Latin music includes some of the most exciting and lively music on Earth, and presents a range of forms that are both inclusive and challenging to adults and children alike. Rhythmic samba affords a level of accesibility that will have KS1-3 making music enthusiastically and confidently right from the first session.

Why Samba?

Samba courses are ideal for groups wishing to focus on rhythm skills, as well as look at different ways to represent sound visually, and build textures, without the clutter of melody and harmony. It is possible to tailor a scheme for anything from a half term to a year, that addresses all the NC key elements of music, whilst scaffolding the learning process and fostering a love of music and music making. It is also a very 'boy friendly' solution to ensure enthusiasm and engagement.

Learning Samba

Typically, a samba course will begin with a number of sessions given to a mixture of rhythm games, instrument technique and skills tasks, and learning simple several-part sambas. Quickly pupils will be introduced to the idea of a leader or sambatista, who signals changes, breaks and  variations in the music. Pupils learn through a mix of aural recollection, graphic and word based patterns, and later traditional notation.

Gradually, the group are introduced to more challenging rhythms and an increasing number of parts in combination, so that they need to work hard in actively listening to the sound produced, for clues to their own role.

Soon, pupils are encouraged to contribute ideas for rhythms and themes for rhythm writing, as well as methods for recording their ideas, as the leader facilitates both group and individual composition of samba pieces. The class are encouraged to reflect critically on the work produced, having played each as a group, and are scaffolded with the vocabullary shared and modelled by the leader.

As time goes on, pupils are encouraged to take the role both of soloist and leader, actively improvising the music, and controlling the texture by combining the instrument groups, rhythms and break patterns.

Development

Samba offers an unlimited range of rhythmic developments, ensuring that a class can always be challenged and pushed forward in their skills and understanding, whils supporting the least confident or least able members.

What Next?

Following a wider opportunities samba based unit of work, a next steps club is a popular route to continued samba based music-making. However, samba playing transfers very smoothly to junk music making, which can be run as a club, or integrated with other wider opportunities or workshop genres, such as  Steel Pans, Mini-pans, Latin Drumming, Junk Music, or with a course on melody instruments, such as woodwind or mixed brass.

Locate other local schools that have been part of the project.

For resources relating to latin music and samba, visit the Resource Library.

Links to Latin music and samba websites, and web based resources, visit the links directory.