Bossa Nova Book Recommendations

**FourOnSix** · 09-12-2023, 09:28 PM

I need to learn a lot of bossa tunes in a short period of time. Can anyone recommend a good book of basic arrangements of the popular bossa tunes - mainly Jobim - with chord diagrams? I can develop my own variations in time, but for now, I have to get the comping for these songs under my fingers.

Thanks in advance.

**rpjazzguitar** · 09-12-2023, 09:34 PM

There is a series of books edited by Almir Chediak. I believe there are 5 volumes of Bossa Nova. They include the composers own guitar grips. This seems like it would be the last word on the subject.

I would guess that this would be overhelming to somebody who just needs chord diagrams on some Jobim tunes and it's the opposite of cheap.

I don't have a recommendation for something more practical. Be aware that some books have solo guitar arrangements and others just have the comping chords and melody. Solo arrangements can be hard to read and therefore hard to learn.

**alltunes** · 09-13-2023, 07:21 AM

I don’t know if this will help, but this DVD has lots of Boosa style chords and how to connect them in typical Bossa progressions. Then it would be just a matter of getting some lead sheets to the songs you need to know.

https://www.amazon.com/Bossa-Guitar-.../dp/B00076YPPI

Quick search also turned up this fakebookhttp://musicishealing.com/Bateria/Pa...aFakebook2.pdf

**FourOnSix** · 09-13-2023, 09:34 AM

Originally Posted by alltunes

I don’t know if this will help, but this DVD has lots of Boosa style chords and how to connect them in typical Bossa progressions. Then it would be just a matter of getting some lead sheets to the songs you need to know.

https://www.amazon.com/Bossa-Guitar-.../dp/B00076YPPI

Quick search also turned up this fakebookhttp://musicishealing.com/Bateria/Pa...aFakebook2.pdf

Thanks. Still looking for a "cheat sheet," given how quickly I need to be able to have something at least acceptable under my fingers.

**AllanAllen** · 09-13-2023, 10:13 AM

The real book and some chord grips you already know. It's guitar music, you don't need fancy chord. If you ask me, the more fancy chords you add the less Bossa it sounds. Watch his hands.

**pamosmusic** · 09-13-2023, 10:30 AM

Originally Posted by AllanAllen

The real book and some chord grips you already know. It's guitar music, you don't need fancy chord. If you ask me, the more fancy chords you add the less Bossa it sounds. Watch his hands.

Not wrong.

If you can get two good voicings for each one and alternate your bass notes (root to five), you’re probably off to the races. It’s the rhythm that tends to be trickier.

And not to oversimplify and stuff … a lot of really phenomenal Brazilian and South American guitarists. Jobim wasn’t a guitar players guitar player but he was super clever and wrote beautiful harmonies and everything. Yotam Silberstein is a blast to watch going through all the South American folk stuff and it’s technical and crazy. But the Bossa stuff starts as a popular music so I feel like it starts simple … without a lot of knowledge of the style (which I do not have) fancy ends up just sounding cluttered.

This one was recommended to me by Paul Meyers many moons ago:

https://www.shermusic.com/1883217024.php

Wish I’d gone through it in more detail.

**AllanAllen** · 09-13-2023, 10:42 AM

Originally Posted by pamosmusic

Jobim wasn’t a guitar players guitar player but he was super clever and wrote beautiful harmonies and everything

This is why I like him. I'll take a nice melody over Holdsworth shredding any day.

**Bop Head** · 09-13-2023, 11:32 AM

No books, but these videos might be worth watching:

**rpjazzguitar** · 09-13-2023, 01:36 PM

Originally Posted by FourOnSix

Thanks. Still looking for a "cheat sheet," given how quickly I need to be able to have something at least acceptable under my fingers.

The fakebook has a very good selection of classic tunes. A few of the charts are Chediak's (they say Songbook on the top). Others are RB. The Chediak charts have the chord grips.

**mr. beaumont** · 09-13-2023, 01:53 PM

Just looked at those Chediak books...gonna be a Christmas present to myself I think!

**rpjazzguitar** · 09-13-2023, 03:36 PM

Originally Posted by mr. beaumont

Just looked at those Chediak books...gonna be a Christmas present to myself I think!

There are 5 in the Bossa Nova series.

A number of the chord grips were new to me. Reportedly, the composers' own grips.
,
He also did a number of books for specific composers and maybe a Choro book.

18 books, in all.

Sadly, he was murdered at age 52. There's a wiki page.

**drbhrb** · 09-13-2023, 03:52 PM

Not that one would do such a thing, but the Jobim Chediak book PDFs are floating around online for those interested

**Daddy Dom** · 09-13-2023, 04:30 PM

That puff of cigarette smoke at .50 seconds in is priceless.

**PMB** · 09-13-2023, 05:30 PM

This is an excellent series of videos:

bossanovaguitar - YouTube

New organ trio album:
A Passing Instant | PMB3

**Bop Head** · 09-13-2023, 05:32 PM

Instituto Antonio Carlos Jobim has a lot of sheet music not only by Jobim including original printed sheet music

**drbhrb** · 09-13-2023, 08:30 PM

I’d also add Flavio Mendes’ channel O Arranjo. Watch with English subtitles. The longer videos are the best source for the history of bossa nova I have found and he also goes through each tune in detail

Flavio Mendes - YouTube

**Bop Head** · 09-13-2023, 10:52 PM

Originally Posted by drbhrb

I’d also add Flavio Mendes’ channel O Arranjo. Watch with English subtitles. The longer videos are the best source for the history of bossa nova I have found and he also goes through each tune in detail

Flavio Mendes - YouTube

Wow, nice channel. It is great and really helpful (and very rare) that someone takes the time for really translating the subtitles into another language. (You can see that when select "show transcript" at the "..." button at the very right between video and video description that there is capitalization of certain words and punctuation. You can check the value of that by letting YouTube auto-translate the auto-generated Potuguese into English.)

The presentation of the song in the end of the "o arrango" videos with the chord grips, lead sheet and guitar video is also nicely presented. The "dark mode" with the musical notation in white on black and the guitar footage filmed in front of a dark background is easy on one's eyes.

I was also wondering if Flavio is in any relation to Sergio. He could be his son or grandson but I have not found it mentioned anywhere.

**ragman1** · 09-14-2023, 05:52 AM

The Chediak books are good but do you know how expensive they are?

**Reg** · 09-14-2023, 11:07 AM

Yea... "The Brazilian Guitar Book" by nelson is great and also "Brazilian Music Workbook" by Antonio Adolfo are all you need.

Your not going to become a Brazilian guitarist in a couple of weeks.. If your a decent jazz guitarist you will easily be able to play Bossa Nova, Samba and other brazilian styles in a Jazz Brazilian style or feel.

Most of the standards we're use to are fairly simple... any tune can be performed in a Bossa et..style... as long as you can sightread. Memorizing tunes is the same.... Form, harmony and melody..... and you just change the feel.

Just learn the basic "Samba" rhythmic style and then the "Bossa Nova" Think cut time, 2/2 feel, binary meter.

rpjazzguitar.... is a very good brazilian player and works with cool band. Rick has put a lot of time and performed with real players in this style. He's more in the actual style... but is also a jazz player.

You can generally get the two basic feels together in one practice session. At least as well as you can.

Do you have Drumgenius.... a phone app.

have fun

**rpjazzguitar** · 09-14-2023, 02:42 PM

I originally responded to the OP about learning tunes and grips.

This post is about learning more about Brazilian jazz in general.

To learn Bossa and other styles, Nelson Faria's Brazilian Guitar Styles, which Reg mentioned, is beyond terrific. You can actually learn to do it from this book (well, you might want to listen to a couple of records too). I consider it the single most useful music book I've used, up there with Levine's Jazz Theory. Maybe not counting the Real Book.

Antonio Adolfo's book is also great. It has a broader focus. It includes a lot of material pertinent to playing in a Brazilian band -- info for each instrument. Nelson has a second book, Inside the Brazilian Rhythm Section, which is also very good, but does not try to be as encyclopedic as Adolfo. It focuses on tunes and what the sidemen actually do.

The video by Jovino Santos Neto that somebody posted is also worth the time for anybody interested in the style. He's around (just heard him live a week ago) and is a great musician and teacher.

In fact, there's an enormous amount of material, which can be overwhelming.

For the OP, maybe a Jobim songbook with chord diagrams and a couple of basic bossa style comping patterns would be a pretty good entry point.

Here's one: thinking in 4/4 for the moment, play chords on 1 and 2. Bass note with your thumb on 3 and another chord on and-of-three. That's similar to a basic comp that Joao Gilberto made a living with for decades. Brazilians will usually notate, and feel, this in 2/4, but my 4/4 version will get you to the rhythm and may be a little easier.

**kevmoga** · 10-09-2023, 07:39 PM

+1 on Reg’s Drumgenius recommendation. Just go ahead and buy all the downloads. Amazing collection of Latin sub - genres and styles I didn’t even know existed. Great jazz, funk, soul loops too. If you can lock in with the feel of the Latin loops you’re halfway there.

**AllanAllen** · 10-10-2023, 09:29 AM

Hey OP, it's been about a month how did it go? What did you end up doing?

**FourOnSix** · 10-10-2023, 09:51 AM

Originally Posted by AllanAllen

Hey OP, it's been about a month how did it go? What did you end up doing?

Basically, practicing the tunes as diligently as time and my ability permit.

I have had the Nelson Faria book for a long time, but the section on bossa is very brief. I have worked with it some. I am interested in the Drumgenius downloads, but my iPad is too old a version to support it. I don't like using my iPhone as a practice tool. I will eventually upgrade the iPad.

Thanks to all for the replies. Sorry I didn't pipe in sooner.

**AllanAllen** · 10-10-2023, 10:59 AM

That’s great! I thought you had an audition or something you were prepping for.

**FourOnSix** · 10-10-2023, 10:17 PM

Originally Posted by AllanAllen

That’s great! I thought you had an audition or something you were prepping for.

Not an audition per se. A guy I have sat in on a few gigs with in the distant past put something together and he asked me to join. I have been involved in a non-jazz band for the last couple of years, so my focus has been elsewhere and I feel pretty rusty. But we've had a couple of rehearsals and I have managed to avoid falling on my face.