The Bossa Nova drum beat is a Brazilian rhythm derived from the Samba, with American jazz influences. It is rhythmically related to the Samba, but is generally played much slower. It also contains more complex harmonies than the traditional Brazilian Samba as well as improvised lines.
It’s by far the most common latin drum beat used in jazz making it the most important beat of this type for jazz and big band drummers to master.
In this drum lesson, we’ll talk about a step by step way of learning the basic Bossa Nova beat for drum set, along with some helpful variations.
The Basic Bossa Nova Drum Beat
1.Play 8th notes with your right hand on the closed high-hat cymbals. Add the following pattern with your bass drum.
2. Add a clave cross-stick with your left hand on the snare drum. Play 8th notes again on the closed high-hat cymbals. Leave out the bass drum for now.
Keep your left hand open to allow you to muffle the snare drum as you play. Turn off the snares. Flip the drumstick around to get a better clave sound. Experiment to get the fullest sound on the snare drum by moving the stick closer to the rim then back closer to the center.
Notice also that this is a 2 measure pattern. The first measure has 3 notes and the second measure has 2 notes. This is the most common way in jazz drumming to play the Bossa Nova drum beat. The order of these measures can also be reversed but that’s unusual within a jazz drumming context.
Memorize this pattern. Once you can play it while reading it, practice playing it while not looking at it. Try closing your eyes so you can internalize the pattern.
3. Combine steps 1 and 2. Practice very slowly, ensuring that all the notes line up. Again, once you can play the beat while looking at it, try playing it without looking at the notation. Close your eyes to internalize and memorize the Bossa Nova beat. Practice at a variety of tempos.
2 Variations On The Basic Bossa Nova Drum Beat
Playing the Bossa Nova beat on just the high-hat can start to sound very monotonous after awhile. There are 2 simple things you can do to quickly change the sound of the beat.
- Play 8th notes on the snare drum with your right hand with a drumming brush rather than a drumstick. This is nice when you want a very soft, relaxing feeling.
- Play on the ride cymbal with your right hand instead of the high hat. You can also add the high hat with your left foot on 2 & 4. It’s also quite common to play with the right hand on the high hat for part of the song, and the ride cymbal for other parts.
How To Play Up-tempo Bossa Nova Beat On The Drum Set
Sometimes you will be required to play the Bossa Nova beat very fast. In those situations you’ll find it difficult to keep up using the basic Bossa Nova beat that we just learned. For those situations I have a modified beat that I’d like to teach you.
1. Break up the Bossa Nova between your right hand on the high-hat and your left hand playing the clave rhythm on the snare drum instead of playing steady 8t notes with your right hand on the high-hat. Leave out the bass drum for now. You want to memorize this beat just like you did before. Practice it while reading the notation first. Then try looking away or closing your eyes to internalize the beat.
2. Add the bass drum. Start slow. You will probably find playing the beat this way a bit awkward in the beginning. But once you’ve memorized it and internalized it, it will get much more comfortable for you.
Further Bossa Nova Drum Beat Study
After you have practiced the Bossa Nova drum beat at various tempos you should practice playing along to some Bossa Nova recordings. Here are a couple to get you started.
Blue Bossa (slow backing track version)
The Girl From Ipanema (Frank Sinatra medium tempo track)
Let me know if you have any questions about the Bossa Nova.
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