IDEAS AND REVISITING OBJECTIVES

Hi all! I decided I would draft a little "brain dump" of ideas for our samba school/performance group. These are a combination of my own ideas and those of several others in the band. If I have forgotten any suggested, I apologise. I will also revisit some of the results of the strategic planning we undertook last year. Some of the objectives discussed have been met and others not, so I would suggest now is a good time to focus on the ideas still floating. Cheers!

IDEAS:
Instrument Variations

• Playing the triangle for one or two songs (eg. Magalena)
• Use of singing (eg. Magalena)
• Vocal percussion
• Vocal cuica at various poignant moments
• Tri-tone Samba whistles
• Creative attachment ideas for Tamborims, Agogo and Pandeiro, so that players can wear a second instrument hooked onto the belt tab of our overalls, for example. Use one of those G-clasps and hook onto a short tied lace looped through a metal ring on the taborim or pandeiro..?
• Erin and Remko to do a Duet de Repinique: e.g. take turns doing a paradinha (calls) each, Remko first, and then Erin leading the band into one of the calls from the Junior Bloco link I posted a while ago. This could continue on into the swing samba groove we have been playing more of lately, with the overlapping triplets played by Erin and Remko
• Have extra surdos on hand for some members to jump onto surdo for a powerful effect and maybe explore the melody of the surdos more. We can always have beaters in pockets or whatever
• Snare section does a solo break where Tamborim players turn around, caixas step forward, and play syncopated patterns on the tamborims, and maybe on their drums here and there too. Tamborim players might turn, bend to one knee and hold up tamborim above head
• Attach cowbells and jamblocks to snare drums for caixa section, to have more timbale flavour every now and then. Use for drumline sounds too

Song Variations

• Jungle: the surdo part could be followed by: left arm up, then right arm up to click the wood of right beater onto wood of the left, and repeat.
• Timbalada (Jungle version #2?): could feature sections led by Tam Tam (Paul has one doesn't he?)

Other Ideas

• Improve showmanship: smiling, looking like you are enjoying, hamming it up for an audience, playing a character, having fun and being mischievious. Exude energy and movement, confidence and participation.
• Put together some coordinated dance moves and section formations for certain songs. Work on getting quality of sound and movements in time.
• Invite dancers and students who are into samba to come along and dance with us at rehearsals whenever they like, so we can network, learn the style of playing to get the best out of samba dancers, work on joint initiatives in future
• Recruit some of the African group into the band!! They'd be into it I think. This might really help with the singing part too!

Fusion Sounds

• African 6/8 patterns (as song or as intro)
• 6/8 timing blending back into 4/4 or 2/4
• African dance segment in response to the change of genre
• Drumline styled energetic performance pieces with lots of formalised grandeur and erect postures, movement and dynamics with syncopated rhythms, impressive sticking and a few mischievious tricks (I'm looking at you, Denis..)
• Experiment with non-batucada instruments mixed with samba, eg. keyboard, flute, bass guitar, saxophone, viola/violin, congas, etc.
• Experiment with fusion of different genres e.g. Brazilian and Flamenco? Andean flutes...
• Mix in some more Afrocuban sounds, through tamborims playing son and rumba clave (2/3 or 3/2), and repinique playing similar timbale style, with bells if possible. Could make use of rim knocking here for effect (e.g. like the 'boom boom' in the soccer match for Unchartered but with beater wood hitting onto the rims of the surdos, and snares. Tamborim to do syncopated solo patterns over the top of it, with effective use of pause-