On one level, it's a kind of manifesto for the bossa nova movement, but it's also a man trying to convince a woman to love him despite his dedication to the strange, new sound and artistic way of living. My favourite track of his, Desafinado by Tom Jobim and Newton Mendonça means "off key". I first really fell in love with bossa nova when I watched a documentary about João Gilberto that translated his lyrics into French. The vocals should be minimal and modest with a kind of breathy delivery - this is definitely not the time or place to show off.
What I love most about bossa nova is the incredible floating rhythm and the harmonic progression.
#New wave bossa nova guitar tab free
Feel free to add in a quirky chord change or two. The slower you play it, the more beautiful it sounds. The next essential element of a bossa nova track is a melody in a minor key. Later bossa nova tracks - especially collaborations with American jazz artists such as Stan Getz - brought in a little more percussion. It's played in 2/4 time, like samba, but much slower, and instead of a drum, the beat is given by the guitar playing. The bossa nova sound was invented by singer/guitarist João Gilberto, and the voice and guitar are pretty much all you need. In fact, I even got the idea for the name of our band, Nouvelle Vague, when I realised that it was the French translation of bossa nova, and, as it happens, new wave in English. This common melancholy gave me the idea for our first album, whose concept was to explore the two genres by covering new wave tracks in a bossa nova style. But for me, bossa nova is also a very deep and melancholic music, and this feeling was something that I also recognised in the music of English new wave bands such as Joy Division and Echo and the Bunnymen. With its roots in a time just before Beatlemania took over the world, bossa nova is the music to bring out your sophisticated, urbane side. To listen to it, you need to find somewhere comfortable to sit of an evening, have a drink in your hand, and muse on love and beauty. The first thing to understand about bossa nova is that, although its rhythm comes from samba, it has never had any dance steps associated with it. It's the soundtrack of hotels, of airports, of bars - of any public space! I would even go so far as to say that Girl from Ipanema is as instantly recognisable as Jingle Bells. I suggest that you take things step-by-step and practice the rhythm over one chord before moving on to the next one.Īll the info in the video! Tab on my Patreon page.You probably know more bossa nova tracks than you think you do. But, hey, we have to start somewhere, right! Instead, I am more intrigued by using one of the Bossa Nova rhythms over a simple chord progression to make things simple and more approachable.Īs you will see, playing the Bossa Nova rhythm over NON-Bossa Nova chords doesn’t sound quite the same. Now, I am not a Latin music expert, and as much as I love the genre, I don’t see myself digging into incredible complex chord progressions that are so characteristic of the Bossa Nova style. If you want to know how the real Bossa Nova sounds like, you should start with these guys! Some of the most influential Bossa Nova players are Joao Gilberto, Antonio Carlos Jobim, and Luiz Bonfa.
#New wave bossa nova guitar tab how to
Today I want to show you how to use the Bossa Nova rhythm over a simple chord progression.įor you who don’t know, the Bossa Nova is a music genre born in Brazil, and it is most commonly played on the classical guitar. Hey guys, welcome back to another guitar lesson.