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Yomo Toro talks about the Seis

...a small talk by the great cuatro master   

Yomo and wrc.jpg (16555 bytes)
Yomo Toro in 1998 at the Smithsonian Instituto in Washington DC with the Cuatro Project coordinator

Listen to Yomo demonstrating other Puerto Rican seises:

"The Seis Fajardeño can accompany the Décima too..." 

"Thes are décimas in Mapeyé style, like this..." 

"These are also Décimas but in Enramada Típica style, another kind of Mapeyé..."

"Then the singer's melody for the Enramada Típica goes..."

"Then there are two kinds of Seis Milonga: one me and Ramito recorded, with an intro that I used to do, that was like this..."
  

"The singer's melody [while the played the Seis Milonga] was like this...this is what I used to play behind Ramito."
    
"Then there was another way I did it with Ramito.  I'ts a Seis Milonga played in a minor key. The other one was in a major keiy. It's the same thing. "

"Then there's another seis that's like from  Argentina, another Milonguero that goes like this..."

"The singer's melody is like this...and the troubadour continues this way. The main part is...the coda...and then the ending..."


 

Listen to Yomo talk about the Seis con Décima
(English trascription of Spanish audio follows)

"Diferent décimas: in aguinaldo style and in seis style. Seises. You know what seises are? When you say "seis con décima" it's like: [he demonstrates on the cuatro and sings the lead].  This is the usual seis con  décima, plain, without a special name. Okay? But those are décimas, its a Seis and you sing a Décima to it, that's why its called 'Seis con Décimas", the genre that you play--plus the décima--they are décimas. This seis con décima is used a lot when the troubadours improvise décimas, that's the seis they use."

"Then what happens is that the groups, that accompany those décimas, they begin to play: [plays a slow sample] but eventually they end up: [plays it faster]. They speed up. But the  decimas, the seis con décimas when used for improvising, they have to be played slow to give the troubadour the opportunity to think, to improvise. But the little groups they start at ten miles per hour and they end up at ninety miles per hour! Groups do that a lot. But not me. When I'm backing them...well, Ramito once told me : "don't speed up the music, if you speed up the music, I can't improvise."


Listen to Yomo demonstrating the Seis Chorreao:

How are the Seis Chorreaos played in a Minor key?

"The seis chorreaos?"

"But they usually do it in a Major key... Then there are others who vary it in different songs when a woman and a man are singing they do...and then they do..."