Overview of Brazil

Samba is both a dance form and a type of music. You will learn a bit of samba at the end of each lesson, and at the end you will put all of the rhythms and instruments together to create a samba concert.. Read the following excerpt to learn more:

"Samba is like the local style prominent in Rio de Janeiro. The spread of this art form to multiple other cities like Sao Paulo, Salvador, and Belo Horizonte took the art form to a wider audience.

It was during the 19th century, the dance form started to spread when slavery was practiced by the colonial rule and slaves were bought and transported to their respective owners. The slaves from Africa were sent to various destinations and they tried to keep their traditions alive by using Samba as music for all their occasions, from births to funerals, and from prayers to entertainment." From http://www.buzzle.com/articles/history-of-samba-music.html

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SAMBA TIME: Explore the Brazilian Percussion Instruments

Take a moment to explore a few of the instruments on this website. You may look at all of them, but make sure to focus on the four we'll be using:

• ganza

• reco reco

• agogo bells

• tamborim

Note to teacher: If you have access to the instruments (or substitutions for the instruments), create four stations in your classroom with a different type of instrument at each. After a discussion on using instruments appropriately, have the students rotate through the stations so that they can touch and play the instruments on their own before they learn the samba rhythms.

Now, let's learn more about Brazil.