Partido Alto example by Goran Rista

rhumbagirl

Senior Member
I didn't see any examples on Drummerworld for this Brazilian style that I'm working on, so I thought I'd share one I found on YouTube by Goran Rista. I like the 16ths on the HH with the right hand. This is what I mean by warming up the hands playing Bossa Nova, but I guess now I'm including Partido Alto, Baiao and Samba :)


This groove is explained in Maria Martinez's "Brazilian Coordination for Drumset".
 
Partidito Alto is a fun little groove. Its one of the grooves featured in Groove Essentials 2.0. By no means am I a master or even a skilled player of the genre, but I did record a few play alongs from that book.


 
The first time I heard Partido Alto was on an Airto Moreira record in 1979, and I also heard them play it live at the time.
I really like it, and I also played it live myself a few times with a band during the 90s.

This version from 1979 is from an LP called "Touching You ... Touching Me" that I had on cassette, and that never came out on CD, I think.


There's another version from 1989, that's much faster

 
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Partidito Alto is a fun little groove. Its one of the grooves featured in Groove Essentials 2.0. By no means am I a master or even a skilled player of the genre, but I did record a few play alongs from that book.


Nice! The 'Groove 80 Slow' seems still too fast for a constant 16th note pattern on the HH. A real workout there LOL. The 'Groove 80 Fast' is definitely too fast IMHO. Here's a version from Berklee professor Henrique De Almeida (note its a reverse version**):


**Reverse version as in the two bars of the pattern are swapped (it's taught in a two-bar cut-time notation, with the original pattern having the snare on the '&' of 1 of the first bar, on the 'e' of 1 for the second bar). With no music degree here LOL, I'm thinking cut-time has two quarter notes per bar. If I'm wrong, maybe someone can give us the correct description I'm trying to say.

EDIT: Correction from Alain Rieder (thanks):
"the original pattern having the snare on quarter note 2 of the first bar, and on the '&' of 1 for the second bar"

Here's the Partido Alto pattern, normal and reversed:

BRJJGBC.jpg


Yet a faster version by Don Gozzard (also reversed version):


Note he starts off with HH foot on the first four quarter notes, then switches to upbeat HH foot, so it's somewhat hard to sense where '1' is initially.
 
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The first time I heard Partido Alto was on an Airto Moreira record in 1979, and I also heard them play it live at the time.
I really like it, and I also played it live myself a few times with a band during the 90s.

This version from 1979 is from an LP called "Touching You ... Touching Me" that I had on cassette, and that never came out on CD, I think.


There's another version from 1989, that's much faster


Nice! I like the second one just because it's a better warm up for me. Interesting the second one is my 'normal' version noted above in my previous post, yet I thought Don Gozzard says in his video Airto Moreira plays the reverse version. Maybe we're just backwards. LOL
 
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Cut-time has four quarter notes per bar. Cut time is also called 2/2, one half note per beat, so also two quarter notes per beat.
Thanks Alain! So, if I change my time signature from '2/4' to 'C' (or '2/2') then the rest of the notation makes sense. And of course, change:
"...the snare on the '&' of 1 of the first bar, on the 'e' of 1 for the second bar..."
to:
"...the snare on quarter note '2' of the first bar, on the '&' of 1 for the second bar..."
 
Change 2/4 to 2/2
C stands for common time and is the same as 4/4.
Cut time is C with a slash (or a vertical bar as Sibelius writes it). It is the same as 2/2

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You know, I was wondering why I was getting through all my bossa nova charts twice as fast as the rest of the band. LOL Seriously, note taken. Thanks ~
 
This may be a little off topic, but I was listening to Wipeout in the surf drumming thread, and the accent pattern reminded me of the partido alto accent pattern, possibly shifted, though I should get another set of ears.


I think it is also interesting that Samba Reggae in the Caribbean, has a similar accent pattern starting at yet another position in the measure. I suspect it is due to the fact that Cuban's like to put the bass on the last beat of the measure rather than the first. Note that it is more similar to the partido alto tamborim pattern that has double strokes on the high pitched part.

 
This may be a little off topic, but I was listening to Wipeout in the surf drumming thread, and the accent pattern reminded me of the partido alto accent pattern, possibly shifted, though I should get another set of ears.


I think it is also interesting that Samba Reggae in the Caribbean, has a similar accent pattern starting at yet another position in the measure. I suspect it is due to the fact that Cuban's like to put the bass on the last beat of the measure rather than the first. Note that it is more similar to the partido alto tamborim pattern that has double strokes on the high pitched part.

You lost me. I don't see any Partido Alto in that. Of course, I'm just now getting into the Brazilian thing here. LOL
 
Partido Alto is both a musical style (that doesn't employ a drum set), and a rhythm. A few things about the rhythm....

1. I'm going to respectfully take issue with the terms "normal" and "reversed". Both versions are "normal", in the same way that 3-2 clave is not "normal", while 2-3 is "reversed". It's just two different ways of playing it. And if there were a "normal" it would most certainly be the one labelled above as "reversed". This is the one played most often by Brazilian musicians. I'd say as much as eight or nine times out of ten. The version that starts on the downbeat is more often played by non-Brazilian jazz musicians (read: gringos). However, even the version that starts on the upbeat always starts with one bar of rhythm on the downbeat before launching into the upbeat part. This is called an "entrada", meaning entrance. I've got a post all about it here.

2. While the tune "Partido Alto" is quite famous, it's not actually all that common to hear it played this way where the rhythm is played very literally and split between the bass drum and snare drum. More often this is a comping rhythm that one would play on the rim, snare, hi-hat, ride or any combination thereof, with a samba ostinato in the feet like Don Gozzard does in the Vic Firth video above. It would also be played by the guitarist and/or pianist. I've got some transcriptions over on the blog that you can check out.

3. Partido Alto, the rhythm, is more of a feel than a strict rhythm. Whereas in Cuban music the clave player would start playing and NEVER improvise under any circumstances, Partido Alto is much freer. Another term which means almost the same thing as Partido Alto is Telecoteco. It's another comping rhythm which essentially has Partido Alto built into it. It follows the same up and down pattern. You can read more about that here. I've got another post coming up soon about how to improvise with Partido Alto/Telecoteco.

That Maria Martinez book is OK, but there are far better ones out there in my humble opinion:
Inside the Brazilian Rhythm Section by Nelson Faria and Cliff Korman
A Bateria Brasileira no Século XXI (Brazilian Drums in the 21st Century) by Nenê (English version available)
Novos Caminos da Bateria Brasil (New Ways of Brazilian Drumming) by Sergio Gomes (English version available)
Essence of Brazilian Percussion and Drum Set by Ed Uribe
Brazilian Rhythms for Drum Set by Bob Weiner and Duduka da Fonseca
O Batuque é Um Privilégio by Oscar Bolao (This book is about Brazilian percussion, not drum set, but it is very well done and full of information. Not sure there's an English version though).
There's an Airto book that I picked up used for a few bucks, the name of which escapes me. I'm pretty sure it's out of print, but I'll see if I can dig it out.

Todd Bishop, over Cruise Ship Drummer! (and seen above), has a lot of great stuff over on his blog, and has a book on samba and Bossa Nova out as well.

I've got lots on my blog (with more coming as we rot in lockdown), and am very happy to share PDFs and answer questions and such.
 
Partido Alto is both a musical style (that doesn't employ a drum set), and a rhythm. A few things about the rhythm....

1. I'm going to respectfully take issue with the terms "normal" and "reversed". Both versions are "normal", in the same way that 3-2 clave is not "normal", while 2-3 is "reversed". It's just two different ways of playing it. And if there were a "normal" it would most certainly be the one labelled above as "reversed". This is the one played most often by Brazilian musicians. I'd say as much as eight or nine times out of ten. The version that starts on the downbeat is more often played by non-Brazilian jazz musicians (read: gringos). However, even the version that starts on the upbeat always starts with one bar of rhythm on the downbeat before launching into the upbeat part. This is called an "entrada", meaning entrance. I've got a post all about it here.

2. While the tune "Partido Alto" is quite famous, it's not actually all that common to hear it played this way where the rhythm is played very literally and split between the bass drum and snare drum. More often this is a comping rhythm that one would play on the rim, snare, hi-hat, ride or any combination thereof, with a samba ostinato in the feet like Don Gozzard does in the Vic Firth video above. It would also be played by the guitarist and/or pianist. I've got some transcriptions over on the blog that you can check out.

3. Partido Alto, the rhythm, is more of a feel than a strict rhythm. Whereas in Cuban music the clave player would start playing and NEVER improvise under any circumstances, Partido Alto is much freer. Another term which means almost the same thing as Partido Alto is Telecoteco. It's another comping rhythm which essentially has Partido Alto built into it. It follows the same up and down pattern. You can read more about that here. I've got another post coming up soon about how to improvise with Partido Alto/Telecoteco.

That Maria Martinez book is OK, but there are far better ones out there in my humble opinion:
Inside the Brazilian Rhythm Section by Nelson Faria and Cliff Korman
A Bateria Brasileira no Século XXI (Brazilian Drums in the 21st Century) by Nenê (English version available)
Novos Caminos da Bateria Brasil (New Ways of Brazilian Drumming) by Sergio Gomes (English version available)
Essence of Brazilian Percussion and Drum Set by Ed Uribe
Brazilian Rhythms for Drum Set by Bob Weiner and Duduka da Fonseca
O Batuque é Um Privilégio by Oscar Bolao (This book is about Brazilian percussion, not drum set, but it is very well done and full of information. Not sure there's an English version though).
There's an Airto book that I picked up used for a few bucks, the name of which escapes me. I'm pretty sure it's out of print, but I'll see if I can dig it out.

Todd Bishop, over Cruise Ship Drummer! (and seen above), has a lot of great stuff over on his blog, and has a book on samba and Bossa Nova out as well.

I've got lots on my blog (with more coming as we rot in lockdown), and am very happy to share PDFs and answer questions and such.

Thanks for the clarification, Adam! I'm still recovering from COVID-19 but will check this stuff out as soon as I get back going again. Later!!
 
Thanks a lot for the explanations! Since you offered that we can ask some more questions, I'd like to ask about some things that I've read or heard in different places and probably also mix up. I've heard both answers to those question, so it'd be nice to clarify this. There are probably no definitive answers but maybe some tendencies:
1. Is the Bossa Clave a "Clave" or is another term better? Some say "Clave" is only for Afro-Cuban music in 6-8 or 2-2 and that Brazilian music is somewhat different. Does that relate to the less rigid playing of the clave you mentioned?
2. Regarding what's "normal" in Cuban music: Would you say that the 3-2 Son or Rhumba Clave is more common or also 2-3? It seems like a lot of "gringos" play 2-3 in that type of music.

Getting back to Partido Alto. I guess this rhythm here also relates to the 2-3 Telecoteco:
Code:
1e+a2e+a 1e+a2e+a
x x  x x    x x
Maybe some of you will also like it for playing along to.
 
1. There are two schools of thought on this, neither of which is necessarily wrong. Clave, as you probably know, is a very vague word. In Cuban music it has a very specific meaning, but clave can also refer to any underlying rhythmic feel. For example, if you're playing in 7/8 and grouping it as 2-2-3 you could say that that |x·x·x··|x·x·x··| rhythm is the "clave" of that groove. You don't HAVE to play it the whole time, but the feeling of it is there. Personally though, I don't like to think of the Bossa Nova pattern - this one |x··x ··x·|··x· ·x··| - as a "clave". It's just a rhythm that is part of the music, just as the jazz ride cymbal pattern is not a "clave".

2. There is no "normal" in terms of Cuban clave. All four of the most common claves (2-3 son, 2-3 rhumba, 3-2 son, 3-2 rhumba) are equally normal. The clave directly correlates to the rhythm of the melodic lines, especially the 2-3/3-2 part of it. For example, take a classic tune with a very strong melody, like "Dile a Catalina" (melody starts at about 0:50 in the video below) and listen to how the clave lines up with the melody. The shape of the melodic line follows the clave EXACTLY. Try to sing that melody and clap 2-3 clave. Even if you're not used to singing and playing at the same time it probably won't be that difficult because everything lines up. But then try to sing the melody with 3-2 clave. It just doesn't work. It's like rhythmic dissonance. In terms of Son vs. Rhumba, there is a little bit more wiggle room here. You'll even occasionally hear Son and Rhumba in the same tune.

In regards to your last question about the Tom & Elis tune....
1. Telecoteco, Partido Alto, etc. don't have 3-2 or 2-3 sides like Cuban clave does. They're either on the beat or off the beat (usually off)
2. The pattern you wrote down is a common Bossa Nova pattern. While Samba and Bossa Nova are very closely related, this rhythm is pretty specific to Bossa Nova, and doesn't really have two sides like Clave or Telecoteco does. You're right that it's pretty close to the "up" side of Telecoteco, but I don't think I've ever heard that pattern played like this: |···x ·x··|x·x· ·x·x|
 
So Partido Alto is the style, telecoteco is the part?

Eeeeeeeh.....kinda'. You could call this music Partido Alto, but most people don't. What you have here is usually called Pagode, or Samba de Raiz. Partido Alto is one of the many rhythms played in there. It's often played by the nylon skin pandeiro in one part of the song, and then straight 16th note swing in the other part of the song, the same way we drummers go between the hihat and the ride. Telecoteco is more likely to be heard by the tamborim (not tambourine), which is a small little handheld drum.
 
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