Junkyard Samba

Junkyard samba is Brazilian-style samba drumming played on recycled objects instead of traditional drums. Bins, buckets, pans, bottles and tubes take the place of the bass drums, snares and bells of a samba band. The group plays interlocking rhythms, follows a leader's signals and builds one big, bouncy carnival groove that's very hard to stand still to.

Samba is a style of music and dance from Brazil, with deep Afro-Brazilian roots. It's the sound of carnival in Rio de Janeiro, where huge samba schools parade through the streets with dancers, floats and drummers. The drum section is called the bateria, and a good one hits like a freight train in perfect time. Street samba bands have since spread all over the world, and plenty of them play on whatever they can find.

The surdo is the big bass drum and the heartbeat of the band. The caixa is a snare drum that keeps up a busy, driving pattern. The repinique is a high, cutting drum the leader often uses to call the band in. The tamborim is a small hand-held drum played with a stick, and the agogô is a set of bells that rings out over the top.

In junkyard samba, a big bin or barrel stands in for the surdo, a bucket takes on the caixa and bottles or pan lids do the bells. Same groove, much smaller carbon footprint.

Your Activity Leader warms everyone up with clapping and call and response, where you copy a rhythm straight back. Then the group splits into sections and each one learns its own part. Samba bands follow a leader, who uses hand signals and a whistle to start, stop and switch things up. You'll also learn breaks, short set patterns the whole band plays together before dropping back into the groove. Get the break right and you'll feel like a rock star.

Ideal. Every part is taught by ear, so there's no music to read and no fancy technique to master first. If you can count to four and nod your head, you can play in a samba band. It's teamwork in its loudest form, because each part only makes sense next to the others. Performing at the end is optional. Grinning from ear to ear is not.

You might also like Junkyard Percussion, Capoeira and STOMP Body Percussion.

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