Puerto Rico Music The musical traditions of the Spanish and Africans can also be heard in Puerto Rico's music. At least four different instruments were adapted from the six-string Spanish classical guitar: the requinto, the bordonua, the cuatro , and the triple, each of which produces a unique tone and pitch. The most popular of these, and one for which greatest number of adaptions and compositions have been written, is the cuatro, a guitar-like instrument with 10 strings (arranged in five different pairs). The name (translated as "the fourth") is derived from the earlier instrument having four (or four pairs of) strings, but for aims of century 19, around year 1875, already it was custom to make it with five pairs of cords as we know it today. Usually carved from solid blocks of laurel wood and known for resonances and pitches different from those produced by its Spanish counterpart, this instruments graceful baroque body has been revered for decades as the national instrument of Puerto Rico. Also prevalent on the island are such percussion instruments as tambours (hollowed tree trunks covered with stretched-out animal skin), maracas (gourds filled with pebbles or dried beans and mounted on handles), and a variety of drums whose original designs were brought from Africa by the island's slaves. All these instruments contribute to the rich variety of folk music with roots in the cultural melting pot of the island's Spanish, African, and Taíno traditions.