Just wondering if there was anyone out there interested in samba? or that plays in a samba band?

Me! I loooove samba! I used to play in our school band, but now I'm at uni I occasionally go back and visit though, which is wicked!

Cool, finally someone who has heard of samba most people just say whats that! I play co-run my schools samba band its great

you play co run? does that mean you play and co-run it? I used to help out in mine with first years What patterns can you do?

By the way sorry for the double post people , only just noticed (dodgy internet)

looks like it's just me and you at the mo anyway!

Ye, I play surdo and help lead it sometimes. We're playin Samba Afocha(Excuss the spelling, i cant spell!) and samba reggae at the moment!

what's a samba afocha? just a normal samba? we did a reggae, but I don't like it as much as some of the others.

ye its just one of the normal beats! can't wait for saturday weve got a concert at some big rugby event

wicked! How many's in your band?

Not many (i dont think) about 10 maybe a few more (or less) most bands have bout 15 - 18 members don't they?

Can you outline the features of samba for those of us who are ignorant, please?

Samba's Brazilian music that they play in the Rio carnival. It can be drums, singing and dancing, but we're only talking about the percussion side. Flute girl plays a surdo (or a 1 or 2 drum, or a bass drum), which provide the beat a long with cutadors (bass drums which do a more fancy pattern!) Then on top of that you have tambourims (tambourines, without bells on), agogo bells (2 tone cow bells), snares which play accented and "ghost" notes, ganzas (shakers basically), and sometimes djembes, which are an frican sort of drum.

Most bands have about 15-18 people in, as fute girl says. That's what th school one is at the moment, but a few years sgo we were huuugeee!

We did a samba in 7/4 last year at school, it was really good fun. Our teacher is more into salsa than samba as he spent a year studying with some of the salsa masters in Cuba, but we have covered samba and salsa. We did samba last year and apart from our stint in 7 we did all the usual stuff: Reggae, Batucada, Hip-hop, Conga la Comparsa (which is like samba/salsa crossover). With salsa we did the regular stuff, like Cha-Cha, Rumba and mambo, but we started on Salsa hip-hop which is rumba and Cha-Cha at the same time with kit doing a slow shuffle kind of pattern. It's interesting, but then we got far too enthusiastic about doing Mambo No5 (Not Lou Bega! The real one, from the 20s - i think thats when!) with a real horn section that the hip-hop got forgotten!
That's the only percussion I can really talk about! It's definitely helped with reading rhythms and stuff! And I didn't panic so much when my sight reading was in 7 in my last exam...

Samba layers lots of different rhythms using instruments such as surdos, tamborins, agogos, Repinique(reps), snare ...etc. It originates from Brazil and there are loads of different styles which are played such as: Bossa nova, samba reggae, Samba Enredo!

Tried to find examples but there aren't many out there! hope that helps

Hey, has any of you got your not so trad ones written down?

Not got the one in 7 anymore I don't think... but it was an arrangement of a piece called Misturada by a Brazilian guy called Airto Moreira (I think that's how you spell it!). I'm actually one of those annoying people known to take away a sheet every week and lose it!

Hey flute girl thought you were local. There's a samba band from one of the local high schools that plays at our local Rugby club! Noticed you were at the other end of the A580.

I don't know very much about Samba but have come across this website which describes the instruments etc. It looks and sounds great fun

I'd love to be in something like that!

Hi, TSax I was just looking at the link and 2 of my friends played with them in a festival in London a couple of years back. Apparently it was ace. If only I'd have started samba earlier

My kids went to a free samba workshop in half term and really liked it, the surdo drums were very heavy for them !! they also did Djembe and preferred that to Samba. I think they need to listen to more Samba music before they get the idea.

I ve never actually tried Djembe! Ill have to give it a try sometime. I haven't heard of anywhere near me that does it though

It's not too hard, but it can hurt your hands!

Hey, I found somewhere that runs workshops so im thinking of going along and having a go

Just found out that Tony Watt leader of the Manchester samba band is coming to do a workshop in the summer holidays - should be fun

woooo that'd e wicked! sooooo jealous!

Erm....what is samba?? I know it's a kind of dance.

(Sorry I know this sounds a bit stupid....)

Samba is a dance and a form of music. I think it originated in Brazil. It's very percussive and often full of underlying sub-rhythms. That's about all I know.

See previous posts!

I love Samba music and actually playing it ! We had a Smaba workshop at school a few months back and I loved it so much. Me and my freind were told that after the workshop we could play trumpet in it, but then nothing else ever happened about it so we were utterly dissappointed ! Would love to still play in one now though just don't think there is one near me