New joiners

Welcome to Sambattalion!

As you’ve heard in our rehearsals so far we play what we call Samba Fusion, a blend of samba rhythms with others from around the world on traditional samba bateria instruments.

We are a community band with a passion for music and each other’s company.

Over the next few months, we’ll be peeling back the layers and taking things back to the basics both for existing members of the band and as a welcome for new members to join.

This gives members both new and old the time to understand each of the songs in our set ahead of our first gig of 2024, which will be the London Marathon on Sunday 21st April. Everyone will be very welcome to come and play with us and is a fun first gig with less pressure attached.

Below are some of the things that you might have started to become familiar with in how we communicate with the band when playing and also some of the tunes we have done so far…

Signals

Hand signals are very important in the band as they are the main way for people directing to communicate with the band and don’t rely on people at the back being able to hear. Very important when in a live gig setting. When you see a signal, it doesn’t become active until after a count of four, some of the more universal ones we use are as follows:

Stop

When you see this, it means that a section or indeed the entire band is about to stop.

Carry on (image needed)

You might see this if the director is stopping one part of the band while telling others to carry on.

Come back in

Used to bring people back in after they’ve been stopped

Break / pause for 4 (image needed)

Bit of a ronseal / say what you see – stop for 4 beats

Break / pause for 8 (image needed)

Bit of a ronseal / say what you see – stop for 8 beats

Break / pause for 16 (image needed)

Bit of a ronseal / say what you see – stop for 16 beats

Short break

Used in a few different tunes and can mean different things so keep your wits about you. Breaks assigned to this signal will normally be ≤ 8 beats

Break 1

Another signal used throughout a few tunes, eg, Kalashnikov and Sheffield Samba

Break 2

The other most common used break signal.

There are a wealth of other signals used within the context of songs for breaks and bits but the above are the most common and important. However, we also use signals to communicate instruments and tunes as well and these are as follows:

Tamborim (image needed)

The baby of the group and only hand drum we use. This is played with a multi rodded beater and carries above the rest of the band like a whip crack. A few different playing styles to watch out for such as Carreteiro.

Agogo (image needed)

The two tone bell provides some basic melody to our tunes and have lots of interesting mnemonics to help remember their rhythms. Also watch out for the four bell version and of course the cow bell.

Apito (image needed)

This is the whistle used by whoever is directing the band and is able to play three different tones.

Repinique

Sometimes seen as the lead voice in a bateria. These drums play syncopated rhythms using two whippy sticks or a combo of a wooden stick and palm of hand.