Samba-Swing Explained

Let’s try to explain the samba swing brief and technicaly.
If you look at the picture above, and look at a 1/4 measure caixa pattern with 4 16-th notes, you can see that the played notes and the 16th beats don’t line up.
The accents on each note are different, AND the timing of the notes is not straight. This is what gives Samba it’s “Swing” or “Samba Groove”.
Samba sounds like an old steam locomotive; each 1/4 measure sounds a bit like a bouncing ball or a drum stick loosely bouncing on a drum head.

  • 1st 16th > straight on 1st 16th note / heavy accented
  • 2nd 16th > a little after the 2nd 16th note / no accent
  • 3rd 16th > a little before the 3rd 16th note / no accent (ghost note)
  • 4th 16th > a little before the 4th 16th note / accent

The first 3 16th notes are slowing down and the 4th 16th note is speeding up again, very typical for the samba sound.

 

Beat with straight 16-th snare notes

Beat with straight 16-th snare notes with accents

 

Well, this sounds like samba…

Beat with straight 16-th snare notes with accents on 16 th’s PLUS Lead and Lag on the timing on specific 16th notes is what makes…

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