Nininho Maracatu

**Nininho Maracatú** is a song in the Maracatú genre. It was put together from several patterns we learned from Nininho, a visiting instructor.

This piece uses no chocalho, repenique, or tamborim. It does use chekere and has two distinct bell patterns, one ideally played by a gonguê. The parts we play on surdo are traditionally played on alfaia. As with Surdo, the lower number corresponds to the lower drum. Normally there will only be one Alfaia 2 part (most likely played by a 3rd Surdo player), and all the other Surdos play Alfaia 1. If the chart simply says "Alfaia", it refers to all of them.

Surdo/alfaia players hold and strike their mallets differently for maracatú, compared to how we hold mallets for most of our songs. The right mallet is held normally; the left mallet is thinner (sometimes a drumstick) and is held with the palm facing up and the stick protruding from the back of the hand. See the source videos for our song Maracatu.

**Legend**

C - stick click

R/L on caixa - a rim shot.

 r/l on caixa - a softer head hit, more like a ghost note.

 Zzzz - a sustained roll with both sticks, accented at the beginning.

 zzzz - a sustained roll with both sticks with no accent.

 R on alfaia - a normal head hit with a mallet with the right (dominant) hand.

 l on alfaia - a hit with the left (non-dominant) hand holding the stick as described above.

## Form

The song always follows this form, without variation.

1. Intro
2. Part 1
3. Break
4. Another break
5. Part 1A
6. Part 2
7. Tu Maraca!
8. Part 3
9. Part 4
10. Part 3A
11. End

## Charts

### Intro

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 Then these four bars:

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 This three times:

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 Finally:

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The caixa pattern for this last bar is also known as the "call" or the "turnaround".
All other instruments rest for this bar.

### Part 1:

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### Break

This break is basically a new ride, but it signaled with the Break signal.
Caixa, Alfaia 2, and Bell change patterns. This is played until the next signal.

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### Another Break

This is also called with the Break signal, but it is a fixed eight bars long.

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Bell & Chek: Out

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### Part 1A

"Another Break" transitions directly into this without a call.

This is almost the same as Part 1, except the bell part is different and there are Alfaia 2 and 3 parts.

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### Part 2

Called with four fingers, hand turning back and forth. Called in with four whistle blows.

(all other instruments rest)

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Note that the roll in the caixa always starts in the last 16th of beat 4. The downbeats are not accented.

### "Tú Maraca!"

The transition to this section is this. Note the whistle call is not four as usual.

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Call-and-response "Tu Maraca!" four times:

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Finally, this leads into part 3:

```
Band (voice) : | *Tu---*

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### Part 3:

Note that the Bell changes to the "Ijexa" pattern. *(Ed: not sure if the gonguê continues its pattern. If not, what does it play?)*

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### Part 4:

Signaled with the Break signal and called with four whistle blows.

Note that the Alfaia 2 has a two-bar phrase while the rest of the band has a one-bar phrase.

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### Part 3A

Signaled with the Break signal and called with four whistle blows.

Almost the same as part 3 except the Alfaia 2 plays something different, and the caxia pattern becomes thicker.

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### End

Signal: Fist, called in with 4 count.

```
Gonguê: | X--- X--- X--- ---- | X
Bell:   | L--- L--- HL-L HL-L | H
Caixa:  | R--- R--- Rzzz zzzz | R
Alfaia: | --RL --RL -R-R lR-R | L

```