The pandeiro (Portuguese pronunciation: [pɐ̃ˈdejɾu]) is a type of hand frame drum that is popular in Brazil. It is used in several Brazilian music styles, such as samba, choro, coco, capoeira, and bossa nova.
The drumhead can be adjusted, and the rim holds metal jingles (platinelas), which are cupped. This creates a clearer and shorter sound on the pandeiro compared to a tambourine. The instrument is held in one hand, and the other hand strikes the drumhead to make sound. Typical pandeiro patterns are played by using different parts of the hand, such as the thumb, fingertips, heel, and palm. A pandeiro can also be shaken to create sound, or a finger can be run along the drumhead to produce a drum roll.
Medieval instrument
The term pandeiro was used before to describe a square drum with two layers of skin, often containing a bell inside; this instrument is now called adufe in Spain and Portugal.
The term pandeiro (called pandero in Asturian) is still used in some areas of Galicia, Asturias, and Portugal to describe the square drum. The round drum with jingles is referred to as pandeira in Galicia and pandeireta in Portugal.
Players
Some of the most well-known pandeiro players today include Paulinho da Costa, Nanny Assis, Airto Moreira, Marcos Suzano, Cyro Baptista, Zé Maurício, and Carlinhos Pandeiro de Ouro. Other important pandeiro players were Scott Feiner, who introduced the pandeiro to jazz music, and Milt Holland, a percussionist and drummer based in Los Angeles who traveled around the world to study different types of ethnic percussion instruments. Artists like Stanton Moore use the pandeiro in a different way by tuning it low to sound like a bass drum with jingles, placing it on a stand, and adding it to a modern drum kit. Others, such as Sule Greg Wilson on the Carolina Chocolate Drops album Genuine Negro Jig, use the pandeiro together with a tunable bodhran, also placed on a stand, and play them as a pair with brushes to create effects similar to a drum kit, as well as using them as traditional hand-held instruments.