Customer Reviews

The Essence of Brazilian Percussion & Drum Set (with CD)

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This is a great book. I was surprised no one had reviewed it already. This book is similar to Uribe's "Essence of Afro-Cuban Percussion and Drum Set" (also recommended). The first half is an overview of brazilian percussion instruments that is wonderful for those of us new to this area. He presents the instruments and then some basic patterns for that instrument with audio examples (see below for comment). The (short) middle section provides some information of arrangements of brazilian songs. The third section presents ways to play samba and bossa nova drum set.

In all, this a godsend for those learning brazilian percussion. It is not perfect, he clearly spent less time on it than the afro-cuban one, and not complete, but it is still really great.

Things to be aware of if you buy this book are:
1. Uribe is a master player whose is formally trained and makes no apologies when playing the rhythms or presenting the material. For example, the rhythms are (to the best they can be) written in standard musical notation and then played at a normal speed on the cd. If you are not comfortable reading music it may be hard for you to use the book since playing the rhythms at low speed sounds very different. Without another teacher or source you may have a hard time (I read music and play in a samba group already so this book was a learning aid).

2. The section on the songs styles/arrangements does NOT have audio examples. Uribe again, unapologetically says, maybe you should learn to read music and play the keyboard, or at least put these lead sheets into a midi synthesizer. Are you really going to do that?

3. The book is incomplete in that it focuses on samba and bossa nova. There are many other wonderful brazilian styles and this doesn't really talk about them too much (like samba reggae, baiao, maracatu etc.)

4. The cd has great examples but again, not of everything.

Excelent conditions, great book for use to teaching brazilian concepts.

Very well done Ed !

This book is very thorough. I think any serious student of this style of music could benefit from it.