Repertoire
With some 150 years of history, choro repertoire is already very extensive and still growing. One of the challenges we face at Choro Camp, then, is how to find or create common musical ground. No doubt this will happen in the most organic fashion as it always has—on the fly in actual rodas de choro.
That said, at a typical roda in Brazil or elsewhere the “regulars” have a shared repertoire that makes up much of what will be played whenever they gather. So we’re recommending some repertoire to prepare, to whatever degree possible, in advance.
The collections of repertoire we’ll list below come in two varieties:
- Core Repertoire — 10 tunes we’ll focus on in our morning and early afternoon classes. For these, we’ll share extensive support materials: play-along video accompaniments, sheet music and reference recordings.
- Supplementary Repertoire — Additional repertoire you may want to work on if time allows. These tunes are selected and grouped so as to facilitate participation at camper-led evening rodas.
(Jump to Supplementary Repertoire.)
Core Repertoire 2025
The 10 tunes that will make up our Core Repertoire this year are listed below. They are organized, as they will be during Choro Camp, by the rhythm in which they are played.
- Saracoteando — Polca — Jacob do Bandolim)
- O Nó — Polca — Candinho Trombone
- Desprezado — Choro —Pixinguinha
- Chorinho Pra Você — Choro — Severino Araújo
- Tudo Dança — Maxixe — Bonfiglio de Oliveira
- Ainda me recordo — Maxixe — Pixinguinha
- Ao Velho Pedro — Samba — Paulo e Gabriel Moura
- Art-e-manhas do Marquinho — Samba — Rossini Ferreira
- Galho Seco — Baião — Jacaré
- Que Nem Jilo — Baião — Luiz Gonzaga
Reference recordings
You’ll find reference recordings of all these tunes on this YouTube playlist. Please note that, while the linked performance provides a good reference, our lead sheets and video accompaniments are not transcriptions of them. We encourage you to seek out other recordings and to expect variety in performances of choro.
Lead Sheets
Below, you’ll find links to sheet music for all these tunes in Concert C, Bb and Eb. You can either download a compilation of all the tunes or, by following the lower set of links, access a Drive folder from which you can download the charts individually. (The latter may prove useful if we have to edit any of the charts.)
Thanks to Luísa Mitre and Mauro Correa for these charts! Thanks too to Daniela Spielmann for help with proofing them.
Compilations of Charts:
For Individual Charts:
Video Accompaniments
You’ll find play-along video accompaniments to all these tunes in this playlist on the Choro Camp youtube channel .
These videos were prepared by artists who will be on the faculty this year, and to whom we owe our gratitude. So put them to use! To get the most out of them, be sure you know how to slow down YouTube videos—including the “Custom” slow down feature that provides unlimited control over the speed at which the video plays.
Supplementary Repertoire for Evening Rodas
The schedule at Choro Camp allows plenty of time for informal rodas, especially in the evening, and for that it might be nice to have more than 10 tunes. But which ones? Allow us to make some suggestions …
Starting in 2025 we will invite campers to lead and/or participate in evening rodas right after dinner, 7:30 – 9, each of which will have a pre-determined collection of tunes to draw from (in addition to this year’s Core Repertoire, which is welcome at all rodas.) If you’d like to lead a roda focused on a different collection of tunes, we are open to other suggestions, assuming they are made early enough. But first, here are the collections we’re compiling for your consideration:
Roda 1: Core Repertoire 2025 Only
This roda will be facilitated every evening by Dominique Gagné. It offers the best option for those who have their hands full just learning the 10 tunes that make up this year’s Core Repertoire. Also great for people who appreciate Dominique’s guidance and love playing with her. Which should be just about everybody.
Roda 2: Choro Camp Favorites (2019-2024)
For this collection/roda, Dominique and her band of co-curators have selected 10 tunes from previous editions of CCNE which, in combination with this year’s Core Repertoire, will provide you with plenty to choose from. You can download sheet music below, and you’ll find play-along accompaniments for all the tunes on the CCNE YouTube channel (except Sonoroso, but that link right there will take you to a play-along track featuring two guitars.)
This collection/roda will be a particularly good option for people who have been to CCNE previously: brush up on a few familiar tunes and, bad-a-bing, instant roda.
Tunes: Cabaceira mon amor, Chorinho na gafiera, Coralina, Migalhas de Amor, Sonoroso, Paciente, Teu beijo, Uma noite no Sumaré, Um tom pra Jobim, Velhos chorões
Lead sheets:
Roda 3: Choro Classics
This collection/roda will focus on some of the most standard of choro standards. Experienced chorões (that is, people who play choro) should find it easy to participate, as the tunes are likely to be familiar. It also offers a great option for newcomers to the choro tradition: if you’re wondering how to start building a choro repertoire of tunes others will know, learn these choro classics.
Tunes: A Flor Amorosa, Apanhei-te Cavaquinho!, Brasileirinho, Carinhoso, Chorando Baixinho, Delicado, Doce de Coco, Gaúcho (Corta-Jaca), Odeon, Receita de Samba, Rosa, Rosa (traditional version), Tico-Tico no Fubá
Lead Sheets
To provide both lead sheets and backing tracks for this roda we have teamed up with Choro Music — or, to be more precise, with their digital cousin, Choro Playbacks — where this collection is made available under the title “12 Must-Know Choro Tunes”. Choro Playbacks offers a variety of options:
- Purchase the materials for individual songs OR a bundle of all 12 tunes.
- Purchase only backing tracks, only sheet music, OR both together.
If you opt to purchase any of the “bundles” they offer on the page we’ll link you to below, Choro Playbacks has offered us a 10% discount. Just use the promo code “chorocamp” at checkout. Here’s a link to that page:
https://choroplaybacks.com/shop/bundles-and-starter-pack/bundle-with-12-choros/
Roda 4: New Music
If you are already familiar with tunes we’re playing in the other rodas and you’d like to add something new to your repertoire, this may be the roda for you.
Tunes: TBA