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Instruments

 


Berimbau
Parts: verga, arame, cabaça, caxixi, vareta, dobrão. Verga is the long wood stick made into a bow. Arame is the wire which builds pressure on the bow, as a string, its vibration produces the instrument's sounds. The Cabaça is the gourd that functions as an acoustic box. The caxixi is a rattle. The vareta is the stick used by striking it against the arame to trigger the berimbau's sounds. And the dobrão works as a pick that presses against the arame in various ways to modify the sound produced.
The berimbau leads the music of Capoeira and dictates it's rhythm and, accordingly, how the game is to be played within the roda (the physical space within which the dance-fight-game takes place).

 


Pandeiro
The pandeiro is in essence a tambourine. It's the most common instrument to follow the berimbau.

 


Atabaque
This is a drum very frequently present in the music of Capoeira.

 

Other Musical Instruments
These are some of the instruments that are often used to enrich Capoeira music.


Caxixi
The berimbau players hold caxixis in the same hand that holds the vareta. It rattles as the players strikes the berimbau string.

 


Reco-reco


Agogo

These last two are very common in rhythms of Angola.