Originally, Surdo modeled itself upon the bass drums played in European Street/brass bands, while, in terms of rhythm, its musical role is directly linked to African drumming traditions.
In samba percussion ensembles (baterias), its function is to emphasize the main beat (pulsation) and bring variations to the second beat of a 2-beat, basic pattern.

Surdo is played with mallets; generally with one mallet and one bare hand to modify the sound duration and pitch by pressing the drum head. Mallets' ends are often thick and soft in order to make the impact with the head and the resulting sound softer.

Contemporânea, Brazilian leader in percussion-making for 50 year, has designed this range of wooden-shell surdos to offer drums with a loud, deep and warm sound.This model's dimensions (60 cm high) make it particularly powerful, which proves to be very useful in outdoor performances!

Diametre : 20 in
Head : synthetic
Shell : wood
Tuning rods : 8
Weight : 6.4 kg
Delivered with tuning key