How to Play Pundeiro in Brazilian Capoeira Martial Arts

Video Transcript

"GRADUADO ADVOGADO: Hi, my name is Advogado on behalf of Expert Village. We're going to talk about how to play the pundeiro or the tambourine in a capoeira roda or circle. The rhythm I'm going to go over today--there are several different rhythms for the pundeiro: samba de roda, Angola. There are different rhythms depending on what rhythm the beating bow is playing. The rhythm I'm going to talk about today is what usually you'll hear in a samba [SOUNDS LIKE] de breque, the Angola roda, or in a [indiscernible] roda. Okay and it's a basic rhythm. You want to start with your thumb. I like to play with my thumb, my fingers in the palm of my hand. There are three different sounds that you're going to have the pundeiro make. Okay, so you start with your basic step. You're just going to hold--I'm right-handed, I like to hold the pundeiro with my left hand and then I'm going to hit with my right thumb and my right palm. So the rhythm on this is thumb, thumb-thumb, palm in the middle. Okay so the thumb on the outer edge, the palm in the middle of the pundeiro. So it's thumb, thumb-thumb, palm, thumb, thumb-thumb, palm, palm. You'll notice that it's a repetitive rhythm. It just goes in a beat of, in this case, four because we're just doing the basic pundeiro rhythm for now. Okay, once you get this down and you're able to do thumb, thumb-thumb, palm, thumb, thumb-thumb, palm, then what you're going to do is you're going to take your left arm and you're going to twist it at the elbow in between the first and second thumb on the pundeiro. Okay? So in that case, this is the more--kind of a normal rhythm. Once you get the basic down, the four beat, you're going to step it up a fifth beat. Okay? So all you're going to do is you're going to take the pundeiro and you're going to do a quick twist and back where it came from. Okay? And that makes the pundeiro--it kind of gives it a little rattle and it shakes -okay - which puts in that fifth beat, okay? So in that case, I'll slow it way down so you can kind of see what I'm talking about. You would do thumb, shake with the left, thumb-thumb, palm, shake--I'm sorry, excuse me, thumb, shake, thumb-thumb, palm. Okay? And again, it's repetitive rhythm but make sure to start with the basic rhythm. I think it's a lot easier. When I started training with capoeira, that's how I learned it. Once I had that down for a couple of months and I was real comfortable with that, adding the fifth, the shake movement, was not very difficult, so you can start that way and that's the easiest way to do it."