Trust in Science! The First Brazilian Portuguese Flow Breakdown

After a lot of positive feedback for my first Flow Breakdown video, I have released a second one – “Trust in Science.” This is a breakdown of the Brazilian Portuguese song “Rios, Pontes e Overdrives” by Chico Science and Nação Zumbi.

I take a different approach with this video. Here I focus more on the meaning of the lyrics and their context, leaving the Flow training for this post. Other things I cover are:

• The History of Chico Science and the Mangue-bit (mangue-beat) cultural movement.
• The physiology behind Nasal Vowels
• How to drum one of the key rhythms from the Afro-Brazilian genre of Maracatu

“Rios, Pontes e Overdrives” is from Chico Science and Nação Zumbi’s first studio album – Da Lama ao Caos (From the Mud to the Chaos).  It’s one of my favorite and most listened to albums of all time.  I encourage you to check it out:

For the training materials, I have organized everything in order in a Souncloud playlist. To review, the steps of Flow-Training are:

1. Master the articulation of each sound
   
2. Train the rhythm
3. Combine the syllables and rhythm
4. Commit to memory by singing along

Here are the syllables for each line:

1. hi…ʊ…spõ…tɪ…zi…o…vex…dwaɪ
2. vzĩ…p&e…sjo…nɐ̃…tɪ…ze…skʊ…tu…&ɐ…zdɪ…lɐ̃…ma
3. mɐ̃…ge (repeat 7 times)

Finally here’s a translation of the lyrics:

1. Rivers, bridges and overdrives
2. Such Impressive mud sculptures
3. Mangrove!

The pronunciation point we cover in this breakdown is the concept of “Nasal Vowels”.  I give a good basic overview of how nasalization in speech works, but for more information I recommend checking out my post – How to Master the Brazilian Portuguese Nasal Vowels – from Kevin Porter’s blog for expats living or considering moving to Brazil.

I will be releasing another Flow Breakdown soon, so be sure to subscribe to The Mimic Method Youtube Channel to be updated.

Also be sure to let me know either here in the comments or in the Youtube comments what you think I can change to improve the series.  Thanks for reading, watching and flowing!