Monobloco's 2007 caixa patterns

ok folks - as promised - here are all of Monobloco's caixa (snare drum) patterns that we played for the 2007 Carnaval season in Rio. Plus hand signs. Here's hoping it'll be helpful to whatever gringo joins up for next year.

MONOBLOCO CAIXA 2007

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1. SAMBA (hand sign: both index fingers pointing up)

Timbal samba (index finger & pinky up)
RlrL endlessly. This is also called the iniciante (beginner) pattern.
This has an optional buzz after the 4, but Freddy took it out this year.

Mocidade samba (interlaced fingers)
RlrL rlRl rlRl rLrl

Mangueira samba (thumb & two fingers down making an claw-like "M")
RRlR lRRl RlRR LZzL
Lefts are almost as strong as rights; hard to notate the accents; swing is very prominent
This was fascinating to me because the Mangueira guys actually don't play this any more, but it has survived in the US in a couple of cities. Fred said it is an older pattern that is meant to be played at about 135bpm or so but doesn't sound as good at Mangueira's modern tempo. Fred clocked them with a metronome at OVER ONE SEVENTY last year when they started, holy smokes! But they slowed down during the parade to about 160.

Salgueiro (trace a big "S" in the air)
RllS RlSl RlSl RllS
... where S means rimshot, ok?
Lefts are quite soft
This was Monobloco's default samba. It's also the one used by most of the US West Coast blocos.

Ilha (little finger up)
RlrR lrRl RlrR LzzL
Some of those R's are rimshots but it is subtle, the whole thing light and close to the rim, not a lot of distinction in tone between the rimshots and the non-rimshots. Notice it's really similar to the Mangueira pattern.

Clap overhead = Repique call coming up soon (stop dead on 1, no cut)

Samba breaks 1, 2, and 3:
For caixa:
SIMPLE CUT, right back into samba.

Samba break: Two fingers up, two fingers down
"One. And Three."
X--- --X- X--- ----

Samba break: Three fingers up, three fingers down
Big triplets "one...and...uh...THREE!" (4 is silent)

Samba break: Four fingers up
This is a three-measure break as follows:

X-X- --X- X--- --2- surdo
X-X- --X- X--- ---- caixa
X-X- --X- X--- ---- tamb

1--- --2- 1--- --2- surdo
--X- X--- --X- X--- caixa
--X- X--- --X- X--- tamb

1--- ---- ---- ---- surdo
X--- ---- ---- ---- caixa
X--X --X- -X-X X-X- tamb

Then straight into samba.


Samb break: Two fingers sideways
CAIXA KEEPS PLAYING SAMBA, DOES NOT STOP!

Samba break: Wave sign
This signals AFOXE within samba.
Starts with cut
Tamb ends on 4, does cut, then:
X--X --X- X-X- ----
Monobloco has the caixa just do a 1-measure cut, then come right back in with samba.


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2. FUNK (circle sign with both hands)

Funk 1:
rLrl Rlrl rZrl Rlrl (in this case only, Z is a left buzz)

Funk 2:
rlrl RlrL rLrl Rlrl (classic American funk)

Funk 3:
Offbeat flams. (one AND two AND three AND four AND)

Funk "3 cut" (3 fingers up w/stick across them)
Rest of bateria keeps playing funk 3, caixas switch to
rLrl Rlrl rLrl Rlrl

Starting a funk: caixas always hit "FOUR!" before the downbeat with big rimshot

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3. CIRANDA (big C with a "1" or "2" with other hand)

Ciranda 1:
ZzlR RlRl RRlR RlRl
Lefts are very soft. Rights should be very prominent

Ciranda 2:
RlrL rlRl rLrl rLrl
Rather maracatu-ish, isn't it.

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4. COCO (both hands make pointed roof)

Coco 1:
RlrR lZzl

Coco 2:
RlrL rlRl three times
RlrL rLrL fourth time

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5. CONGO (C sign, no number)

rlZl RlRl

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6. QUADRILHA (thumb screwing into other hand)

Only one pattern. They usually go into this from a xote.
Zzzl r-l- S--l r-l-


optional dobrado version:
Zzzl r-rl S-rl r-rl

Pretty damn quick.
Remember S means rimshot.

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7. MACULELE
(cupped fingers held together, making lowercase m)

Maculele 1
rlrl Slrl rlSl Slrl

Maculele 2
RlrL Rlrl rLrl Rlrl

Ending: cold on 1.

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8. SAMBA-CHARME (X with fingers)
(Que Beleza)

Samba-Charme 1:
R-R l-R l-R R-L
R-L R-L R-Z zzl

Samba-Charme 2:
R-Z zzl S-l r-Z (first Z is right, second is left)
r-L r-l S-l r-l

The absolutely essential thing about the samba-charme is that it's in
12 and needs to swing like hell. It's basically a shuffle.

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9. AFOXE (wave sign)

Afoxe 1:
RlrL RlZZ
The "ZZ" is a continuous buzz, right hand and then left hand.

Afoxe 2:
same as afoxe 1 for caixa. (other instruments change)

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10. XOTE (T sign)
(Morena Tropicana, Festa do Interior)

Xote 1
RlSl RZlR
...but start it on the AND (the rimshot, S)

Xote 2
Zzzl r-l- S--l r-l- (tempo goes very fast)

Freddy also showed me a version that was square on one side:
Zzzl r-l- S-l- r-l-

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11. MARCHA
(Taj Mahal / Filho Maravilha / Pais Tropical)

Marcha 1

RrBr (B = both hands do simultaneous rimshot) forever, about 70 bpm


& halfway through chorus, do with surdos:
XXX- -XXX X

Transition into "Filho Maravilha", surdo & caixa do:
-XXX XXXX X

Marcha 2:
"there is no marcha 2 any more" - except I think the surdos can do something different. Caixas keep going on marcha 1? but on my video I think Fred says dois is igual to tres.

Marcha 3
levada 2 - goes doubletime, about 140bpm
RlrL rlRl rLrl RlrL
This one was changed at one of the last rehearsals; can't remember the new version now!


PLUS... a hell of a lot of breaks and convencoes that I have not written out yet. But the above 24 patterns are the guts of it and will set you in good stead if you want to try to play with Monobloco someday.