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Bossa nova backing tracks
A fake book is full of bossas, and they need a different band from a swing tune. Here's what changes — and how to practice one from your own lead sheet.
What makes it a bossa
Straight eighths
The biggest change: no swing. The eighth notes are even, and the feel sits in two — relaxed, not rushed. Bossas are often played somewhere around 120–150 bpm, counted in quarter notes.
The bass: root and fifth
Instead of walking, the bass plays the root on beat 1 and the fifth on beat 3, often with a pickup into each — a gentle, repeating pulse that lets the harmony move above it.
The drums: cross-stick and eighths
A cross-stick (rim click) on the snare plays a syncopated two-bar pattern, the hi-hat or ride plays steady eighths, and the bass drum doubles the bass's long-short pulse.
The piano: syncopated figures
The comping copies the bossa guitar: short chords on the off-beats in a pattern that repeats every bar or two, rather than the free comping of swing.
Practicing a bossa
- Feel the two. Count in half notes; let the bass tell you where 1 and 3 are.
- Keep your eighths even. Swing players' biggest habit to break. Play a scale in straight eighths against the band first.
- Loop the bridge. Many bossas change key for the bridge — loop it until the new key is comfortable.
- Play it as a swing tune too. Lots of bossas are played both ways; switch the feel and hear the tune change.
Bossa in ChartBand
When a chart's style says bossa nova or Latin, ChartBand plays it as a bossa: straight eighths, a real drummer's bossa playing (taken bar by bar from a recorded performance), the root-and-fifth bass and the bossa piano figures. Any tune can be switched to or from bossa — the choice is kept for that tune.
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