Bateria

Mestre Cobra Mansa leading a Capoeira bateria.

Acadêmicos do Engenho da Rainha Bateria, samba school parade, 2010.

The term bateria means “drum kit” in Portuguese and Spanish. In Brazil, the word is also used for a form of Brazilian samba band, the percussion band or rhythm section of a Samba School. It might also mean battery.

Baterias are also used to accompany the Brazilian martial art, capoeira.

Instruments

• Surdo (a large, low-tuned drum, the heartbeat of the samba)
• Caixa de guerra (a snare drum)
• Tarol (a smaller snare drum)
• Repinique (a small drum, twelve by fourteen inches)
• Chocalho (a rattle, made up of rows of jingles)
• Tamborim (a frame drum played with a flexible beater)
• Agogô (a double cow bell)
• Reco-reco (a notched stick played with a scraper)
• Pandeiro (a tambourine)
• Cuíca (a hollow drum-like instrument containing a bamboo stick that is rubbed to produce a squeaky sound)
• Clash cymbals
• Bass drums (optional and in some samba school drum lines)

Sources and external links

• BateristasPT.com — Portuguese drummers community website
• "Samba Bateria Definition & terms" — Photos, videos & origins of the bateria terminology within the samba-schools environment at Brazil´s carnival
• "Hello, Bateria!" — introduction by Marinilda Carvalho, provided by sambaparty.com
• Sounds of baterias — The Brazilian Percussion Site
• A baterias website in spanish — A large community of drummers in Latin America
• Play yourself a samba school drums section — An animation that lets you conduct the samba