Percussion
 
       
 

''Um Pouquinho de Brasil' has a fairly large collection of Brazilian percussion instruments.

  
 
 
  Ganzá - tubular shaker. The ganzá is used in many styles of Brazilian music back and forth, placing the accent on the off-beat. It is played by holding the instrument in a horizontal position and shaken back and forth.  
    Alvina playing the ganzá  
     
 

Pandeiro - tambourine. This instrument is also used in many styles of Brazilian music, but for each style there is a different performance technique. For sambas and many other urban styles it is played in the four-stroke technique; in the folia de reis and other folk traditions the thumb is rubbed around the rim of the instrument to produce a tremelo. There are also traditions in which the instrument is lightly tapped with the tips of the fingers and shaken between the second and third tap to produce a short tremelo.

  
    Daniel playing the pandeiro  
     
  Triangle - this instrument is used in the Northeastern forró styles, where it is played by dampening the sound for the main beat, and then left to ring for the off-beat.    
     
  Caixa - snare drum. This instrument is used for several pieces. In the baião it is commonly played in a 3+3+2 rhythm. n marcha-ranchos, such as 'A Banda', it keeps the marcha-rancho rhythm.  
     
 

Atabaque or Timbal - bass drum. This instrument is the heart of the ensemble, and it is therefore vital that the person playing it be capable of sustaining the beat with great precision. For many pieces it is played on each beat, placing the accent on the off-beat. In other pieces, particularly in baiões, it plays a 3+3+2 or 3+5 rhythm.

  
    Cristiane playing the atabaque  
     
 
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