Complex sentence: In 1976 he began learning to play the bandola llanera, a stringed instrument from the lute family played in the Venezuelan plains since the 16th century, also by his own initiative, learned to execute all the stringed instruments used in Venezuelan music.
Split into simpler sentences: In 1976 he began learning to play the bandola llanera, a stringed instrument from the lute family played in the Venezuelan plains since the 16th century. On his own initiative, he learned to play all the stringed instruments used in Venezuelan music.