Brazilian Drum- Surdo
What is a surdo?
A surdo is essentially the Brazilian version of an American Bass drum!
In samba and samba reggae, they function as the bass drums and are often played in a call and response style with each other. They come in different sizes-anywhere from 26 inch diameter to as small as 14 inch diameter depending on the musical requirements! In FogoAzul NYC, our surdo 1 is 20 inches and our surdo 2 is 18 inches in diameter. We use slightly smaller size surdos than in Bahia because here in NYC we don’t have cars to transport our drums. We have to take them on the subway, or strap them to our backs and ride a bicycle, and sometimes skateboard with them!
Typically, our surdos are tuned a fifth apart. What exactly does that mean? Well, in music from Western culture, a fifth is the interval from the first to the last of five consecutive notes in a scale. There is definitely a more indepth definition, but for purposes of this article, let’s just call our tuning of the surdos a fifth! Our surdo 1 should be tuned to a D, and our surdo 2 to an A, but it doesn’t always work out this way!
Samba reggae is a fun genre of music with its roots in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil. Check out our post about the history of Samba Reggae. One remarkable bonus of being a surdo player is your chance to lift the drum high over your head and still keep the beat!
Meet some of our current and past Fogo Azul NYC Surdo players!
Surdo players are the fun ones!
Now that you’ve learned what a surdo is, why don’t you give it a try? We are always looking for new drummers in Fogo Azul NYC, and love when people want to join Fogo Azul! Go to the joining form to learn drumming with Fogo Azul NYC.