Bossa Nova Basics

BOSSA NOVA BASICS

Explore the Cool Sounds of Brazilian Fingerstyle By Adam Levy

T

he music that came to be called bossa

could call bossa nova a clean, washed sam-

nova (literally, “the new thing”) took shape

This isn’t to say that bossa nova is merely

ba, without loss of the momentum.” whitewashed samba, however. Bossa nova

in Brazil in the mid 1950s. Bossa nova

has its own deep, earthy pulse, and while it’s mellower than its percussion-laden cousin,

grew out of the country’s powerful samba tradition,

it is equally persuasive.

crossbreeding samba’s heavy, hypnotic groove with

heart of bossa nova. For a taste of prime

the breezy, urbane mood of American cool jazz.

classic record by American jazz saxophonist

The nylon-string acoustic guitar is at the bossa playing, listen to Getz/Gilberto, the Stan Getz and Brazilian guitarist/vocalist João Gilberto. Other albums—for example, As the late composer and bossa nova

and the music is very hot and wonderful.

Gilberto’s 1959 disc, Chega de Saudade—

patriarch Antonio Carlos Jobim explained

But bossa nova is cool and contained. It

may have been more purely Brazilian, but

in the liner notes to Verve Jazz Masters

tells the story, trying to be simple and se-

Getz/Gilberto crystallized the bossa nova

13—Antonio Carlos Jobim: “The authentic

rious and lyrical. João [Gilberto] and I felt

craze in North America. It swept the 1964

Negro samba in Brazil is very primitive.

that Brazilian music had been too much

Grammy awards, winning best album, best

They use maybe ten percussion instru-

of a storm on the sea, and we wanted to

jazz performance, best engineering, and

ments and four or five singers. They shout

calm it down for the recording studio. You

best song for “The Girl from Ipanema.”

J O B I M PH OTO : C H U C K S T E WA RT

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RIDING THE WAVE

BOSSA NOVA BASICS

If you want to ride the bossa nova tide into deeper waters, you’ll find The Brazilian Guitar

Book (by Nelson Faria) and The Brazilian Sound ( by Chris McGowan and Ricardo Pessanha) particularly helpful. Faria’s book is a thorough treatise on the ins and outs of traditional and contemporary Brazilian guitar styles. The Brazilian Sound is not an instructional book per se, but it offers a top-down look at Brazil’s rich musical heritage. Of course, as with any style of music, you can’t learn the subtleties of bossa nova from a book or magazine. To get the feel and rhythms right, you must go to the source—the recordings of the masters. Just about anything from the ’60s featuring João Gilberto or Luis Bonfá will do.

Throughout the record, Gilberto’s seductive guitar provides both primary rhythms and undulating counter-rhythms.

You should also search out recordings by the remarkable Baden Powell and by Sérgio Mendes & Brasil ’66 (with guitarist Oscar Castro-Neves). Bola Sete and Laurindo Almeida also made some fine bossa nova recordings during this period.

—AL

Getting Started Let’s take our first step into the world of bossa nova guitar by exploring some of Gilberto’s comping patterns. Ex. 1 is the fundamental bossa rhythm Gilberto used for the intro of “The Girl from Ipanema.” (If “The Girl from Ipanema” conjures images of elevator music or a torpid wedding band, you’ve probably never heard Gilberto’s

b

Ex. 1

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Ex. 2

b b D b 9 D b m9 b b öö öö b öö b öö b b b ö ö ö bö =========== & ö ö ö ö

> > b b 2 öö öö öö öö .. ======== & b b b 4 { ö ö ö ö . ={ ö ö D 6/9

= 60-76

D maj9 D 6/9

3

3 4 1 2

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T A B

Ex. 3

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original sensual and swinging version.) There are several key points to consider. First is bossa’s fingerstyle technique: Pluck the chords (the up-stemmed notes) with your index, middle, and ring fingers, and attack the down-stemmed bass notes with your thumb. Next, notice the

4 3 3 4

4 3 3

..

4 3 3

3 1 1 2

4 5 3 4

T A B

4

b

4 3 1 2

4 3 3 4

4 3 1 2

4 4 3 4

4 4 2 4

b

D 6/9

E 9

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4 3 3

4 3 3

4

4 3 3 4

4 3 3

4 3 3

4

b

E m9

4 3 3

6 6 5

4

6 6 5

6 6 5

6

6 6 5 6

6 6 5

6 6 5

6

6 6 5

Anticipating Ghosts

6

b

D9

6 6 4

D 6/9

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6 6 4 6

6 6 4

6 6 4 6

5 5 4 5

5 5 4

5 5 4 5

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4 3 3 4

4 3 3

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4 3 3 4

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accents— they needn’t be excessively strong, but you want a dynamic difference between the first, unaccented eighth-note and the following two chordal attacks. By contrast, attack the bass notes evenly, and let them ring for their full value. Did you notice Ex. 1’s 2/4 time signature? In pop- and jazz-oriented fake books, you may find bossa nova standards such as “The Girl from Ipanema” and “Desafinado” rendered in 4/4, but Brazilians write—and, more importantly, feel—this music in 2/4. You can tap into the 2/4 vibe by gently swaying your body, shifting your weight from left foot to right as you count “One, two, one, two.” If you aren’t moving, you aren’t grooving. Also, note that the Db6/9 chord is voiced with the 5 (Ab) in the bass. While not the rule, in bossa guitar it’s common to have the 5 in the bass on the sixth string. Here’s a tip: When playing a major 9th, major 6/9th, dominant 9th, or minor 9th chord whose root would occur on the fifth string, leave the root out of the voicing and instead fret the 5 on the sixth string. Play Ex. 2, and notice how the 5-in-the-bass voicing gives chords a more open sound. The separation between the upper part of the chords and their respective bass notes adds to the musical illusion that the bass and treble parts are played by different players. (When you’re playing with a bassist, he or she will cover the roots.)

Ex. 3 shows how Gilberto uses a simple twomeasure rhythmic pattern to work his way though the chord progression in “The Girl from Ipanema.” The last sixteenth-note of measures 2, 4, and 6 anticipate the next chord—Eb9,

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BOSSA NOVA BASICS Ebm9, and Db6/9, respectively. Play this anticipation very lightly. In fact, many bossa nova guitarists play these anticipated chords as pitchless ghosts, using the chording hand to mute the strings briefly by lifting the fingers ever-soslightly off the strings. Again, pay attention to the accents, and strive to keep the bass notes smooth and even. Resist the temptation to play syncopated bass lines or couple the bass line to all the chords. To nail the bossa style, you’ve got to keep a steady quarter-note pulse on the bottom.

The up-side/down-side concept is not a hard-and-fast rule, but you’ll hear it in many bossa nova songs. In any case, the two-bar patterns are rarely repeated verbatim for very long. Instead, rhythmic accents shift and change to compliment a song’s melody and mood, or—as in the many collaborations between bossa nova and jazz musicians—to compliment the soloist. Yet bossa guitarists will sometimes repeat a one-measure rhythm to keep the music static for a while. Ex. 1 is the kind of a one-measure phrase you can loop this way. To hear the difference between one- and two-measure patterns, first play Ex. 3 as written, then repeat the chords, but play them using Ex. 1’s one-measure rhythm.

have this passage up to speed, make up your own combinations, and try them out with this tune, other bossa classics, or with your bossa nova songs. g

Play It Again, João Ex. 6 brings us back to “The Girl from Ipanema.” But this time, instead of copying Gilberto’s rhythms, we’ll play a composite of several patterns we’ve tried thus far. Once you

Two Sides to Every Story Jobim also played guitar, but his style was a little different from Gilberto’s. Ex. 4 is a sample of Jobim’s comping from the introduction to “Vivo Sonhando” (from his album, The Composer of Desafinado Plays). This example illustrates an important bossa nova concept: Each two-bar rhythm pattern usually has a “down” side and an “up” side. The down side relies on eighth-notes, which are not considered syncopations in bossa nova. By contrast, off-beat sixteenths—or upbeats—are felt as syncopations. Another example of this two-bar up/down feel can be heard in Gilberto’s comping on “Doralice,” again from Getz/Gilberto. The song was recorded at a brighter tempo than typical bossa novas, so play the lively Ex. 5 accordingly. This four-bar progression also introduces the concept of moving voices within a chord. For example, in the opening measure, Dmaj7 ’s top note (C#) drops down to B, changing the chord to a D6. For the E13 chord, B returns to C#, and then chromatically works its way down to B again (via E7b13 and A9). This kind of innervoice motion adds harmonic sophistication to an otherwise simple progression. Note that 7 shifting to 6 is a characteristic bossa move, as is 6-7, 6-5, or 5-6. The motion can be direct or chromatic (7-b7-6).

Ex. 4

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1

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2 3 3

2

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2

= 72-90

Dmaj7 D6

2 3 3

2 2 0

2

Ex. 5

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2

b

E13

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7 6 GUITAR PLAYER NOVEMBER 1999

2 2 0

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2

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A7 9 Dmaj7

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2 2 0

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2 2

0 0 2 2 0

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2 2

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2 2

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PH OTO : C O R B I S / B E T M A N N - U P I

BOSSA NOVA BASICS

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Ex. 6

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T A B

D 6/9

4 3 3

4 3 3

4

4 4 3 3 3 3

4 3 3

4

4 3 3 4

4 3 3 4

4 3 3

6 6 5

6 6 5

6 6 5

6

6 6 5 6

6

6 6 5

6 6 6 6 5 5 6

6 6 4

Db 6/9 > > > > > b b öö öö öö öö öö n öö öö öö öö .. ( b)öö öö öö öö öö öö b öö öö öö .. b . ==================== & b b öö ö ö öö ö # ö ö ö ö . ( n ) ö ö ö ö ö ö n ö ö ö = nö ö ö ö ö ( b) ö D9

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T A B

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6 6 6 6 6 6 4 4 4 6

6 6 4 6

6 6 4

5 5 4 5

5 5 4

5 5 5 5 4 4 5

4 3 3 4

4 3 3

4 3 3 4

4 3 3

4 3 3 4

4 3 3 4