Home Music & Instuments
Music & Instruments
BerimbauBerimbausAtabaqueAgogôPandeiro

Music in Capoeira

In capoeira, music sets the rhythm, the style of play, and the energy of a game. Though we may consider the music traditional, because it has been passed orally from one to the next until the early-mid 20th century when songs and rhythms began to be notated and recorded, there is no record of to what extent and exactly how the music has evolved over time.
Read more...
 
Berimbau

BerimbausThe berimbau is a single-string percussion instrument, a musical bow, from Brazil. The berimbau's origins are not entirely clear, but there is not much doubt on its African origin, as no Indigenous Brazilian or European people use musical bows, and very similar instruments are played in the southern parts of Africa. The berimbau was eventually incorporated into the practice Capoeira, where it commands how the capoeiristas move in the roda. The instrument is also a part of Candomblé-de-caboclo tradition.
Read more...
 
Atabaque
AtabaqueThe atabaque is a tall, wooden, Afro-Brazilian hand drum. The shell is made traditionally of Jacaranda wood from Brazil. The head is traditionally made from calfskin. A system of ropes are intertwined around the body, connecting a metal ring near the base to the head. Wooden wedges are jammed between this ring and the the body and one uses a hammer to tighten or loosen the ropes, raising or lowering the pitch of the drum.
Read more...
 
Pandeiro

Pandeiro

The pandeiro is a type of hand frame drum, very similar to a tambourine.
It is held in one hand, and struck on the head by the other hand to produce the sound. Typical pandeiro patterns are played by alternating the thumb, fingertips, heel, and palm of the hand.
A pandeiro can also be shaken to make sound, or one can run a finger along the head to create a "rasp" noise. The pandeiro is used in a number of Brazilian music forms, such as Samba, Choro, Coco and Capoeira music.

The bateria in Capoeira regional rodas is traditionally composed of one berimbau and two pandeiros.

 
Agogô
AgogôAn agogô (meaning gong or bell in Yoruba) is a single or multiple bell now used throughout the world but with origins in traditional Yoruba music and also in Samba. The agogô may be the oldest samba instrument and was based on West African Yoruba single or double bells. The agogô has the highest pitch of any of the bateri­a instruments in Capoeira.