Beginner Samba Percussion Lessons

Description

COMING SOON

Online instructional beginner Brazilian drum course

1st & 2nd Surdo Primerira e Segunda lesson

Surdo sizes normally vary between 16″ to 22″or even 26″ or 29″ diameter. In the samba schools of Brasil one in particular Academicos do Salgueiro Rio de Janeiro, surdos are generally 60cm deep. Surdos may have shells of wood, galvanized steel, or aluminum. Heads may be goatskin or plastic. Rio baterias commonly use surdos that have skinheads (for rich tone) with aluminum shells (for lightness). Surdos are worn from a waist belt or shoulder strap, oriented with the heads roughly horizontal. The bottom head is not played.

3rd Surdo (Terceira) lesson 
Terceira Surdo-used in the Escola de Samba groups, its primary function is to provide the samba with “swing” by using a variation of embellishments in the surdo section info; Mestre Curtis Pierre

Pandeiro(tambourine )lesson
Pandeiro   [pond there-ro]), is a type of hand-held drum. There are two important distinctions between a pandeiro and the common tambourine. The tension of the head on the pandeiro can be tuned, allowing the player a choice of high and low notes. Also, the metal jingles (called platinelas in Portuguese) are crisper, drier, and less sustained on pandeiros than on the tambourine. This provides clarity when swift, complex rhythms are played. It is held in one hand and struck on the head by the other hand to produce the sound. Typical pandeiro patterns are played by alternating the thumb, fingertips, heel, and palm of the hand.

  Tamborim(6″drum) lesson
Tamborim (pronounced: [Tom bor rime]), is a small, round Brasilian drum of African origin. The frame is 6″ in diameter and may be made of metal, plastic or wood. The head is typically made of nylon and is normally very tightly tuned in order to ensure a high, sharp timbre and a minimum of sustain. The drum is devoid of snares or jingles. The tamborim is used in many genres of Brazilian music. It is most commonly associated with samba and pagode but is also used in chorinho, bossa nova, and some northeastern folklore rhythms such as cucumbi. In most musical styles, the tamborim is played with a short, thin wooden drumstick. In samba-batucada, it is played with a beater made of several flexible nylon or polyacetal threads bound together. On rare occasions, it may be played with the fingers.
The tamborim is held with the weaker hand, The beater is held by the very tip with the strong hand and the head is struck a little off-center. A playing technique called virado is often used, in which the drum is rapidly flipped upside-down to produce ghost notes and syncopated grooves. The instrument may also occasionally be struck on the rim. Tamborim players alternate between repetitive groove patterns and through-composed signature phrases which function as a melody and are easily distinguished above the other percussion instruments.

  Repique (lead drum) lesson
Repique is a two-headed Brazilian drum used in samba baterias (percussion ensembles). It is used throughout Brasil mostly in Salvador Bahia, Rio de Janeiro, and São Paulo Carnival baterias and in the baterias of Bahia, where it is known as repique. It is equivalent to the snare in the Western drum kit.

Typically its body is made of metal. The heads, of nylon, are tightened through the use of metal tuning rods. The instrument is about the same width as the Brazilian caixa (snare drum) but several inches longer in height and lacks a snare. It is held using a shoulder strap attached to one of the tuning rods. In Rio-style samba, it is played with one wooden stick and one hand. In Bahia, it is played with two wooden sticks usually but in some cases also like the Rio style (the Bloco afro Ilê Aiyê for example). It may also be played with a pair of beaters made of several thin flexible rods bundled together.
     Baterias commonly include a group of repinique players whose patterns set the tempo to which the rest of the bateria plays by elaborating on the basic “1-2-3-4” rhythmic structure typical of samba. The repinique is also often used by the musical director as a lead instrument, producing calls to which the rest of the bateria responds in a set fashion.

Caixa (snare drum)lesson1
Caixa (snare drum)lesson2
 Caixa is a drum used in most of the Rio de Janeiro samba school baterias and can be played at waist height or up on the shoulder. It has a crisp, dry, high-cutting tone, quite different from the European style of snare drum. It has a wire snare and the drum is played with the snares on top.

Agogo lesson
 Agogo  The most common arrangement is two bells attached by a U-shaped piece of metal. The smaller bell is held uppermost. Either bell may be hit with a wooden stick to make a cow-bell-like sound or less commonly a clicking sound is produced by squeezing the two bells together.

Chocalho lesson
Chocalho This is a very large powerful shaker made of wood or metal with a number of steel jingles. This is a fundamental element in the flavor of a bateria and also has an important function in helping the caixas to sustain the rhythm. In the old days samba schools used ganzas today use plattinellas.

 Cuica (friction drum) lesson
Cuíca (pronounced KWEE-kah) is a Brazilian friction drum often used in samba music. The tone it produces has a high-pitched squeaky timbre. The body of the cuíca is normally made of metal. It has a single head, normally six to ten inches in diameter (15-25 cm), made of animal skin. A thin bamboo stick is attached to the center of, and perpendicular to, the drum head, stretching into the drum’s interior. The instrument is held under one arm at chest height with the help of a shoulder strap. To play the cuíca, the musician rubs the stick up and down with a wet cloth held in one hand, using the thumb of the other hand to press down on the skin of the drum near the place where the stick is attached. The rubbing motion produces the sound and the pitch is increased or decreased by changing the pressure on the drum head with the middle or index finger.

 Reco Reco lesson
Reco Reco (pronounced heco-heco) is a metal scraping instrument that is held in one hand whilst the other hand scrapes its springs with a metal stick. Reco recos are traditional samba instruments used less in modern samba school percussion baterias than in former times, but they are still in use in some Brazilian samba schools.