>>I believe that the magic is when you have notes on the paper, and then you transform them into sounds and then transform them into music, that actually has the power to touch people's lives.

♪ Come play with me ♪ ♪ Won't you come play with me ♪ ♪ Come on, come on, come on ♪ ♪ Come play music with me, yeah ♪ >>Welcome to, "Songs and Stories".

>>With Mary and Mike.

>>Where we tell the stories of music.

>>And we share the music of all people.

So whose music are we sharing today?

>>Today we are learning all about the music from Brazil.

>>Brazil.

>>Hmm, hmm.

>>Okay well Brazil is I think, the largest country in South America.

And it's got a tropical climate >>It does, yes.

And actually you're traveling today right?

>>That's right, I'm going to the Forbes Center in Harrisonburg where I'm gonna meet our friend, Paulo and he plays the piano.

>>Oh, love it.

We're also going to learn a folk song from Brazil, all about coconuts.

>>I love coconuts.

(laughs) >>I do too.

>>That sounds great.

>>All right friends, let's get to it.

>>Let's go.

>>Let's move to music.

>>Friends, while Mike is traveling to Harrisonburg to meet with Paulo, I thought this is the perfect opportunity to prepare your ears for what you're getting ready to hear.

Paulo is going to play this energetic, Brazilian piano piece for you.

And so I want to give you just a little preview of what you're going to hear now.

We'll just do a little bit of the song, and we're going to put the song and the music in our bodies.

So then when you hear it a second time, when Paulo plays it for you, your ears will be ready and you'll know what you're listening to, okay?

So we're going to listen to the first part of the music, and we're gonna be moving our arms quite a bit.

So you can stand up or you can sit down.

Either one is fine.

Just make sure you're in a safe spot, where if you're moving a lot, you're not gonna bonk into something, okay?

All right my friends are you ready to hear the first part of this music and move?

So the melody starts up here.

Get your arms up here.

Are your ears on?

Are you ready to move?

Let's do it.

(piano music) Go down, go down low.

Up high, down, down, down.

Back up, you hear the line moving down?

(inhales) Now it's different.

Oh what's happening next?

Oh, we're back.

Moving down.

Oh back up, down, not so far this time.

Back up!

And remember this time it ends differently.

Can you hear it?

Bounce.

It changed!

With both arms, you can lightly bounce.

Now sweep in front of you.

Bouncing your hands.

It's doing it again, let's change.

Just do one arm this time.

But keep it bouncing to that steady beat.

Switch arms.

Big stretch.

Oh do you hear it?

Here we go, we're going down, back up.

Down not so far this time.

Back up!

Down it's gonna change this time.

Bounce.

(piano music) Oh wow!

(exhales heavily) Our arms got quite a workout didn't they?

Did you hear how the musical line, was traveling down and then it would go back up, and then it would travel down again?

But something happened in that last time you heard it, right?

And we made a pattern, moving from our shoulders to our heads.

And we were bouncing.

The music felt like this bounce.

Well friends, now that we have moved our bodies to that music, your ears are ready to listen.

>>Let's meet a musician.

>>Hi friends.

We're at the Forbes Center for the Performing Arts in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

And we're about to go meet Paulo, who plays the piano.

So come on, let's go meet him.

Hi Paulo, thanks so much for being with us today.

>>Sure, you're welcome.

>>We're so excited to hear you play the piano.

>>It's great to be here and great to talk about music.

>>Yes, yes, we love talking about music.

What are you gonna play for us today?

>>Today, I will play a piece written by a Brazilian composer, his name is Ernesto Nazareth.

And I'll be playing a choro called, "Odeon."

The choro is a Portuguese word that means cry.

>>Cry like as in, I'm sad.

>>Yes, exactly.

>>Okay.

>>But what is interesting about the choro is that it's not sad music.

It's very quick.

It's actually sounds very happy.

>>Hmm.

>>Happy music, but it's called a choro.

>>So why?

>>Yes.

>>I ask myself many times so why?

And I think one of the reasons is that the choro, normally has this very quick notes, which we call the trill.

>>Hmm, hmm.

>>Very quick.

Which for me, almost sounds like someone is whining.

(soft piano music) Right, no, no.

They do not want to do something.

>>Yeah.

>>So they are kind of really fighting or like they do not want it.

And so therefore, it is added to the piece, which makes it sound like a choro maybe, or a wining at least.

(piano music) And a choro is a type of Brazilian music.

>>Okay.

>>That came from the polkas.

The polkas are dancers- >>The polka's from Europe.

>>Yes.

>>Okay.

>>The Polish and European immigrants brought it to Brazil.

(dramatic music) And Brazilians were very creative.

Wanted to of course try the music first.

Many different instruments.

So imagine the tambourine.

>>Tambourine.

>>By the flutes, or the clarinet, which normally do the melody part.

We hear the guitars sometimes or very often, playing the harmony parts.

And we hear sometimes a Brazilian instrument, very similar to the ukulele, and it's called the cavaquinho.

>>Cavaquinho, okay.

>>Yes and that is also very similar to...

It's a small guitar, and also provides the harmonic accompaniment for a choro.

And they are just pretty much jamming, doing the jams in the corners, street corners in Brazil, or houses and all, and then they decided, " Well, why don't we add some flavor, some Brazilian flavor here."

So that's when maybe came the syncopations, that we have in Brazil.

And they were added to the choros, and they were added to the polkas that finally became the choros.

(dramatic music) >>Well I'm so excited.

Well, let's go hear it now.

(piano music) Paulo that was wonderful.

>>Thank you.

>>I love listening to you play.

So what are you thinking about when you're playing the piano?

>>I try to come up with stories, that help me visualize the music I'm playing, 'cause as you see, the music is black and white.

If you look at the page, lots of black ink on white paper.

And that is not really exciting.

What makes it exciting and is what you do with that.

So I add imagination to the pieces.

I also like to use the word color, even though the music is black and white, the music itself is not black and white.

The score is black and white but the music is full of life and vibrant colors.

(soft piano music) I think piano playing is just like magic.

It's like solving a puzzle or solving a mystery.

And I believe that the magic is when you have notes on the paper, and then you transform them into sounds, and then transform them into music, that actually has the power to touch people's lives.

It has the power to change one's moods, or to show different feelings.

The music can make you sad.

It can make you happy.

It can make you frightened sometimes and also can make you very excited.

And all it's actually dumb because of music.

You listen to it and you can change your mood right away because you're listening to that piece.

(soft piano music) >>Well Paulo thank you so much for being with us today.

Thank you for sharing your gifts and your music with us.

It's been wonderful.

>>Sure it was my pleasure.

Thank you >>Mike, how was your trip to Harrisonburg?

>>Oh it was great.

I loved listening to Paulo play piano at the Forbes Center.

I loved learning about the choro.

It's such a neat piece because it imitates a lot of different instruments all in the piano.

So it was imitating like a tambourine and cavaquinho.. >>Oh neat so just in the piano music, it was written to kind of imitate the sounds of the other instruments.

>>Exactly yeah.

>>Oh I love it.

Well friends, we're going to continue learning about music from Brazil.

We have another guest Monica, who's going to join us to teach us a children's folk song from Brazil.

>>That's great well let's meet her right now.

(laughs) >>Let's do it.

Hi Monica.

>>Hi.

>>We are so thrilled to have you with us today.

>>Thank you so much for having me.

>>Oh my goodness of course.

So Monica tell us a little bit about your Brazilian heritage.

Your mom is from Brazil right?

>>Yeah my mom was born in Brazil and she spent the first 25 years of her life there.

And then when she went to school in the United States she met my dad and they got married and she ended up staying and having me.

But because her entire family is still in Brazil, she decided to have my sister and I be dual citizens, which means that we're citizens of the United States and Brazil, in that way we can travel back and forth very easily to visit her entire side of the family that's still there, especially my grandparents.

And because of that, she taught us Portuguese, and I get to be both American and Brazilian.

>>I think that is so cool.

So you just mentioned Portuguese.

So is that the language that's spoken in Brazil?

>>Yes, Brazilian Portuguese.

>>Wonderful.

Okay so you have a song to teach us today?

>>Yes, yes I do " Na Bahia Tem".

It's a Brazilian children's folk song.

>>Okay, well we can't wait to learn this.

So the song is about Bahia, is that a place in Brazil?

>>Yes it's a state in Northeast Brazil.

Their capital is Salvador, and even now if you go there they sell coconuts on either side of the streets 'cause they have lots of coconuts there.

And that's what this song is about.

It's about the selling of coconuts for just a penny.

(laughs) >>Okay.

>>All right well we would love to hear you sing it.

♪ Na Bahia tem ♪ ♪ Tem, tem, tem ♪ ♪ Na Bahia tem o laia ♪ ♪ Cocoa de vintem ♪ Oh I love that.

I love that.

Okay so let's break down the words just a little bit because we are learning a new song and learning a new language at the same time.

(laughs) So let's break down the words just a little bit.

Can you go line by line and speak the words for us?

>>Absolutely.

So the first line, na Bahia tem.

>>Na Bahia tem.

>>Okay.

>>Yes.

And then tem is repeated three more times, tem, tem, tem.

>>Tem, tem, tem.

>>Okay.

>>Yeah.

Then it's repeat again, na Bahia tem.

>>Na Bahia tem.

>>And then this next part is like a oh yeah.

It's not really a word.

(laughs) It o laia.

>>O laia.

>>And then coco de vintem.

>>Coco de vintem.

>>Yeah that's it.

>>Okay.

>>Awesome.

>>Let's try, maybe speaking it.

Can we speak the lines together?

>>Sure.

>>Okay.

>>Yeah.

>>So na Bahia tem, tem, tem, tem.

Na Bahia tem, o laia.

Coco de vintem.

>>Okay (laughs).

Wonderful.

Well, before we let you go would you sing it one more time for us it's so beautiful.

♪ Na Bahia tem ♪ ♪ Tem, tem, tem ♪ ♪ Na Bahia tem o laia ♪ ♪ Coco de vintem ♪ I love this.

It just makes me smile when I hear you sing it.

It's a really upbeat happy song.

>>Thank you.

>>All right well, I think we're going to say goodbye, and we are so appreciative of you teaching us this today and teaching us a little Portuguese and about Bahia and Brazil and sharing that beautiful song with us.

>>Well thank you so much for having me and letting me share a little bit of Brazilian Portuguese.

(laughs) >>Wonderful.

>>Absolutely.

Well, we hope to see you again soon.

>>Yes thank you so much.

>>Thank you.

>>Bye.

>>Bye.

>>Lets make music.

>>Oh wow.

>>That was great.

>>(laughs) It was so great.

Learning from Monica, this song from Brazil in Portuguese.

We really had to be brave and curious, and strong right?

>>Yes, huh.

>>Yeah, I think we were a little nervous.

>>Yeah, yeah.

>>To learn a new song in a different language.

>>And get like the pronunciation right and everything.

>>Yeah.

>>Yeah just to make sure that the song is authentic to the people who sing it.

>>That's right.

>>Yeah so can we try singing it together?

>>I would like it's a great song.

>>I would love to do it.

So I am actually sitting on my cone.

>>That's right okay.

Well I'll grab my tenor ukulele which kind of reminds me of the cavaquinho.

that Paulo was talking about a little bit.

>>Oh nice, excellent.

All right friends, let's just sing it all the way through to kinda get used to the melody and the pronunciation of words.

Let's try it.

(guitar music) ♪ Na Bahia tem ♪ ♪ Tem, tem, tem ♪ ♪ Na Bahia tem o laia ♪ ♪ Coco de vintem ♪ I love it.

All right lets see if we can break it down a little bit so you can learn it with us too.

So you're going to be my echo.

What does that mean to be my echo?

I'm going to sing one line and my hands will be like this.

You will listen, and when I do my hands like this I want you to sing exactly what I sang.

Be my echo.

You wanna gonna try it?

Here we go.

>>Let's do it.

(guitar music) My turn first.

♪ Na Bahia tem ♪ ♪ Tem, tem, tem ♪ ♪ Na Bahia tem o laia ♪ ♪ Coco de vintem ♪ There you go nice job.

Now since you know one line at a time, let's see if we can put two lines together.

So you really got to pay attention to where my hands are.

When they're like this it's my turn.

When they're like this, it's your turn to sing.

Are you ready?

>>Let's do it.

>>Let's try it.

(guitar music) My turn first.

♪ Na Bahia tem ♪ ♪ Tem, tem, tem ♪ ♪ Na Bahia tem o laia ♪ ♪ Coco de vintem ♪ (guitar music) (laughs) Did you get it?

I think we should put the whole thing together.

>>Yeah let's do it.

Do you know what I love singing the most?

♪ O laia ♪ >>Yeah you look like you have fun singing that.

>>I love that.

And I love how Monica told us that was kind of like, " Oh yeah."

(laughs) So every time I sing it I go o laia.

Are you doing that too?

(laughs) I love it.

All right so I'm gonna think maybe keep this steady beat right here.

And we're gonna sing this song a few times, and we want you to sing with us.

(guitar music) Ready?

♪ Na Bahia tem ♪ ♪ Tem, tem, tem ♪ ♪ Na Bahia tem o laia ♪ ♪ Coco de vintem ♪ (guitar music) Do it again.

♪ Na Bahia tem ♪ ♪ Tem, tem, tem ♪ ♪ Na Bahia tem o laia ♪ ♪ Coco de vintem ♪ I think you got it now (guitar music) ♪ Na Bahia tem ♪ ♪ Tem, tem, tem ♪ ♪ Na Bahia tem o laia ♪ ♪ Coco de vintem ♪ (guitar music) ♪ Na Bahia tem ♪ ♪ Tem, tem, tem ♪ ♪ Na Bahia tem o laia ♪ ♪ Coco de vintem ♪ (laughs) Oh wow how fun.

Congratulations brave musicians.

>>Nice job.

>>You just learned a new song, in a new language.

And we did it together.

Well done.

>>You are a beautiful learner.

>>We have had so much fun today learning all about the music of Brazil.

>>I loved all of it.

I love " Na Bahia Tem".

>>Oh, I did too.

>>That was great.

Friends, we sang a song in a new language today.

>>Yeah and it was so great to hear Paulo play the piano, hear about the choro.

>>Yes.

>>It was great.

>>Lots of learning today.

And friends, what do we always say when we learn new things?

Repeat after us.

I am brave.

>>I am curious.

>>I am strong, because I can do hard things.

>>I am a beautiful learner.

>>Yes you are.

And we will see you next time.

(guitar music) ♪ Come play with me, won't you come play with me ♪ ♪ Come on, come on, come on ♪ ♪ Come play music with me ♪ ♪ We're gonna sing yes ♪ ♪ And were gonna dance ♪ ♪ We're gonna learn to play some instruments ♪ ♪ Oh come play with me ♪ ♪ Won't you come play with me ♪ ♪ Come on, come on, come on ♪ ♪ Come play music with me ♪ ♪ We're gonna sing yes ♪ ♪ And we're gonna dance ♪ ♪ We're gonna learn to play some instruments ♪ ♪ Oh come play with me ♪ ♪ Won't come play with me ♪ ♪ Come on, come on, come on ♪ ♪ Come play music with me ♪ (soft instrumental music)