Bateria

Acadêmicos do Engenho da Rainha Bateria, samba school parade, 2010.

The term bateria means “drum kit” in Portuguese and Spanish. In Brazil, the word is also used for a form of Brazilian samba band, the percussion band or rhythm section of a Samba School.

Baterias are also used to accompany the Brazilian martial art, capoeira.

Capoeira bateria

Playing capoeira to the sound of ngoma drum, c. 1823.

"The berimbau, pandeiro, atabaque and chanting open a door to a large creative universe: music."
Mestre Nestor Capoeira

The standard instruments in nowadays capoeira are:

• up to 3 berimbaus
• up to 2 pandeiros
• 1 agogô
• 1 reco-reco (notched wooden tube similar to a guiro)
• 1 atabaque or conga

Not every roda will contain all these instruments. Mestre Bimba, for instance, preferred only one berimbau and two pandeiros in his rodas, but there will always be at least one berimbau in any roda.

The berimbaus preside over the roda, their rhythmic combinations suggesting variations in movement style between the two players in the roda. Some capoeira groups insist that among the three berimbaus, the lowest-toned (called a gunga or berraboi) is the lead instrument, while other groups follow the lead of the middle (medio or viola) berimbau. The roda begins and ends at the discretion of the lead berimbau player, who may determine who plays next, can stop games, set the tempo of the music, and calm the players if they get too rough. There appears to be agreement that the treble-most berimbau (viola or violinha) is an accompaniment instrument, freely improvising based on rhythms of the middle instrument.

Instruments used in samba bateria

• Surdo (a large, low-tuned drum, the heartbeat of the samba)
• Caixa de guerra (a snare drum)
• Tarol (a smaller snare drum)
• Repinique (a small drum, twelve by fourteen inches)
• Chocalho (a rattle, made up of rows of jingles)
• Tamborim (a frame drum played with a flexible beater)
• Agogô (a double cow bell)
• Reco-reco (a notched stick played with a scraper)
• Pandeiro (a tambourine)
• Cuíca (a hollow drum-like instrument containing a bamboo stick that is rubbed to produce a squeaky sound)
• Clash cymbals
• Bass drums (optional and in some samba school drum lines)

Sources and external links

• Torcida Jovem of Santos FC School of Samba
• BateristasPT.com — Portuguese drummers community website
• "Samba Bateria Definition & terms" — Photos, videos & origins of the bateria terminology within the samba-schools environment at Brazil's carnival
• "Hello, Bateria!" — introduction by Marinilda Carvalho, provided by sambaparty.com
• Sounds of baterias — The Brazilian Percussion Site
• A baterias website in spanish — A large community of drummers in Latin America
• Play yourself a samba school drums section — An animation that lets you conduct the samba