Brazilian Rhythms for Guitar

Book excerpt: Educator and performer Carlos Arana captures Brazil's rich musical heritage with impeccable stylistic, historic, and technical analyses. The first section of this book covers the fundamental rhythmic and harmonic characteristics of samba, bossa nova, and choro styles followed by practical applications on the guitar. The practical applications break each of the styles down to their historic and regional roots combined with examples that capture the essence of each style. The next section takes you to the northeast of Brazil with the rhythm figures of baio, toada, xote, afox, frevo, Marcha, and Marcha Rancho. Over 60 examples, written in standard notation and tablature, are demonstrated on the included CD.