Brazilian · samba-enredo · 2/2 straight

Batucada (samba-enredo bateria)

260 bpm
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16ths

The batucada is the sound of a Rio samba school's bateria on the Sapucaí: hundreds of drummers behind the samba-enredo. It is written here in cut time, so each half note is one samba beat (half = 130) and the eighths are the samba's sixteenths.

Listen from the bottom up. The surdo de segunda answers on beat 1 and the bigger surdo de primeira lands on beat 2, the heavy one the whole parade walks on. The surdo de terceira (cortador) cuts across them with off-beat strokes. Over that the caixa rolls every sixteenth with accents on the last sixteenth of each beat, the chocalho shakes the same grid leaning on the off-beats, and the tamborim and agogô carry the short syncopated phrases that give each school its signature.

Practice hint: mute everything but the two low surdos and walk to beat 2, then add one voice at a time.

References & listening

  • Book Duduka Da Fonseca & Bob Weiner (transcribed by John Riley) Brazilian Rhythms for Drumset(Manhattan Music (Drummers Collective series); now Alfred)— opens with an extended samba section in batucada style (snare and toms imitating caixa, tamborim and surdo)
  • Web Wikipedia Batucada(Wikipedia)

How this pattern was made

  • standard practice; no transcribed source (bateria roles as commonly taught; surdo de primeira → kick, segunda → tom-lo, terceira → tom-hi, caixa → snare, tamborim → rim, agogô → bell, chocalho → shaker)