Favela: A Fusion of Sounds

This piece is called Favela. Here we are playing some bossa nova fused with Cuban styles, such as salsa and mambo as well. A little bit of mambo in there. Additionally, it comes from Tropicalia, a style of music that emerged in Brazil in the 1960s and 70s, led by artists such as Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso. It's influenced by the great samba bossa nova guitarists of the 60s, like Jo ?o Gilberto, Charlie Bird, and many others from Brazil.

Understanding Bossa Nova and Syncopation

The Essence of Bossa Nova

Bossa nova is a style of music heavily associated with syncopation. What I want to say about syncopation is that it involves moving grooves and small rhythmic ideas across the beat, displacing against the groove before resolving. It creates a kind of tension and release.

Syncopation Example

This piece contains an example of syncopation in bar five:
1, 2, 3, 4.
Let me do that again:
1, 2, 3, 4. One.

A noteworthy aspect of that syncopation is a little three-note pattern:
Duck, gadding, duck, gadding, duck, gadding.
This displaces itself against the beat:
1, duck, gadding, duck, gadding, duck gawon.

In time, once more:
1, 2, D4.

Letter B also contains some syncopation. It features the idea of A minor moving to A minor with a major seventh, then to minor seven, to D7 and D9. This occurs in bars nine and ten of letter B:

1, 2, 3, 4.

This serves as a very simple example of syncopation because you can hear the moving line:
A to G sharp, to G to F sharp, bada dun dun badun da dum.
This concept moves and displaces itself across the beat before resolving every bar. This is typical of salsa piano, common among many Cuban piano players, but it also arises frequently in bossa nova as well.

Technique for Playing

I use a kind of hybrid picking style, which is very particular to jazz and the electric guitar plectrum style.

• I hold the plectrum between my thumb and first finger, much like gripping a pen.
• I then use my middle finger and third finger to pick along with my plectrum.

This technique allows my plectrum fingers to strike the moving line of A to G sharp to G to F. My liberated hybrid picking style enables me to hit the upper two notes, C and E, much like a piano player would with their left and right hand. It's a very useful technique that takes time to develop, but once mastered, it's endlessly useful for playing chordal passages with moving lines.

Improvisation Techniques

Solo Sequence

Now, let's talk about the solo sequence in this piece. It features a very nice set of chord changes. In the first eight bars, we have DM7 moving to A minor 7.

I recommend using:

• A minor pentatonic scale
• E minor pentatonic scale

These scales yield colorful sounds, especially over D minor. When I incorporate the E minor sound, it becomes particularly vibrant.

Chord Challenges

The next eight bars are a bit more challenging. The BM7 chord introduces an F sharp, whereas the D minors have F naturals. Thus, I recommend playing modally or arpeggiated over these chords.

Here's a simple arpeggio to learn:
D minor 7th arpeggio: D, F, A, C
Then it repeats down: D, C, A, F.

• Move up two frets for your E minor seventh arpeggio.
• Move up five frets for your A minor seventh arpeggio.
• Move up two further frets for your B minor seventh arpeggio.

When improvising over these particular eight bars, I often use these arpeggios to cover the sound of the chords.

Incorporating Modes

You might also choose to use the aeolian mode from the C major scale. This mode is the sixth mode and includes F natural, relating closely to both A minor and particularly to D minor seventh. This approach will access the sound of those chords very precisely.

Octave Melodies:
Always try to use your thumb to emulate that Wes Montgomery jazz sound. For example, at letter F, this technique cuts through but maintains warmth when using your thumb to play the melodies.

Listening Recommendations

To sign off, I recommend checking out the music of Jo ?o Gilberto, especially the albums he made with Stan Getz in the 1960s for Norman Grant's Verve label in America.

Notable albums include:

• Getz/Gilberto
• Jazz Samba
• Getz/Gilberto #2

These albums feature Antonio Carlos Jobim, the composer of many great bossa nova classics, on piano, with Astrud Gilberto singing many songs.

For a deeper understanding of the bossa nova style, other noteworthy artists include:

• Milton Nascimento
• Gilberto Gil
• Jo ?o Bosco

Simply go online and type in Bossa Nova or Tropicalia for many more recommendations. Always feel free to ask your teacher for their favorite bossa nova musicians, albums, and songs. There is a wealth of fantastic material for the guitar with various techniques that encompass both electric and acoustic styles, as well as elements of jazz and other genres.

Enjoy the piece, soak in the Brazilian vibe, and see you again!