will upload it too. For now, enjoy this short cover!

• Video 📹: Redmi Note 13

• Thumbnail 🖼️: Canva.

• Editing 🎬: Capcut, Adobe Audition CS6.

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