The surdos

The first few blog posts on the Worldwise Samba Drummers website were a broad introduction to samba drumming. They explained what samba drumming is, where samba drumming comes from, some commonly used rhythms, the samba swing, stepping and parading, the role of the samba leader, and a little about the samba schools of Brazil. There was also a post that introduced the different instruments of the samba band. The next set of posts are going to go into more detail about these different instruments beginning with the surdo, the largest of the samba instruments. 

Surdos are cylindrical in shape with a drum head on either end. The drum heads can be anything from 14 inches to 29 inches in diameter and are played with soft headed beaters. The Worldwise Samba Drummers use surdos with aluminium shells to keep down the weight though some use steel or wood, and our surdos have plastic heads that are easier to acquire and hold their tuning more reliably than animal skin.

Most members of the Worldwise Samba Drummers wear harnesses to help hold the weight of their drum though some players will instead use waist straps or shoulder straps. These large drums are often the most enticing for new members though it is also worth keeping in mind that they are the heaviest instruments to carry in static performances and parades as well as being more difficult to store and transport. 

Samba bands will have anything between one and four different sections of surdos, arranged according to size and pitch, though most bands, Worldwise Samba Drummers included, have three sections. The largest and lowest of the surdo are called the surdo 1, primeira or marcacao. For most styles of samba, this drum plays on the second and fourth beat of the music. The medium sized surdo, though still substantial in size, are called surdo 2, segunda, resposta or respondor and typically play on the first and third beat of the music. The smallest and highest pitched of the surdo, also still substantial in size, are called the surdo 3, terceira or cortador.

This section adds individual notes or other short phrases in between the larger two surdo sections or sometimes provides rolls - using two beaters to play a series of quick quarter notes, usually leading to the first beat of each four beat phrase. The surdo 3 are played with slightly harder headed beaters as they are used for more precise patterns rather than the steady counting patterns more usually played by the surdo 1 and 2.

For guest workshops, Jon sometimes makes use of sets of nesting surdos. These are smaller in size and have only one drum head meaning that they can be transported sitting inside one another, Russian doll-style. Surdos like these can also sometimes be seen used by schools and protest groups. They make a good sound though aren’t as powerful as their larger, double-headed equivalents.

Future blog posts will cover the other instruments of the samba band so keep checking for updates and please get in contact using the Contact Us or Join Us links if you would like further information about the Woldwise Samba Drummers.