Samba Tutorials and Songs

SAMBA BAND

SONG NUMBER TEN

'SAMBA FANGA'

Fanga is a traditional West African djembe drum rhythm. It is rooted in the 3-2 rhythm that underpins so much African, Latin and Western music.

The 3-2 rhythm, in African parlance is called a 'Bell Pattern' and associated with early Agogo Bell type instruments from Africa.

In Latin parlance the basic 3-2 rhythm is called Son Clave and it has a very interesting psychological strength, linked to movement, mood, mathematics, natural selection and more besides.

Here is a fascinating article on the subject

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clave_(rhythm)

Some suggest the strength of this rhythm is ultimately linked to the need to demonstrate tribal membership through the easy natural learning of particular tribal rhythms and dance movements. We just touch on the subject here. The links between music, psychology, neuroscience, wellbeing and survival is a fascinating exploration indeed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnomusicology

By the way the word clave describes both the instrument (two sticks - the second musical instrument that the humanity ever produced, after the voice) and also the rhythm itself - 3-2.

Below is an example of the Fanga song we are going to learn in our Samba Band, demonstrating the original African 3-2 beat.

Rather wonderfully it actually incorporates three different Clave rhythms, the original beat (Son Clave) plus two slightly different versions that have developed in different cultural settings. These three different versions are all suggested at the same time due to the different accents of the drums.

'Clave' is pronounced 'Clavay'

1.Son Clave

2. Rumba Clave

3. Brazilian or Samba Clave

Here is an example of the basic 'Son Clave' used in popular western music from the UK in its simplest form.

Here is an example of its use in rock'n' roll, R&B and blues from America, something a little more nuanced.

Finally, even though the presenter is Brazilian he clearly shows the difference here between basic Son Clave and Brazilian Clave where the very last beat is delayed by 1/16 beat.

Rumba Clave is the same except it delays the third beat of the 3-2 phrase, a slightly harder task for the newcomer to get their head around ! if you're interested here's a longer exploration of all the above

Finally the clave rhythms are regularly played the other way around 2-3 and in our version below the cowbell does indeed offer the rhythm that way around.

GROOVE COMPLETE

So, here is our very own Samba version of Fanga broken down into twelve different parts. All three of the 3-2 clave rhythms mentioned above are built into our rhythm plus the reverse version 2-3, courtesy the cowbell. There will singing and chanting to go with this song as well. Please remember the sounds used are guides only, from a computer.

Each audio file starts with the full band and then cuts to the individual instrument, this repeats a few times to aid practice. There is a guide rhythm in some of the files to help you as well.

Word reminders in lower case italic
are only said, they are not played

and the separate parts here

Surdo 18"

ONE TWO THREE .... ONE TWO

Surdo 16"

ONE TWO THREE FOUR

Surdo blue 12"

ONE A-TWO AND THREE AND FOUR-A

Caixa

HELP ME, I WANNA DANCE THE MA-CA- RENA WONT YOU . .

Repinique

slurp . . I LIKE .. A CUPPA slurp . . I LIKE .. A CUPPA