Os Grilos Tutorial
Os Grilos is typical of samba compositions in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s when composers were looking for different ways to play the samba. While the bridge of this piece features a regular samba, the A sections have a distinctive, highly syncopated bass line.
The melody also has some unique features: Os Grilos translates to “the crickets” and in this case the crickets are alluded to by the many repeated notes in the melody. Jovino goes though different technical approaches of dealing with these repeated notes, including the hammering technique.
Left Hand Accompaniment
Jovino discusses ways to accompany playing the melody, both with and without a bass player, and how the featured bass line in the A sections can be used. He also goes through how to accompany another soloist or melody player.
Improvisation & Soloing
Improvising on this piece can be a lot of fun because it has two contrasting sections and both sections have features to take advantage of. The first section because it has a simple, repeated chord progression and an interesting rhythmic feature and the second because the harmony has much more movement.
Related Lessons
In this lesson we’re going to look at “A Rã” by João Donato, another simple but surprisingly intricate tune by this great composer.
In this lesson we expand on the material covered in the previous video and look at the minor 251 and associated triad options.
In this lesson Jovino breaks down and demonstrates how to feel 2/4 time which is commonly played in Brazilian music and standards.
Practice Tips
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Check out the link for a video of Marcos Valle performing the tune: https://youtu.be/XHcSosUFoos
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For more information on the hammering technique, check out the A Rã tutorial above, which also discusses the same technique.
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The bass line in the A sections can be tricky but it is a great feature of the tune. Learn to play the melody slowly with this bass line before trying to improvise simple phrases with it.
