Hi folks. Welcome to the world of choro and your immersion into an amazing musical style. You are going to be playing and learning with some of the greatest living musicians of this music. Be happy! I know you may feel trepidation about this. It is normal. I remember my first experiences with trying to learn the music. Danilo Brito telling us as we tried "Benzinho" "Play it sweeter! It's a sweet song!" I have walked into a number of rodas and simply sat and watched. it's ok. 

We should have some slower roda's (jams) for you to start with, as you will find the advanced players playing quite faster than you might expect. If you find the music too fast for you, it's ok to not play. I do it at times myself. 

Start simple. Migalhas de Amor, Eu quero e sossego, Benzinho and other slower pieces are simple to learn. (2 parts) 

Get the Choro White Books to have all the major songs at your disposal. Your fellow musicians will have copies if you need them. For those on iPads' there's a cross referenced entire book available from your peers. 

You can buy the hard copy versions (all 3)  here: Choro Songbook Bundle: 3 Volumes – Choro Shop (chorocamp.com)

Getting off the page is a critical goal. Maybe make a goal of memorizing one song a month, so at the end of a year you have 12 songs you know by heart. Standards are the best way to go, as you know they will always show up in a roda. 

Even the best players will occasionally read but the goal is to be watching your fellow players. Eyes up. Also, it's ok to smile while playing this tricky music. I tell my bandmates that though the music is hard, you don't have to let the audience know that by your grimace! 

I've been playing since 2006 when I experienced choro at the Mandolin Symposium in Santa Cruz CA. I credit Mike Marshall and David Grisman with introducing America to the work of Jacob do Bandolim, and also for creating the Mike Marshall's book on choro standards, and Ron Galen for producing his fabulous book back in the 90s (now out of print but available from other musicians.

Mike also created the Choro Famoso band which showed how this could be played by North Americans. They taught at the first Centrum Choro workshop. After Santa Cruz I came home and joined the Seattle Mandolin Orchestra to help me get back up to speed on reading notation (an incredibly valuable tool for Choro). After moving to Port Townsend WA I helped create the Centrum Choro Workshop, held in April every year. We have sold out repeatedly for 14 years and our videos of the instructors' concerts are available on YouTube. 

I created a band called Combo Choro and have been playing with them since 2009. We someday will get our act together to record.

What brought *you* to the music?