When You Can’t Play Capoeira Series (Part 1)

Let’s face it, we’ve all been there.  Apart for a select few, many capoeiristas are not able to play and train every day.  We try to make time on our calendars, try to make it to class but many times life, work or even health gets in the way.  There have been times in my short stint in Capoeira of two years where I’ve not been able to go to class for a whole month – I know, I know. Shame shame.

There is a Filipino saying “Kung gusto may paraan, kung ayaw maraming dahilan”  -- Roughly translated, if you want it there’s always a way, if you don’t there’s always an excuse. 

So in the spirit of always making a way, below are ways you can train in capoeira that I’ve found are helpful for me! 

Instruments and Singing

I love love the music part of Capoeira.  As early as I was able, I bought my first instrument, a pandiero (or tambourine/drum kind of instrument).  It’s pretty easy to learn and is what I think the entry level instrument for capoeira. 

Start by playing along with songs you typically sing in class.  After a few days of that, try to sing WHILE playing! Don’t stress out, for many folks, learning a capoeira song is tough because it’s a completely different language altogether! 

Don’t fret! A capoeira buddy of mine, Da Terra, has what she calls her “Song of the Month” and she picks a song from the extensive capoeira song list and she gives herself a month to learn them.  Now if you think a month is still too fast, a song of the quarter is fine too.  Capoeira is a long road, with many practitioners playing the game for decades and decades.  Just think, four songs a year in 5 years means you can learn 20 capoeira songs!!! 

Personally, since Portuguese has sounds similar to my native tongue I want to set a Song of the Month target as well.   

When you’re comfortable with  your pandiero, you can get your own berimbau!  I got mine at the middle of my 2^nd year in capoeira.  In our school, sometimes our seniors MAKE the berimbaus as they did in Brazil way back in the day.  They’d strip the arame (string) from steel belted tires and put together the berimbaus, this is very cool but also rare at least here in Singapore. You can ask your teacher where you can get your berimbau and for sure they can help you out.  Careful, once you buy a berimbau, you can get sucked into buying all the accessories that come with.  Believe me, I’m deep in the rabbit hole, there’s no more hope for me, save yourself.

When you have your berimbau, you not only have to learn how to play it, you gotta learn how to string it.   This is hard stuff.  Like with many things in capoeira, and  life, with hard work and determination, you can do it.  When I first tried stringing my berimbau, I could only do it half of the time (my darling musician boyfriend refused to help me because it was my instrument, I should know how to string it) and today, just a mere four months later, I can string it ALL THE TIME.  Seriously, 100% of the time.  I’m so proud of me.

After you get your instrument together, you have to practice practice practice.  Harder than the pandiero but you will get there. I still can’t sing while playing but I know eventually I will.

Like in learning songs, try to learn each toque (there are seven kinds, I believe) bit by bit.  Try for one per month, like in the songs.  Then try to sing – when you get there, let me know, I still haven’t.  But at least now I can play two toques , poorly, but I can play them.   

All the other instrument s  agogo and reco-reco, I think are fairly easy to learn and you can practice in class.  The atabaque is tougher but you can’t bring it home really so just practice that in class.

It’s pretty easy to find songs online and on youtube but to get you started, this shares a wonderful playlist created  by Urso Branco of the songs with lyrics we typically sing.  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLD6A65212F9B3F7DB

Think of the music as part of your training too.  You'll be so much happier when you join a roda and even if  you're intimidated to play, you get to contribute your axe by singing, clapping, and playing along!

(all media belongs to their owners) 

A 500-Year Old Street Roda

A few terms before we begin:

Roda (Pronounced as “ho-dah”  the “ho” is a short “o” not as in “hoe” – don’t get any ideas.) 

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       According to Wikipedia, the Roda is a circle formed by capoeiristas and capoeira musical instruments, where every participant sings the typical songs and claps their hands following the music. Two capoeiristas enter the roda and play the game according to the style required by the musical instruments rhythm. The game finishes when one of the musicians holding a berimbau determine it, when one of thecapoeiristas decide to leave or call the end of the game or when another capoeirista interrupts the game to start playing, either with one of the current players or with another capoeirista.

Today, me and my man are going to hit the department stores to buy a vacuum cleaner.  Whereas in years past, the thought of going to a department store fills me with dread (I hate shopping), this particular department store, I brings feelings of warm fuzziness and axé (for lack of a better definition, axé is all good things, all good vibes).  I like this particular department store because it’s where our school, and many other capoeira schools have their street rodas several times in a year.

My school, Capoeira Singapore, Argola De Ouro( http://www.adoclife.com/) has classes all over the island but a few times in a year, we hold our “games” on the street to share with the world the music, the culture, and the art of capoeira.  For 3 solid hours, we play, we sing at the top of our lungs, we strike our instruments with so much force that we frequently get blisters and we play among ourselves and sometimes with random strangers who “buy” our games. 

 

The energy in the street roda is amazing.  It’s what I imagine the street games in Brazil used to be or are currently are.  As we’re not in Brazil, I’m guessing their rodas must be more intense and competitive.  But our rodas are so inclusive – which is what I really like about capoeira overall.  There are no elites really, there’s no derision for newbies. 

 

It’s all a community.  At the start of a street roda, all the seniors, the mestres (masters) and instructors  play with each other in turn – each game lasting anywhere form 30 seconds to 3 minutes.  They show off their best stuff.  And then, after a while, us newbies come in. 

 

 

Let me tell ya, the first time you step into a street roda, it’s petrifying.  It’s bad enough that you have to overcome your fear of playing in front of your class on a regular day, now you have to get over playing not just in front of your class, but in front of capoeiristas from your entire school and many times from other schools from all around Asia PLUS the entire Saturday afternoon Orchard Road foot traffic population. Eeps.

 

Nevertheless, the second you step into the roda, the energy is electric – everyone’s singing and clapping, the Bateria (musicians) is going and all the games before and after you lend a sort of continuous string of energy, playfulness and even slight aggression that can go on for hours and hours.

 

I don’t know about other capoeiristas but whenever I step into a roda, especially a street roda, I have a sense of continuity – a sense that I’m stepping into a game that started, not just when our school started back in 1980 but into a game that started with the first African slaves started training themselves to rebel against their Portuguese slave owners in the sugar cane fields of Brazil that began over 500 years ago. 

(Video Credit -- Street Video Credit from Edwin Pramudita Wikanta)