How to get into samba swing on caixa? Try this

Demonstration and exercises to get into playing samba swing on caixa. Applied to 'reto'/'hand-to-hand" and the Salgueiro/Unidos da Tijuca caixa em cima pattern.

Remember the most important thing is to listen to lots of samba! Really listen to it and play along, trying to match each stroke.

There are lots of ways of vocalising the samba swing to help...

"TU-ma-ra-CA-TU-ma-ra-CA-TU"
"DA-ge-ch-GA-DA-ge-ch-GA-DA"
"DUM-zi-ri-GUI-DUM-zi-ri-GUI-DUM"
"BOO-ka-la-KA-BOO-ka-la-KA-BOO"

Samba swing is not the same as North-Eastern-Brazilian triplet swing; it's lighter and less triplet-y with less of a gap between the beat and the 'e' and the main lilt is the gap between the 'a' and the next beat.

You might want to visualise the four notes (semiquavers/16ths) per beat in swing. Note that the beat is the only stroke that's the same in straight and swung...

Straight: | . . | | . . | |
Swung: | . . | | . . | |