Welcome to our first blog post of 2025. We ended 2024 by looking more closely at the large surdo drums that are, for many people, the most memorable part of a bateria (a samba drumming band). We will now continue by considering the caixa.
The caixa found its way into the bateria from the Portuguese military bands back when the Portuguese were still occupying Brazil. It is a type of snare drum but, whereas the drum kit snare drums with which most people will be more familiar have a row of thin metal wires on the downward facing skin, caixa have 2 or 4 thicker wires on the upward facing skin. Caixa are played with the same sorts of wooden sticks as would be used on a drum kit snare drum to produce similar short, sharp sounds.
Most of the caixa players in the Worldwise Samba Drummers use waist straps to hold their instruments in place though shoulder straps are often used elsewhere. Some players don’t use any strap at all and instead hold the instrument on their shoulder though this can be an awkward position for people who aren’t used to it and it makes things very loud (potentially dangerously so) in one ear.
Caixa typically play a constant, fast stream of 16th notes using hand-to-hand playing (i.e. right-left-right-left for right-handed players, left-right-left-right for left-handed players). Some of the notes played will be accents meaning they are louder whilst others will be ghost notes meaning they are quieter. The caixa therefore provide constant energy to the music with the ongoing stream of notes whilst also adding a rhythm of their own with the accents. They are often the rhythmic backbone of the music, the section with which other sections of the bateria are building upon musically.
Some of the patterns used in the Worldwise Samba Drummers sets are shown in these diagrams. For each one, hand-to-hand playing is used with the notes equally spaced apart in time. Most of the notes are quieter ghost notes, but the ones with the accent marks > are to be played more loudly. Note that for the first three patterns, the accents will always end up in the same hand, whichever hand was used to start the pattern, whereas for the final four patterns, both hands will end up playing accents.
Being able to play these patterns would get you through most Worldwise Samba Drummers pieces and many pieces by other samba bands too. Other patterns might involve missing some of the 16th notes, or playing short drum rolls where the stick is allowed to bounce several times in rapid succession against the drum skin to produce a sustained rattle, or using different handings as opposed to the hand-to-hand playing in the examples given here. The caixa, as with the rest of the bateria, will also have different rhythms to play for the introductions and breaks to pieces.
In the samba schools of Brazil, it is the other sections of the band that are more likely to be lauded for their technical ability and showmanship. However, when new members join the Worldwise Samba Drummers, we caution against them trying the caixa unless they have previous drumming experience. Although the caixa players have the fewest patterns to learn, the hand-to-hand playing can be a steep learning curve for someone new to drumming. As such, we hold our caixa players in high regard for the skill that they bring to the band.
Please get in contact using the Contact Us or Join Us links if you would like further information about the Woldwise Samba Drummers.
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