Brazilian Rhythms in Classical Guitar Repertoire!
Entering the Month of Music from Latin America, I wanted to share small compendium of pieces that implement Brazilian Rhythms. If you want to learn more about these and how to spot them, I'd recommend watching Douglas Lora's fantastic course on Brazilian Rhythms! 
Find the workbook with an explanation of the Rhythms here!
Samba: Examples from the Repertoire
“Danza Brasileira” by Jorge Morel
We have the samba pattern clearly stated in the first measures — an excellent opportunity to establish the mood and the pace of the whole piece. The weight on the second beat here is vital!
Maxixe: Examples from the Repertoire
Villa Lobos’s “Choros No. 1” is a choro with a strong maxixe flavor. When we get to the third part, the pattern of the maxixe is clearly stated. We can take advantage of these articulations that are unique to the maxixe to create variety in the interpretation.
Another famous piece in the guitar repertoire is Barrios’s “Maxixe,” strongly influenced by Ernesto Nazareth’s style. If you play the first two measures with the patterns and the character in your head, it will automatically sound more groovy.
Finally, another favorite among the Brazilian repertoire is “Sons de Carrilhões” by João Pernambuco, who probably had his share of influence on Barrios’s explorations into Brazilian music. The fundamental rhythm (dotted eighth, sixteenth, two eighths) permeates a large portion of this composition.
Watch Manny's Livestream for a Deep Dive into “Sons de Carrilhões” by João Pernambuco!
Choro: Examples from the Repertoire
Part B of “Choro da Saudade” by Barrios employs a very clear Choro Rhythm!
Baião: Examples from the Repertoire
- Have you played any of these pieces?
- What more pieces do you know where Latin american rhythms are prominent?
- What pieces do you learn for the challenge?
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Are there any pieces with strong Brazilian rhythms, but that aren't so difficult to play? All of the pieces above are spectacular, but seem well beyond my playing level. The only one that comes to mind is Sons de Carrilhoes by Pernambuco. Does anyone have other suggestions at a more intermediate level?
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Eric Phillips try with one pie e call Divagando from the brazo lían composer Domingo Semenzato. I thin that i have the score if you can't find it
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Eric Phillips I'm with you Eric. Did you catch the Live stream that Ashley did called "Great Gig Pieces by South American Composers"? She went over a number of intermediate pieces and then gave us a PDF of the list of tunes. I've included it below.
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Fernando Cáceres I just found the score and will give it a try tonight. Thank you, Fernando!
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Eric Phillips Eric, you don't give yourself enough credit! I am confident you could learn any (or all) of the above pieces if you wanted to. (After all, they are (mostly) similar in difficulty to HVL Prelude 5, which as I recall you managed quite nicely!) But if you want something a little easier, you might consider any of the less well-known pieces by Pernambuco ('Po de mico' is a lot of fun) or perhaps something by Dilermando Reis. Also, many of the pieces by Baden Powell are not very difficult - at least in their published form; it's a different matter if you want to play them the way he did! The same goes for Laurindo Almeida. And as you know, there's a lot of material on the Edson Lopes YT channel.
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David Krupka Thanks, David. I've played some Reis, and plan to work on one of his tonight after work. I'll look up that Pernambuco piece. I shy away from fast, rhythmic pieces, as I just don't enjoy trying to get them up to speed. All of the videos above are really fast, or have ridiculous stretches (by which, I mean the Choro de Saudade). I've always been one who much prefers to play simpler material well over difficult material poorly.
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Eric Phillips I certainly agree with your approach to repertoire choice. (Although I am willing to take on the occasional 'fast' piece, even if it takes a long time to work it up to tempo.) And no doubt that stretch in the Choro de Saudade is intimidating! (I can (or at one time could) just manage it if I drop one of the inner voices - 'cheating', no doubt, but it's such a beautiful piece, it's a pity to give up on it on account of a single 'impossible' chord!) The Pernambuco piece I mentioned does require a fairly brisk tempo (the title translates as 'itching powder') but like most of his work, it falls nicely under the fingers.
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Eric Phillips Maybe I can help a bit, Eric. The National Foundation of Arts from Brasil, called FUNARTE, has a great collection of scores, online, available to download. One of these books is the number 4 - "Música Popular" - and you find a collection called Brazilian Guitar Digital Collection, or in Portuguese "Acervo Digital do Violão Brasileiro. The book is in Portuguese, Spanish and English. The link is https://antigo.funarte.gov.br/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Brazilian-Songbook-Online-popular-04.pdf.
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Eric Phillips Another tip: when you are looking for Brazilian music for guitar, use the word "violão". You'll see your search increase a lot... =)
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Moyses Lopes Yes, I've noticed that violão is the word for guitar, but I never thought of putting it in my search. Thanks!
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Moyses Lopes What a great source! I just downloaded it. The early pages look like jazz-style lead sheets, but the later pieces for solo and duo guitar are great for us. Like the tutorial videos on Tonebase, the sheer volume of music is a bit overwhelming at first, but I'll try to look at it a little bit at a time. Thank you!
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Eric Phillips Yes!! The playground start at page 118! I guess you can start on the page 150, "Choro de Bela", here is the author playing:
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Moyses Lopes I love it. In a way, in reminds me of Bach. There are these almost endless streams of sixteenth notes, but they navigate through these incredibly rich harmonies that surprise and satisfy the ear.
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Hi everyone. I played off course sons de carrilhoes and the Choro 1, and try with the barrios maxixe.
There are many pieces with brazilian rhythms that We can play since nazareth or dilermando reis to assad or many others.
I Will Learn se ela preguntar (reís) or um amor de vals (bellinati) and try with one of Ernesto Nazareth
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This piece, although written by- O'Neil has the Samba/Bossa vibe that harkens back to Brazilian reveries. At least to my ears.
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Douglas Lora's course is amazing!
Another great resource to learn is Marco Pereira's book "Brazilian Rhythms". There are many rhythms there, like Samba, Partido-Alto, Maxixe, Tango Brasileiro, Bossa-Nova, Afro-Samba, Jongo, Choro, Choro-Canção, Chorinho, Samba-Choro, Chula, Capoeira, Maculelê, Calango, Cateretê, Chamamé, Toada, Ijexá, Afoxé, Tambor-de-Crioula, Boi-do-Maranhão, Baião, Xote, Coco, Congada, Galope, Maracatu, Frevo, Marcha-Rancho, and others.
The book is available on his website (marcopereira.com.br).
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Fabio Zanon had a radio program that is an encyclopedia on the Brazilian guitar. Unfortunately, there is no English version available. There are 148 recorded programs, and IMO is the best and huge panorama of the instrument in Brazil. Even without understanding what Fabio is saying you can access the program's list, know the composer's name and listen to it. All programs are available to download. The link is http://vcfz.blogspot.com/
I'm completely available if I can help with issues with the Portuguese language. I hope you enjoy!
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Moyses Lopes
could you point me to Fabio Zanon’s list of programs? I’m having a hard time finding them. Thanks in advance. Maurengo
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