Prego Batido, hit that nail!

After weeks of absorbing Brazilian rhythms, I finally got my chance at creating some of my own at Prego Batido percussion school. On the recommendation of a friend, I enrolled in a three-day intensive class to learn basic samba rhythms and instrumentation. I barely scratched the surface, but I had one hell of a time.

The hole in the wall school is located off the Avenida Pompeia on a road appropriately named Morro Agudo (Steep Hill). When you walk through the front door you may think you've wandered into someone's home, and you may be right (I never figured out if the school's owner also lived there). The atmosphere is familial, with children running around and friends chatting between classes. The school has an ample collection of books and CDs available to copy.

Some surdos, a repinique, and a tantan

My class was taught by Gabriel de Toledo (you want to see what this kid is all about, check him out here) a young percussion master who was reared on samba. I think he was a bit frustrated at the slow pace we struggled through the rhythms. We spent the first day working on samba de escola (think big Carnaval samba) and then moved to samba de mesa (the samba you hear at bars and in homes). The instrumentation is different--samba de mesa uses pandeiros (tambourines) instead of caixa (snare drums), for example--but the basic rhythm is the same. I think my favorite instrument was the repinique (the drum Gabriel is playing in the video), kind of like a high pitched tom tom.

By the end of the three days I still didn't know what Gabriel was talking about when he referred to the different signature openings and closings of the major Rio samba schools and I still had a hard time starting the agogo pattern on the right beat, but when the five of us found our groove, even if for just a few measures, it felt great.