Brazilian percussion

▶ Open in Aratu to hear the examples, change them and do the exercises

The drum kit has one symbol per piece. Brazilian percussion is different: each instrument has a line of its own, named after the instrument, with its own strokes: the thumb on the pandeiro, the bacalhau on the zabumba, the triangle open or closed. The rhythm follows the same rules as always.

A line named after the instrument

Write the instrument's name before the =, and use the letters of its strokes:

Try it▶ Hear it in Aratu

tempo: 100
triangle = fo fo fo fo

f is the closed triangle (the hand holds the metal) and o is the open one (the hand lets go and it rings). That "closed, open" in eighth notes is the heart of the baião.

Line	Strokes
`pandeiro`	`p` thumb, `d` fingertips, `t` slap, `m` muted
`zabumba`	`o` open, `m` muted, `b` bacalhau (the thin stick underneath)
`triangle`	`o` open, `f` closed
`agogo`	`a` high bell, `g` low bell
`surdo`	`o` open, `m` muted
`tamborim`	`o` open, `m` muted
`alfaia`	`o` open, `m` muted
`gongue`	`o` open, `m` muted
`shaker`	`s`
`cuica`	`a` high, `g` low
`cajon`	`b` bass, `t` slap

The names keep their Brazilian spelling because they are the instruments' own names. The pandeiro is the Brazilian frame drum with jingles; the zabumba is the wide bass drum of baião and forró, struck with a mallet on top and a thin stick, the bacalhau, underneath; the agogô is a pair of bells; the surdo is the big bass drum of samba; the tamborim is a small, high frame drum played with a stick; the alfaia and the gonguê (a large iron bell) come from maracatu; and the cuíca is the friction drum that "talks" in samba.

A name may be written with or without its accent (agogô or agogo), and in Portuguese or Spanish too (triângulo, ganzá, cajón). agbe, caxixi and chocalho play like the shaker.

If you write a letter the instrument does not have, x on the pandeiro for example, Aratu tells you which strokes it has.

The baião

The baião brings three instruments together: the zabumba, the triangle and the agogô (or the accordion, which comes later). The zabumba plays the open stroke on beat 1, the muted one at the end of beat 2, and the bacalhau answers underneath:

Try it▶ Hear it in Aratu

tempo: 110
zabumba  = | o - -o m | o - b - |
triangle = fo fo fo fo
agogo    = a g ag -

Change the tempo to 140 and the baião turns into forró pé de serra.

The samba

In samba, each instrument has its role. The surdo marks beat 2, the tamborim plays the figure, and the pandeiro and the shaker fill in the sixteenths:

Try it▶ Hear it in Aratu

tempo: 96
meter: 2/4
surdo    = m O
tamborim = o-oo -oo-
pandeiro = pdtd pdtd
shaker   = Ssss Ssss

Samba is counted in two. An upper-case letter is an accent, as on the drums: O on the surdo is the strong stroke of beat 2, and S on the shaker marks the start of each beat.

With the drums

Percussion lines play together with the drums and the other parts. In Brazil the drum kit's floor tom is also called surdo, but in Aratu a surdo line is always the samba surdo; the floor tom is still f, on a drum line:

Try it▶ Hear it in Aratu

tempo: 100
drums {
  bd = b - b -
  sd = - s - s
}
agogo = ag ag a- g-
cajon = b t bb t

Strokes spread evenly

Many rhythms, in Brazil and all over the world, are a few strokes spread as evenly as they can be over the steps of a bar. Aratu writes them just so: the stroke, then in parentheses how many strokes and over how many steps.

Try it▶ Hear it in Aratu

tempo: 100
zabumba  = o(3,8)
triangle = fo fo fo fo

o(3,8) is three open strokes over the eight eighths of the bar, the same as o- -o -- o-: the tresillo, the figure of the baião's zabumba, heard under a great deal of the music of the Americas. Rhythms written this way are called Euclidean: the way the strokes are spread is the same as the Greek mathematician Euclid's way of finding the greatest common divisor of two numbers.

Alone in its bar, the rhythm spreads over the whole bar, in any meter, the way a rest alone fills its bar; next to other beats it takes one beat, divided into that many steps.

Write	The same as	What it is
`o(3,8)`	`o- -o -- o-`	the tresillo
`o(5,8)`	`o- oo -o o-`	the cinquillo, of Cuban music
`b(4,16)`	`b b b b`	the bass drum on every beat
`a(7,12)` in 12/8	`a-a a-a -aa -a-`	a bell of West African music

A third number turns the rhythm: o(3,8,2) is the tresillo two steps later, as .rotate 2 would turn it. Listen to the bell in 12/8, with the surdo marking the four beats:

Try it▶ Hear it in Aratu

meter: 12/8
tempo: 70
agogo = a(7,12)
surdo = O m O m

Change a(7,12) to a(7,12,1) or to a(5,12) while it plays: another bell of the same family.

Exercises

Write the baião triangle: closed and open in eighth notes, on all four beats.

Exercise▶ Hear it in Aratu

triangle = - - - -

See an answer

triangle = fo fo fo fo

The samba surdo: muted on beat 1 and open, accented, on beat 2.

Exercise▶ Hear it in Aratu

meter: 2/4
surdo = o o

See an answer

meter: 2/4
surdo = m O

The pandeiro in sixteenths: thumb, fingers, slap, fingers, on each beat.

Exercise▶ Hear it in Aratu

meter: 2/4
pandeiro = pppp pppp

See an answer

meter: 2/4
pandeiro = pdtd pdtd

Finish the baião: the zabumba with the open stroke on beat 1 and the muted one on the second half of beat 2, and the bacalhau on beat 3.

Exercise▶ Hear it in Aratu

zabumba = | - - - - |

See an answer

zabumba = | o -m b - |

The tresillo in one word: three open zabumba strokes spread over the eight eighths of the bar.

Exercise▶ Hear it in Aratu

zabumba = - - - -

See an answer

zabumba = o(3,8)

Now turn the tresillo, so its three strokes come two steps later.

Exercise▶ Hear it in Aratu

zabumba = o(3,8)

See an answer

zabumba = o(3,8,2)