Congratulations you just invested in a new drum! A new buddy in your future samba adventures!!! With a little bit of care and love this drum will be with you a very long time! I’ve outlined a few tips that will help get you started: Wax the rods and nuts I hate the feeling of tuning my drum and the nut feels too stiff and hard to turn. It feels like I’m grinding metal off the bolt and messing everything up. There is a solution to this! Use a little bit of beeswax or machine oil on the rods and nuts this will lube them up allowing them to turn nice and smooth. It also prevents wear and tear...
Learn
Above all else, Brazil Camp is an amazing opportunity to learn and grow.
I’d recommend taking notes and audio recordings. It’s impossible to remember even half of what you’ll learn, so use tools. What matters is how much you can absorb in total.
One of the things I keep learning is that
The Essentials
Water bottle
Flashlight + spare batteries
Clothes for a week. Don’t expect to do laundry there
Shorts
Nerdy T-shirts
Sandals
Something fancy-ish for forró night
White bottoms if performing in a bateria
Layers. Handle temps from 50 to 100.
Phone + charger
Audio recorder + spare batteries
Laptop + charger
Credit/debit card
$40 cash per week
Pens + paper for notes
“Gig Bag” backpack
A list of great YouTube channels to follow if you want to learn more about how to play the Rio samba instruments, audio recordings of samba school, and interviews with samba school mestres and others.
This is a quick overview of the role of the surdo in a bateria. I will explain the drum sizes, patterns played, and the mallets straps typically used when playing surdos. The surdo is the the deep bassy heartbeat of samba. Their essential function is to mark the time for the bateria and dancers. But their effect on the ensemble is massive. A good surdo crew fills the samba with life and energy, but will also hold it down if things start to rush and speed up. The first samba drum you hear as a bateria approaches from a distance is the surdo. These are the biggest and deepest pitched drums of the ensemble. Three surdo sizes Generally samba groups...
