“Agua De Beber” Tutorial
In this lesson we will explore the tune “Agua De Beber” written by Antonio Carlos Jobim and lyrics by Vinicius de Moraes. The tune has a bluesy character that is not often found in Jobim’s music.
“Agua De Beber” is translated into English as “drinking water”. This composition was born when Jobim and Vinicius were invited by the Brazilian president to visit Brasilia; the site where the new capital of Brazil was being built.
We will start this lesson by talking about the bluesy character of the introduction. We will then explore the harmony of the tune and discuss some approaches for improvisation using the minor blues scale.
Related Lessons
The purpose of this lesson is to introduce the minor blues form and explore the differences to the standard 12 bar form.
This tutorial introduces the ‘locked hands’ technique. This style involves playing left hand voicings simultaneously with an improvised line.
Tritone Substitution is a useful reharmonisation technique that can be used to add harmonic interest and variety to a chord progression.
Practice Tips
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This tune is a nice composition to explore tritone substitution and its effect on the harmony.
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The interlude to the tune repeats a bluesy riff closely associated with the blues scale.
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When improvising over this tune, you can utilise your bluesy licks and material.
Fantastic tutorial – thank you! I’ve never for some reason noticed that the melody is bluesy – so this opens up a whole new slant on it for me, and more possibilities 🙂
Brilliant – glad to hear that you found Jovino’s insights helpful James.
I’ll pass the message onto Jovino, and enjoy playing this tune!
Cheers,
Hayden
The real song´s name is “Água de beber¨, not Aqua
Hi Anthony,
Thanks for letting me know about this.
Where can you see this typo? I will correct.
Cheers!
Hayden
In the Bossa Nova & Samba
Bossa Nova and Samba are the most well-known Brazilian song styles. Samba compositions have an up-beat and lively vibe whilst Bossa Nova tunes are slower and more emotive compositions.
Aqua De Beber
Aqua De Beber
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Great lesson and I’d never thought of this tune as a blues before seeing this. One point is that Jovino misses out the verse! From i-real pro I think the chords for the verse are f7, fm7 cm7, c7flat9 but would be good to get jovinos opinion on this?