SAMBA Essential Parts
The samba is Brazil's most popular music
and dance form. The style is found throughout the country with many
variations in existence. One of the most popular of these variations
is a style known as samba de enredo, performed during the carnival,
and featuring the escolas de samba. The escolas de samba or 'samba schools', are a type of club dedicated to the development of
musical numbers, accompanied by a large bateria (percussion section),
with the sole purpose of performing during the carnival's official parade. The percussion section contains up to 300 players, dividing them in groups
of 10-30 per instrument. Among the percussion instruments used
you'll find the surdo (a large double headed drum played with a
felt covered mallet and the open hand), the pandeiro (a tambourine
with a skin and flat jingles), the tamborim (a small frame drum
played with a stick), the agogo (twin bells), the caixa (snare
drum), the ganza (metal shaker), the cuica (a friction drum),
and the repenique (a high pitch double headed drum played with a
stick, which often acts as the conductor of the bateria).
As far as the basic samba rhythm is concerned,
I tend to think in terms of three essential parts. The first being
the 'pulse' as played by the surdo with a strong open tone on beat
two:
Legend: M=Muffled Tone F=Fingers
O=Open Tone P=Palm
The second essential part is the steady flow
of sixteenth notes as played by among others the ganza:
And the third essential part being the syncopation
as played by instruments such as the tamborim:
As is the case with many Afro-American forms,
Brazilian styles make use of two bar rhythms, which can be approached two
ways, the direction being dictated by the melody of the tune. In
Afro-Cuban music the two bars are clearly defined as 3/2 or forward clave,
which features more syncopated figures, or 2/3 or reverse clave,
with figures tending to fall more on downbeats (for further information
please refer to the articles CLAVE CONCEPTS Afro-Cuban Rhythms, CLAVE CONCEPTS
Tito Puente's Para Los Rumberos.
As Brazilian music does not seem to employ
a clear system to explain this characteristic, I have incorporated the
letter (A) to identify the 'first side' of the two bar pattern (or 3/2 forward clave as
used in Afro-Cuban styles), and (B) for the 'second side' (or 2/3 reverse clave as
used in Afro-Cuban styles)
as written in the tamborim pattern above. By reversing the
order of the bars, you will arrive at the tamborim pattern featured below:
The next step is to listen to as much Brazilian
music as you can, and spend some serious time analysing the 'rhythmic direction'
the tunes employ. One good source which is readily available,
is a compact disc compilation of Brazilian artists entitled O Samba Brazil Classics
2 - Luaka Bop/Sire 926 019-2.
© Alex Pertout. All rights reserved. No part of this article
may be reproduced without prior written permission from the author. This article was first published in Drumscene magazine.
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