The Exchange

PLAYING A BAIÃO GROOVE WITH DREADLOCK BRUSH AND RUTE 505

Olá pessoal!

This is how we say “Hi folks” here in Brazil.

I’m writing directly from Rio de Janeiro and I want to say that is a pleasure for me to share some ideas with you.

In this article I’ll talk about how to use Vic Firth’s Dreadlock brush and Rute 505 to play one of my favorites Brazilian rhythms called Baião. Baião is a very popular rhythm from the northeast of Brazil. To understand and learn this rhythm I suggest that you listen to records of Luiz Gonzaga called “ The king of Baião” and artists like Gilberto Gil, Jackson do Pandeiro, Hermeto Pascoal, Egberto Gismonti and Lenine. So check them out.

The example I play on the video is a basic baião groove. Once you’ve learned how to play it, I think it’s a good idea to try different sounds. I like to use one Dreadlock brush for the cymbals and the Rute 505 for the snare drum.

DREADLOCK BRUSH

This special wired brush is great for cymbal work. I’ve been using it in many situations. I like to play ride patterns using the Dreadlock between the ride cymbal and a second hi hat on top of it (see a demonstration on the video). If you have two other cymbals with different sizes, try to put the biggest one on the bottom and the small on top, leaving a space between them. You’ll see that you can play very fast patterns with just one hand. This technique is very useful when you want to create a softly constant pattern effect, in this case a 16th note pattern. The first time I saw this was with a great Brazilian percussionist called Marcos Suzano. He was playing with a Dreadlock between two steel trays in his set up.

RUTE 505

Made with a plastic material the Rute 505 is a great choose when you want the drums to sound with less attack. Another idea is to play the same Baião groove (with the Dreadlock on the cymbals) but now using the 505 on the snare drum. It’s really cool. However the snare will sound softly, the groove will still have a nice pulse and presence. This combination I learned from drummer Pantico Rocha that plays with Lenine.

Try this idea with other grooves like a drum’n bass for example.

If you have any questions please post your comment, ok?

Best wishes,

Christiano Galvão