Samba Drum Lesson

Samba music originated as a regional dance in Bahia before taking root in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro in the late 19th century. Samba continued to evolve in Rio's poor black communities, influenced by a range of European and regional Brazilian music. It is a lively, up-beat and highly percussive style of music.

After 1917 when the first samba recording "Pelo Telefone" was made, the samba became popular throughout Brazil, spread by the advent of the radio. Since then, samba has developed to become an iconic style of Brazilian music which features in the Brazilian carnival festival. Many sub-genres and variations of the samba now exist and continue to evolve.

Since the samba has many various percussion rhythms, there have been many different drum set adaptations. Samba drum beats attempt to mimic the traditional samba percussion instruments and rhythms. The most common samba drum groove is shown below. The samba is written here in cut time or 2/2 but the samba is also often written in 2/4 and 4/4.

This drum lesson presents many common drum kit variations of the samba. Emphasize beat three on the bass drum to strengthen samba groove. When playing with your right hand on the hi-hat, subtly accent the off beats.

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