"Capoeira music is music"... that's what a Mestre said to us all, as we listened attentively to every word that came out of his mouth, and every stroke of the berimbau during a batizado in Tokyo, Japan. That simple statement from Mestre Acordeon, the world reknowned Capoeira master, changed the way I saw Capoeira music forever.
Generally, you get used to hearing people belowing out Capoeira in their loudest voice and highest octave possible, followed in suit by students, bless their hearts, who sound like a wave of war trumpets sounding a charge.
After Mestre Acordeon reminded us all that Capoeira music is first music I began to understand things a bit differently. Sure they say that not all Capoeiristas learn music, and some of them won't touch an instrument (not to mention there are far fewer who get great at music), but great sounding music is just logical. As a man who spent a third of my life in band, and most of my life singing and dancing, I truly have no excuses. The music should be great at all times.
The music coming from the roda, as one Capoeira Professor (Linguica) said, "Should give people goosebumps," and if that is not the case, we should continue to strive to improve. In my humble opinion, there are very few Capoeira music albums that I would listen to just for the music, and Mestre Acordeon would be one of those that I would listen to of course. His albums are truly great music, many songs which could be played along side regular hits on a worldbeat radio station. For the most part though, Capoeira albums that have great musical quality seem to be made and produced by actual singers, who just decided to record a few Capoeira, Dance Afro, Samba or Maculele songs. Which is fine.
However, I think that in every school and in every roda we should strive to do better with our music abilities. (Believe me I am working harder and harder every day). Berimbaus should be tuned, instruments should be tuned, voices should be prepared and singing ranges should be identified. If no one in the academia has experience in or an ear for music, ask a professional musician or a voice trainer to stop by to help your group out. Your students will love it and the group will benefit all around.
Here in the video below, I am singing the chorus to a few of my favorite Capoeira songs in the key of D with the berimbau tuned to the key of D. I used to sing in a much higher octave and my voice cracked all the time or I couldn't hit some notes at all, and my Mestre, Sucuri, told me, "Your natural voice is great, stop trying to immitate the Mestre's your hear on CDs and DVDs and just sing with your voice." This was the result.
Thank you for reading and thank you Mestre Acordeon and Mestre Sucuri for the words of widsom. I know I am not great yet, but you both set my on a path to enrich my Capoeira journey even the more.
Benjamin "Foguete"
No comments:
Post a Comment