Brazilian Instruments

adjulona
Among the Brazilian Carajá and Savaje Indians a simple wind blown pipe/trumpet having a twisted ribbed-or ridged leaf reed. Also the name for a side blown wooden trumpet having a flared bell end piece made from a gourd.

adufé
A square (rectangular), skin covered frame drum, and sometimes a tambourine in Brazil. Term prob. from Arabic 'duff' via Andalusia. In the central regions of Portugal it is traditionally played by women. Sometimes "aduf (fe)".

afofié
Brazilian small flute with African origins.

afoxê
Brazilian name for a Northern (Bahian / Afro-Brazilian) hand held shaker made by covering a hollow gourd with a web like string of beads, the beads rotated around the gourd to create a rhythmic percussive sound. Also known as a xequerê (xequre). Sometimes called a cabaça. The slow rhythm played is called ijexá, rooted in the ritualistic candomblé music. Also a style of African centered religious music that has become a part of Bahian carnival, and now pop styles.

agadavi
One name for an African derived Brazilian drumstick.

agogô
Brazilian metal clapperless double-bell percussion instrument of West African origin. Bells are flanged like cowbells and joined with a curved piece of metal so as to be held in one hand. Made of tin or iron and sometimes riveted together. Bells produce separate tones when struck with a wooden stick, metal rod or drumstick. Used in many Afro-Brazilian religious ceremonies and secular celebrations. Became a common percussion instrument in nearly all Brazilian music and was introduced in America via Brazilian jazz in the 70s. Can also be the name for a single bell. A deep toned agogô is used in candomblé religious music called a gonguê. Also known as a gã, and called a gan in Bahia. Myriad variations of this ritual instrument also common to Cuba where it's known as, "agógo". It is an essential instrument in Afro-Cuban Santería bembé ceremonies. In Cuban secular ensembles multiple bells stung together are common.

Agogó is a Yoruban Nigerian word whose name mimics the sound of the bell when struck. It exists as both a single and a double bell form and functions as a time keeper in a variety of Yoruban popular musics. At it's most intoxicating in fuji ensembles. Called ogene by the Ibo and nkwong by the Ibibios, both Southeastern Nigerian people. Termed ogan in the Fon language of Togo.

aiapá
Brazilian shaker or chocalho (port: rattle).

aidjé, aidye or aige
A bull-roarer, or thunder stick, of the Central Brazilian Bororó Indians. Also called "hippopotamus" by white observers.

amelé
One of many variations of the chequeré, a Brazilian rattle.

angogó
A flute from Brazil.

apito
Brazilian end blown whistle. Most familiar usage is to signal directions and trigger excitement when blown by the bateria's director in an escola de samba. This whistle is a common military model. This Portuguese word indicates a holed, whistle flute in it's homeland.

atabaque
Brazilian single headed conical shaped skin covered drum, played with the hands, that looks similar to the Cuban conga drum and prob. of African origin. Played in a set of three sizes: rum, rumpi, and lé. Part of the ritual drumming associated with the candomblé religion of Bahia, where it is also known as, ilú.

baixo
'Bass' in Brazil

bandolim
Brazilian and Portuguese name for the mandolin, with 4 strings.

bansá
One of the various names for the African derived musical bow in Brazil. A wooden stick is tensioned with one string, the string played by rubbing with a bone or wooden slide.

bapó
A Brazilian handheld shaker (sim to maracas) played by the Bororó Indians.

baqueta
A Brazilian name for a drumstick.

batá
1). West African drum ensemble sacred to the Yoruba people of Nigeria used in the worship of Sango (Shango, Changó), the God of lightening and thunder. His symbol is the double headed axe, and the batá drums mimic this shape. Drum ensemble consists of five carved wooden drums. The first 3 are double headed and cone shaped: the Iyá Ilu (mother drum), omele (male drum), and the kudi (small drum). The largest Iyá Ilu drum often has cast brass bells on it's body that vibrate as the drum is played. Lower ends of the drums often wrapped in cane. There are also two shallow hemispherical single head drums called the omele ako (male drum) and the emele abo (female drum).

2). Drum and drum ensemble common to Afro-Cuban Santería (sometimes called Lecumí, after the language) worship, a new world religion developed by slaves of Yoruban descent. While drums are sacred to Changó, drum salutes or praise rhythms are a part of honoring the full pantheon of orixás (deities representing aspects of God). Santería batá retain their double headed hour-glass shape and are placed across the lap and played with the hands. Batá exist in three sizes: the largest called iyá, short form of "mother" in Yoruba, (also called 'caja' by NY Salceros), mid-sized batá called itótele (or omelé enkó), and the smallest, okónkolo (also kónkolo, oméle or améle). The largest drumhead of each instrument is called the énu (or enú, 'mouth' in Yoruba) and the small, reasonably enough, tcha tchá, (or chachá, 'butt' or 'anus'). The iyá leads the ensemble, often engaging in a 'conversation' with the itótele. The iyá drumheads are ringed with a string of small brass bells or beads? called ichauoró (tchaworo or chaguoro), and the énu -end's skin has a ring of clay called idá (or fardela) applied to it's surface to dampen overtones and lower the pitch.

Consecrated batá (aña, or fundamento) can only be played by male initiates, while unbaptized drums (aberikula) can be played by anyone. Religious instruments are constructed from once living materials, ideally the body carved from a single piece of wood, and tuned by tensioning ropes or rawhide, while commercial instruments can be of fiberglass and have metal tuning lugs. Baté drumming came first to New York in the 50s from Cuba, and the two most accomplished performers were Julio Collazo and Francisco Aguabella. The next contact with a master drummer did not occur until the Mariel immigration in 1980 and the arrival of Orlando Puntilla Rios. Elements of Santería drumming are being used more and more frequently by progressive Latin and salsa groups / percussionists, incl; Irakere, Jerry Gonzalez, Batacumbele and Zaperoko.

3. A generic name for West African drums and used indiscriminately to describe any Afro-Brazilian drum, but most often the master drum.

batá-cotó
Afro-Brazilian war drum.

bateria
Generic Brazilian name for the drum and specifically the drum-and-percussion section of an escola de samba. Typical escola de samba percussion section can include 30 surdo, 40 caixa, 40 repique, 70 tamborim, 15 pandeiro, 10 prato, 20 cuíca, 20 frigideira, 20 agogo, 20 rico-rico and 20 chocalho.

batuque
A Brazilian drum used in jongo. Also a term used to describe religious practice, a dance and to represent just about any African derived dance in Brazil.

berimbau
Brazilian musical bow. Bow is made of wood and strung with a single metal string, with a gourd resonator, having a sound hole, attached at the base. When played the gourd is pressed against the body, bow curved towards the player and the string tapped with a stick. Instrument is common to Bahia and associated with the region's capoeira (a martial arts/dance form) and candomblé religious music. Originally from the Congo-Angolan region of Africa.

berra-boi
Brazilian subtle percussion instrument made by filling a length of bamboo or hollowed our wood) with seed. A thunder stick.

bombo
A very large bass drum in Brazil.

boseró
Amazonian Amerindian small flute from Brazil.

buá
A small flute from Brazil.

buré
Brazilian hunting whistle made from just about anything, including bone, wood or reed.

buttori
Brazilian Amerindian made from deer hoofs by the Bororó.

cairé
Cruciform Brazilian rattle.

caixa
Brazilian and Portuguese term for the snare drum used by most all marching and carnival parading groups, esp. the percussion section of the escola de samba.

caixeta
Brazilian wooden block with hollowed out indentations, stuck with one stick.

caixinha
Brazilian box shaped rattle.

camisão
Brazilian box drums played with the hands.

caracalho
A Brazilian folk scraper.

caracará
A Brazilian folk trumpet.

caracaxá
A hand held Brazilian shaker.

carimbó
Afro-Brazilian drum. Also a 2/4 rhythm dance.

catacá
Brazilian wood block scrapper pair, one block plain, one ribbed.

catuquinarú
Slonimsky says : "The earth drum of the Catuquinarú Indians of Rio Jura; a pit in the ground, in which a hollow trunk of a palm tree is placed on end, is filled with rubber hide, powdered mica, bone fragments etc., on which the performers stamp to produce a rumbling hollow sound"

cavaquinho
The name is the diminutive form of "cavaco", a Portuguese guitar/mandolin hybrid. Used in Portugal, it's colonies, and esp. in Brazil, this four string small cavaco is similar to the ukulele in sound and appearance, having 17 frets, and usually tuned D-G-B-D. Often lost amid stronger sounding instruments in an ensemble. An essential element of Pagode samba, while a novelty sound in Brazilian pop. Sometimes called 'machete' or 'machette', a common name in Portugal for the identical instrument, the term machette used primarily in the Azores. Marcuse says machete introduced into Hawaii by Port. sailors and transformed into the ukulele. Cavaquinho also used in Cape Verde, another former Portuguese colony. The notes on Charlie Byrd's, Latin Impressions LP, spell it 'cavaquinha'.

caxambú
A Brazilian drum of mixed African and Brazilian origin. Described by Villa-Lobos as "a bottle filled with gravel and shaken to produce a rattling noise". Also a song and dance form accompanied by this drum and handclaps.

caxixi
A small Brazilian shaker made from a woven wicker basket filled with seeds and used to accompany capoeira dance/ritual.

chequeré
"A Brazilian rattle usually made of two metal octahedrons connected by tube encased in two rotating metal hoops"

Fred Neil uses the term as a rhyme in his song ..

chocalho
Brazilian shaker. Most common modern form is two metal cones joined at the base and filled with metal pellets. Can also be made of wood, be spherical or a simple gourd filled with dried seeds. also : xocalho.

cucumbí
Afro-Brazilian drum. Also a song form.

cuíca
A Brazilian Bull-roarer or friction drum of Angolan origin producing a sound akin to a wetted finger rubbed on a window pane. The small drum has a string, reed, tube or light wooden stick attached to the center of the drum head, within the drum body. The attachment (sometimes rosined) is rubbed from the inside with a wet hand or rag while varying pressure is applied to the drum head. Instrument is identified with street sambas, but has found its way into a variety of Brazilian musics and as a novelty item in jazz, salsa and disco in it's modern, metal bodied form. Also called puíca, and in the Brazilian city of Alagoas, an adufo.

curugú
Brazilian Amerindian drum.

curuqué
A Brazilian folk trumpet.

frigideira
Brazilian percussion instrument shaped like a frying pan and struck with a stick. Originally a genuine pan, part of the kitchen based percussion section common to much of the Caribbean and South America. My favorite name for an instrument.

fungador
Afro-Brazilian drum.

gaita de foles
In Brazil an accordion, on Cape Verde, a concertina / two-row button accordion.

gaita ponto
A Brazilian concertina with button keys.

ganzá
Various described as a scraper similar to the reco-reco, as a metal shaker with from one to three tubes, AND as a metal or wooden square with small cymbals attached!

gongon
Afro-Brazilian drum.

guarará
Brazilian Amerindian chocalho like shaker.

guitarra
Spanish American name for the Spanish acoustic six string guitar. Variations include the 4,8 or 10 stringed cuatro and the three stringed tiple. In Portugal describes a 8, 10, 12 stringed mandolin like guitar, about 1/3 the size of a Spanish guitar and along with the viola, the major accompanying instrument in fado. In Brazil the term can describe any electric guitar.

guitarra Bahiana
Brazilian term for the electric guitar. Invented by frevo enthusiasts/elder statesmen Dôdo and Osmar in Salvador (Bahia) in 1947, only the Rickenbacker Electro B was available earlier. They first called their amplified cavaquinho the "pau elétrico", the "electric wood", made from the red, richly veined Brasilwood that gave their country it's name. It made the trio elétrico, well, electric!

hait-teatçu
Brazilian disc shaped nose flute.

herá-herajun
Brazilian Amerindian transverse flute.

hezó-hezó
Brazilian Amerindian long trumpet with the end bell made from a calabash.

hu
Afro-Brazilian large drum.

hunpri
Brazilian mid-sized drum.

ika
Brazilian large wooden bass folk trumpet of the Bororó Amerindians.

ilu
Large Afro-Brazilian wooden drum.

ka
Barrel shaped, and usually made from a barrel, hide covered Brazilian drum.

katiwu
Brazilian Amerindian single toned folk trumpet, similar to a toré.

ken
Brazilian Amerindian single toned folk trumpet, similar to a toré.

lé
Afro-Brazilian small drum, similar to the tabaqué.

loku
Brazilian folk flute, similar to the adjulona.

machete or machette
A small four stringed guitar of Portugal and the Azores. Also found in Brazil, identical to the cavaquinho. Marcuse says the machete was introduced into Hawaii by Port. sailors and transformed into the ukulele. lit = hunting knife.

maracá
Brazilian name for a traditional maracas of indigenous Indian origin. Usually a hollow gourd with dried seeds or pebbles inside.

matraca
Brazilian wooden rattle or maraca.

matungo
Black Brazilian term for a set of bells formed from iron bars of different hefts and lengths.

megaló
Loosely applied Brazilian term for a bull-roarer or thunder-stick.

memby
Generic Amerindian term for pan pipes used by the Guarani in the Brazilian states of Mato Grosso and Parna, and in Paraguay.

pandeiro
Large handheld Brazilian and Portuguese single skinned frame drum (tambourine) having inverted metal jingles. Played with a flourish and tossed, twisted and twirled by parading samba players.

pífano or pífaro
Primitive Brazilian folk fife or flute.

pratos
Brazilian term for cymbals.

rabeca
Term for the violin in Cape Verde. In the Brazilian state of Pernambuco, the rebeca is a simple folk violin closely associated with the Cavalo Marinho dance rhythm.

reco-reco or rico-rico
Brazilian notched bamboo or metal percussion instrument that is scraped with a stick or metal rod, and believed to be of native Amerindian derivation. Common modern version has 3 threaded or notched rods attached to a wooden board.

repique
A two headed tenor drum, sometimes described as a form of surdo, common to samba ensembles.

sambuca
An older term for just about any Brazilian stringed instrument.

sanfona
Brazilian button-accordion, with a variety of form from the simplest to the most complex. Musica Brasileira says also known as the 'acordeón', known in nearly every part of the country, as well as a gaucho (cowboy) instrument from the South. Name taken from the Portuguese for the hurdy-gurdy.

surdo
The 'deaf box'. "drum played in samba with wooden stick topped by velvet-covered wooden head. Surdos come in three sizes and function as the bass in the samba bateria" (escola baterias). Most important is the surdo de marcaçáo (marking surdo) also known as the surdáo, surdo de primeira, and surdo maracaná. The largest and the anchor to the beat, playing on the second beat of the 2/4 samba. Next is the surdo resposta (answering surdo) playing less forcefully on the first beat. Lastly the surdo cortador (cutting surdo), play both on the beats and the off beats, adding syncopation. Small groups use one size surdo to do all three parts. Airto Moreira does this on "Dreamland" from Joni Mitchell's LP Don Juan's Reckless Daughter.

tambor
General term for any Lusaphone drum.

tamborim
A small (6 - 8") skin covered frame drum from Brazil/Portugal, played by applying pressure with the finger(s) on one side while striking the other with a stick(s) called a baqueta.

tan-tan
A Brazilian drum smaller than, but similar to the atabaque, a conga like drum. Used in modern pagode samba.

tarol
One of the various and myriad terms in Brazil for a variety of snares, this shallow bodied version having two-heads and played with a pair of sticks like any marching drum.

teclados
Brazilian term for keyboards.

toré
Brazilian, Paraguayan and Guianese Amerindian single toned folk trumpet, without finger holes, made of cane, bamboo or clay. Played in sets and comes in various sizes, all pretty large.

triangulo
Brazilian name for the triangle.

viola
Loosely defined term for a variety of Spanish style guitars in Lusaphone countries having from five to fourteen strings. The seven string variety has four bass strings on the top and functions as a combination bass and standard guitar. Rustic versions most often have five or six double strings, and in Cape Verdian music describes a 12 string tenor guitar.

violão
The archaic Luso-Brazilian term (usually)for a six stringed Spanish style guitar.

violino
Brazilian term for the western violin.

xique-xique
Brazilian rattle or shaker (chocalho).

xucalhos
Brazilian rattles made from metal or wood.

zabumba
A shallow Brazilian bass drum from the northeast used in forró music. Derived from a military /marching band instrument it is played with a mallet and a stick. The name is an onomatopoeia.

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