My name is Valentina Salazar and this is my story...
I was born in Caracas, Venezuela in December 11th 1994. December, month of joy, parties, family warmth and for many the only month of the year where most part of the family is able to come together on vacation and travel, either back home or out of town with a simple goal: celebrating Christmas and/or NYE together. In my dad's family this was almost a rule. December 1994 wasn't an exception, i was 15 days old when my parents took me for the first time in a loooong long roadtrip w the whole *Salazar Moya family, from our home town Charallave, Miranda all the way to Carúpano, Sucre; at least 12 or 15 hours traveling back then when the roads were still rural. On this I blame my (almost obsessive) need to travel, wandering around, constantly running away from home for a bit.
Out of town or at home, one of the main things present in my family has always been music. Is in my gens leaning towards the rythm, singing and dancing. For my father, before bringing me into the world, his biggest pleasure laid upon traveling... with musicians, somehow he managed to find friends that could put together jammings on the beach, even when he didn't have the hability; however, he enjoyed and still enjoys music with passion. Now, my grandfather, my dad's dad, for a change, was one of those that could sit beside any musician and sing the hardest rancheras without having studied music or singing ever; I believe there is where my musical vein really comes from, which has skipped a generation (my dad) to fall on me. lol
Teobaldo (dad) and Felix Trinidad "TRINO" Salazar (my grandpa)
The moment dad saw my interest towards music, playing venezuelan cuatro specifically, he jumped to the chance of possibly cultivate an instrumentist at home; when I was 6 years old he put a cuatro on my lap and sent me to cuatro lessons for kids 3 days per week, where I also participated in the christmas choir.
From there, I started an on and off relationship with my instrument; different times all over the years I was drawn back into it, left it again and got back and so on. When I was on my 2nd year in High School, back in cuatro lessons, I was determined to start playing guitar; a few months later with a big effort, my dad granted me that wish and surprised me with a beautiful blue guitar a regular weekday after school; my joy was outstanding and I inmediately changed my afternoons of cuatro lessons for guitar lessons.
Here are some pics of my very first guitar's trips around Venezuela.
It wasn't until 2012, that I decided to take things serious with the execution of those instruments that I had once again left on the side getting dusty somewhere in my room. This time I decided to go with the cuatro. In the span of one year I relearned what I had stored in my muscle memory since I was 6 and a lot more with the support of a great musician from our region Pedro Pitahaya.
red in the picture: Pedro Pitahaya
Now, any family trip or gathering meant an opportunity to take out the cuatro to play with my family, who celebrated it even when all I played and sung for months were about 5 songs.
Here's me playing probably one of those 5 songs with my family on some vacation trip
What came next was unavoidable. I was stubborn for a while, thinking my one and only love with plucked strings was the cuatro. But then I met and befriended Max Padrón, an incredible guitarist, currently working as a teachr and session musician at Let It Beat Academy in Miami, FL; we got used to end up jamming at every hang out, he'd play a guitar as i played the cuatro. He was one of the reasons I took the guitar back out, when he learned I had one going to waste in my room he did everything to convince me to play again, offering me his support at every moment; support that has been costant through the years-
This is Max (IG: @officialmaxpadron) and I playing on some party*
January 2016, my dad supported my wish in wanting to study music theory with the plan of preparing to audition for an orchest. I got into one of the best music schools in Caracas: Taller de Jazz (Jazz workshop) Where I met incredibly talented people and came out with friends for life, though with that I left the original plan to the side when Rodolfo Guerrero, our music theory professor taught me the basis of composition and encouraged me to get into it, step by step until i was able to produce a radio edit with the tools I had at home.
By the end of 2016, I talked to Rodolfo about a project I wanted to put together and he inmediately offered his support as bass guitarist and help with arrangements to bring my ideas to life.
Early 2017 we debuted the project with a single show, in which we were also supported by a great friend and legal adviser: Manuel Mirabal; lawyer, marketer, singer/songwriter, guitarist and also founder of the Symphonic Rock band "Séptima Carta" from Caracas; who even came up on stage to perform a few songs with us that night.
Christian (drums). Rodolfo Guerrero (bass) Manuel Mirabal (singer) and yours truly on the guitar
Middle of 2017, my life took an unexpected turn when I finally got the opportunity to get into the national arts college UNEARTE; another magical place where I met amazing talented people and the alma mater where I'll continue to grow my career as a musician.
The Steemit platform seems like an amazing site with big big artistic potential, the idea of sharing material and support between colleagues gives me chills and I'm excited to participate and discover how much more talent there is around the world through this network.
A warm hug to anyone that took the time to read this. we'll be listening to each other for sure.
Specially thankful for Steemit, Valentina Jeannette.
IG: @Vjeanns
