17 Inst. Caxixi – Tips and Trick to Learn Berimbau

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On today’s episode I would like to teach you some tips and trick to learn berimbau, if you apply these tricks to your daily routine you can learn to play berimbau in a very fast time and you won’t need the berimbau every single time to practice, but I still recommend you to have your own berimbau so talk to your instructor or professor if they have berimbaus in the academy that they can sell to you and you can support your school by doing that.

Listen, berimbau is a basic skill if you want to get into high ranks in your school also learning berimbau is really cool for many reasons, you can help to play in the roda, demonstrations, or any time a berimbau is needed – so all the time right? by learning berimbau you also are going to help a lot your instructor or professor, for example when you learn berimbau and you play it, you are allowing your teacher to play in the roda and that helps a lot and makes us happy so we can get to play with all of you, so put your hands on it, learn berimbau and show off your skills after this!

Alright, so this is the way I learned berimbau 18 years ago and after I practiced this way for a few months I was able to play berimbau in the roda, I wasn’t able to sign in the roda but I was able to play, and singing and play instruments come with a lot of practice so I encourage you to do so after you learn berimbau, so this is how I usually teach berimbau and it works for a lot of people they learn pretty quick, so after this it will be up to you put this in practice so be accountable for it.

Before, we gotta learn the part of the berimbau, the berimbau consist of 6 parts and the names on Portuguese of these 6 parts are: Verga (which is the body of the berimabu), Arame (which is the wire), Cabaca (which is the gourd), Baqueta (which is the stick to play it), dobrado or pedra (which is that big metal coin or the stone or rock) and of course a caxixi (which is the shaker).

That been said, there are a few basic berimbau rhythms that you can learn and they can help you to get set up to learn the rest.

• we have Angola
• we have sao bento pequeno
• we have sao bento grande de bimba
• we sao bento grande de angola
• and we have one a little more complex one called Iuna

All those rhythms are composed by only 3 kinds of sounds, but each of them is on a different pattern.

These 3 sounds are:

The xiado (is with the rock very softly pressed against the wire): xixi
the don (rock won’t touch the wire): dondon
and the din (press hard against the wire): dindin

Now that you have and recognize these 3, you are going to practice these sounds with your mouth:

For example:

Xiado you are going to do: xixixixixi
don: don don don don
din: din din din din

AGAIN

practice those sounds every day with your mouth so you can recognize these sounds. if at some point you listen to capoeira music anywhere, pay attention to the berimbau sounds and try to copy them with this sounds I just gave you.

Rhythm practice:

Now we put them together to do the first rhythm, “Angola”
makes this sound with your mouth – warning: don’t be shy to do so

The are 2 xiados, 1 don, 1 din

Sounds like this: xixi – xixi – don – din

It repeats over and over

Sao bento pequeno

Now this one is just backwards as angola

The are 2 xiados, 1 din, 1 don

It sounds like: xixi – xixi – din – don

It repeats over and over too

Practice these 2 with your mouth and with the berimbau so you can get into the more complex ones

Sao bento grande de bimba

This one is a little more complex but it is pretty easy once you get it

I’m going to break it in 2 parts for you

The first part is:

First part sounds like: xixi – xixi – don – xixi – xixi – din

Second part sounds like: xixi – xixi – don – don – din

It repeats over and over too

Sao bento grande de angola

This one is a little easier and fun as well

I’m going to break it in 2 parts as well for you

The first part is going to be:
xixi – xixi – din – don – don

It repeats over and over too

All these sounds are very easy to practice, you just gotta comment and keep practicing with your mouth but especially with the berimbau and ask your teacher to help you practice some music and I am sure you are going to be able to play berimbau in a few months if you really really practice this tips and tricks.

Thank you listing!