The tres is a 3-course, 6-string chordophone

Chordophone

A chordophone is any musical instrument that makes sound by way of a vibrating string or strings stretched between two points. It is one of the four main divisions of instruments in the original Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification....

 which was created in Cuba

Cuba

The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...

. A tres player is called a tresero in Cuba and a tresista in Puerto Rico.

Cuban tres

In Cuba, the son

Son (music)

The Son cubano is a style of music that originated in Cuba and gained worldwide popularity in the 1930s. Son combines the structure and elements of Spanish canción and the Spanish guitar with African rhythms and percussion instruments of Bantu and Arará origin...

 was created as a song and a salon

Salon music

Salon music was a popular music genre in Europe during the 19th century. It was usually written for solo piano in the romantic style, and often performed by the composer at events known as "Salons". Salon compositions are usually fairly short and often focus on virtuoso pianistic display or...

 dance genre. Originally, a guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

, tiple

Tiple

Tiple is the Spanish word for treble or soprano, is often applied to specific instruments, generally to refer to a small chordophone of the guitar family. A tiple player is called a tiplista.-Colombian tiple:...

 or bandola

Bandola

This article refers to various South American instruments. Bandola is also Portuguese for Mandola.The Bandola is one oif many varieties of small pear-shape chordophones found in Venezuela and Colombia...

, played rhythm and lead in the son, but ultimately these were replaced by a new native-born instrument which was a fusion of all three called the Cuban Tres.

The Cuban tres has three courses (groups) of two strings each for a total of six strings. From the low pitch to the highest, the principal tuning is in C Major: G, C, E. However, today many treseros are playing a step up A, D, F# or D Major.

Puerto Rican tres

There is also a Puerto Rican variant with 9 strings in 3 courses.

Further reading

— A comprehensive chord dictionary instructional guide. — A comprehensive chord dictionary instructional guide. — An instructional guide (in Spanish and English)

External links

• Cuban Tres - The 3 String Guitar Instrument from Cuba
• The Cuban Tres
• The Tres in Cuba and Puerto Rico
• Tres Magic on Havana’s Malecon by Irina Echarry, Havana Times, May 7, 2009
• Havana: The Music of the Cricket by Sheila Burns, The Guardian, May 19, 2009
• The Cuban Tres maker