| A school samba band is typically a group of 10 to 30 | | | | to rehearse where you will not be disturbing the rest of |
| students playing Brazilian influenced percussion on | | | | the school. A common solution is to rehearse after |
| Brazilian samba school instruments. Samba is the | | | | school hours. Another consideration is space to store |
| carnival rhythm of the samba schools of Rio de | | | | the samba drums, which needs to be dry and secure. |
| Janeiro, but school samba groups play many other | | | | You will need to be careful when you decide to |
| (easier) styles of Brazilian percussion on their samba | | | | purchase teaching sets of samba drums as there is a |
| drums. Reggae, funk, and hip hop are popular. The only | | | | lot of poor equipment and even poorer advice on the |
| limit is your imagination. | | | | net. Most sellers of samba percussion equipment to |
| The samba band is a marching band, but is unlike | | | | schools are there because they have spotted a |
| European and American marching bands in some key | | | | market, and know very little about the school samba |
| respects. | | | | packages they are selling. Most of the equipment |
| Perhaps the single most important difference is that | | | | available is not what would be used in Rio, and some |
| samba music is an aural tradition. In Rio de Janeiro no | | | | well known manufacturers are selling items they call |
| community samba band uses musical notation; | | | | samba drums that bear very little relationship to the |
| everything is learnt by ear through persistent practice. | | | | real thing. Most resellers sell what is marketed to them |
| If you apply this principal to music performance through | | | | without any knowledgeable quality control. I will be |
| a school samba band, you can reach those pupils who | | | | posting some detailed advice in future articles. |
| have previously proven to be resistant to formal | | | | Your samba band will find itself popular. There will be |
| musical education. The samba band reaches parts that | | | | many school functions at which the band can perform, |
| other music education cannot reach. | | | | and it probably will not be long before the band is in |
| Samba music is part of a carnival tradition which | | | | demand from a wider local community. With canny |
| involves costumes, song and dance as well as | | | | management the band can raise money to support |
| percussion. In a school context, this gives an | | | | itself, or to donate to charity. |
| opportunity for many different school departments to | | | | I know schools that have set up samba bands for their |
| work together on a single cross cultural project. | | | | underachieving pupils, others that have set up samba |
| Costume making, singing, dance and percussion attract | | | | bands for their gifted students, some who use the |
| different pupils and there will be something in this broad | | | | school samba group as an extracurricular activity, and |
| curriculum mix for just about everyone. | | | | many more who integrate the samba drums into their |
| To set up the samba band you will need samba | | | | regular curriculum. Some use a samba band to involve |
| drums, but equipping a school samba group is cheap | | | | parents more in school life. I know of samba bands in |
| compared with setting up other types of musical | | | | Infants schools, junior schools, high schools and |
| ensembles. You will need surdos, caixas, repiniques, | | | | colleges. However you choose to integrate your |
| tamborins, chocalhos or ganzas, and you can add | | | | samba band into your curriculum, it will substantially |
| other instruments like agogos and timbas. | | | | enrich the educational mix you offer to your students. |
| A samba band is noisy and you will need somewhere | | | | |