Vinicius de Moraes is known as the “Poet” of Bossa Nova but he has also composed the music to a few pieces, mostly in collaboration with Tom Jobim or Baden Powell. Samba da Bênção has an ostinato melody that can be accompanied throughout with four simple chords.
Easy Bossa Nova Chords
Samba da Bênção is in the key of D major. The form consists of a repeating chord progression. The melody is also very repetitive, but gives the song a certain structure.
The chord progression consists of the following Bossa Nova beginner chords:
The Bossa Nova Rhythm
At the beginning of the recording shown above, guitarist Toquinho plays a simple rhythm pattern that he varies quickly. The first two bars are shown in simplified form here. The pattern is very suitable for accompanying the entire song.
As always, the thumb plucks the bass notes, in this case alternating between the E and A strings. The index, middle and ring fingers play the rhythm on the D, G and B strings.
To achieve some variety in the accompaniment, you can switch to a second rhythm pattern:
The accents of the chords are played on the high strings and consistently accentuate the “off-beats”. This is a typical rhythm that is suitable for accompanying many Latin American pieces. When a chord is changed, the following chord is already played on the last sixteenth of the previous measure. Practice switching to Em7 and A7 very carefully and slowly!
The full arrangement of these easy chords for Samba da Bênção is available in the shop. In the Top 10 of the easiest Bossa Nova songs you will find further suggestions for finding good songs to get you started in the world of Bossa Nova.