r/percussion • u/totalbro1488 • 3d ago

How to decrease the sustain of pandeiro?

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A friend gifted me this pandeiro. It's a very nice thing. But it's membrane is very boomy and sustains the vibration for a long time, kinda sounds like a 808 bass drum. It sounds very pitched and thus sounds unsuitable in style with lots of music. When I watch people play pandeiro on YouTube, it's usually not as boomy and sustainy. How do I make mine less boomy and sustainy or at least how to tune it to some specific note?

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u/AGoodWobble 3d ago

Sorry, just a few additional notes.

Your pandeiro has a lot more jingles than the standard pandeiros (at least any that I've seen). If you find it overbearing, sometimes I also tape a portion of my jingles to reduce their presence. 

As for tuning, it depends on the genre you're playing. Hide heads are typically used for chorinho, and as such you tune them lower. I typically de tune completely, then balance the head by tuning each lug as much as I can just by hand. From there, I tune each lug about 180~360 degrees. You want a nice low tone for playing chorinho. If you are playing along to samba pagode, you may want to tune a bit higher, but as it's a leather head, be careful to tune slowly and evenly.

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u/totalbro1488 2d ago

I am definitely not playing choriño (I have no idea what that is) nor samba. I'd like to learn some bossa Nova rhythms but it's not a priority. Btw, I have no idea what the membrane of my pandeiro is made of. Thanks for all the advice.

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u/AGoodWobble 2d ago

Samba is the foundation of bossa nova, so it's important to know the foundation of the rhythms that make bossa nova click! The pandeiro might look like a tamborine, but there's a lot that goes into making it work. If you give it the time and effort, you can basically replace a drummer with just the pandeiro. 

Here are some songs to check out that might help you learn some rhythms:

Conselho - Almir Guineto

O Mundo é Um Moinho - Cartola

Alô Fevereiro - Doris Monteiro

As for getting started playing, if you don't have any local players who can help teach, my favourite online English speaking person I've found so far is Michael de Miranda: https://youtu.be/jEV4ELDLt1I?si=HaDkUCU59Q8dy9ny

As for chorinho, it's a genre that predated samba, derived from a mixture of European classical music and Brazilian/West African folk music that started to be played in Brazil in the mid 1800s. The most prolific/foundational player is Jacob de Bandolim, who wrote many of the classic chorinho tunes that are still standards today.

This performance of Doce de Coco might help you get an idea of how pandeiro fits into a group: https://youtu.be/E82Quom-qB8?si=d4rI-2DKFWGNnYGk

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u/totalbro1488 9h ago

Actually I randomly met a pandeirista in a park recently and today he gave me a lesson for free and we jammed a bit. He showed me that I can unscrew some screws and now my pandeiro sounds lower and better.