Brazilian Guitar Basic Fundaments

The language of Brazilian music is mainly characterized by it’s rhythmic

approach. Is this written lesson we will look at three fundamental rhythms:
bossa nova, samba and baião. The use of syncopation is present in most
rhythms and melodic phrasing, being a fundamental aspect that needs to be
internalized. The syncopation consists of playing eighth notes displaced by
one sixteenth note:

The sixteenth note swing interpretation for both samba an baião is to

accent first and fourth sixteenth notes of the beat while keeping the second
and third sixteenth slightly shorter and at lower volume:
Our rhythmic figures are going to be constructed by two parts, high and low.
The samba rhythm is made by the bass playing on every down beat, while the
high part can hold a variety o claves. Here is one example of simple 2/4 beat
Bossa Nova clave:

Here’s an example of a samba clave. The Low part is played by the thumb
and the high part is played by fingers a, m and i together. The high part
resembles the tambourine, a high pitched Brazilian percussion and the low part
resembles the surdo, the low drum, both used in “escolas de samba”. The first
measure is introduced with the down and upbeats, and after that it enters a
cycle starting on the following measure. One more note, to sound even more
like surdo, you can make the bass notes on Beats 1 and 3 short, and the bass
notes on beat 2 and 4, long. The sambe clave often makes use a short
succession of eight notes on down and up beat, followed by the same idea
then syncopated, in a four beat cycle.

Baião:

Harmony

The use of harmony in Brazilian music comes from the classical influence
making it similar to jazz music, or so called “western harmony” which covers all
musical styles in the Americas. In order to understand the basics of harmony,
one needs to become acquainted with the concept of intervals and the basic
the major scale, W W H W W W H steps. Intervals are measurements of
distance between two notes. In the case of a scale, it is the distance between a
given note and the root, or first note of the scale

The major scale is formed by the intervals of

major second (2) = 1 whole step from root

major third (3) = two whole steps
perfect fourth (4) = two and a half steps
perfect fifth (5) = three and a half steps
Major sixth (6) = four and a half
Major seventh (#7) = five and a half, or, half a step back from octave (root).

Basic chords are called triads, and they are made of tonic, third and fifth.

Major chord = 1 3 5
Minor chord = 1 b3 5

“Seventh” chords are formed by the addition of the 7th interval. The interval of
a minor seventh, written as “7” or “b7”, is half a step behind the major
seventh, or one whole step back from the octave (root)

Major Seventh (CMaj7)= 1 3 5 #7

Minor Seventh (Cmin7)= 1 b3 5 7
Dominant (C7) = 1 3 5 7
Half Dminished (Cm7(b5))= 1 b3 b5 7
Fully Diminished (Co)= 1 b3 b5 bb7

Harmonized Natural Scale

The harmonized scaled is the family of seven chords built by treating each
degree of the major scale as being a root, and then taking the third, fifth and
seventh of that root from within the scale

Then you will have a structure of 7 different chords, that you must commit to
memory as well as their respective scales, which just like the chords, are all
made of the major scale structure (WWHWWWH) but starting the root from a
different degree.

Using G as an example of it’s major harmonized scale

GMaj7 - Am7 - Bm7 - CMaj7 - D7 - Em7 - F#m7(b5)

GMaj7 - Ionian - 1 2 3 4 5 6 #7
Am7 - Dorian - 1 2 b3 4 5 6 b7
Bm7 - Phrygian - 1 b2 b3 4 5 b6 b7
CMaj7 - Lydian - 1 2 3 #4 5 6 #7
D7 - Mixolydian - 1 2 3 4 5 6 b7
Em7 - Eolian - 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7
F#m7(b5) - Locrian - 1 b2 b3 4 b5 b6 b7