Hive Music Festival | Week 96 round 3 | "Vals Venezolano" by Raúl Borges

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For the last entry on this cycle of performances of the Hive Music Festival, I had a challenge upon myself. There are some great guitarist that have been born in Venezuela and some of their works have become quote famous. I can name Antonio Lauro, Alirio Díaz and Rodrigo Riera. However, I didn't know the works of his teacher, Raúl Borges. It turns out his are quite interesting as well.

My teacher talked about this Venezuelan Waltz that allegedly was very famous, but I haven't heard before. It is no surprise as it is titled Vals Venezolano (Venezuelan Waltz). But after listening to it several times, there was the challenge of learning the version for Venezuelan Cuatro.

Many players have performed a version of this piece adapted to 4 strings. Here's mine. It is a complex thing to do. As you can see there is no actual strumming. It is played as if it were a guitar. That makes it hard as a guitar has more strings and limits some of the arpeggios and bass lines, but it is possible.

And so come the two weeks of intense practice and learning the piece. I gotta say this is the kind of composition that you can only master with time. This isn't the best cover, but the best one I could record with the time I gave myself to do it. I'll add the waltz to the repertoire for a season and see how much I can improve playing it.

I should also issue a challenge to @guitarmcy so you can listen to a guitar version of this waltz played by another hiver.

That's it for me. Have a great day and enjoy the music!

• Photos and Video 📹 📷: taken by me (Redmi Note 13)

• Thumbnail 🖼️: by me, created with Canva.

• Editing 🎬: by me, made with Adobe Auditio CS6, Filmora X.

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