How To Play Bossa Nova Guitar

by Simon Candy

In this video, you learn how to play the bossa nova fingerpicking pattern on the guitar. Bossa nova is a popular genre of music that has been used in many famous tunes, such as Corcovado, On Green Dolphin Street, and The Girl From Ipanema.

In bossa nova, rhythm is extremely important and is the backbone of the pattern.

In this lesson, you will be taught key strategies, methods, and approaches for achieving the sound of bossa nova on your guitar. The pattern will be broken down for you in detail, starting from the basics and building up the groove.

Additionally, you learn how to apply the bossa nova pattern first to a single chord with various bass approaches, and then to entire chord progressions.

Watch the video below to learn more:

Bossa Nova Guitar

Watch the video above for a detailed breakdown and demonstration of the bossa nova guitar fingerpicking pattern.

The Pattern

• Bass

An important part of the bossa nova fingerpicking bass is the bass. It occurs on beats 1 and 3.

Here is an example of this on a B7 chord:

• Harmony

Next, we add the harmony:

The Rhythm

The most important part of the bossa nova pattern is the rhythm.

One way to train the rhythm is to strum muted strings on your guitar accenting certain beats to get the feel:

Be sure to watch the video above for a demonstration of this so you can hear how it should sound.

Application

• II V I Progression

Here is an example of the bossa nova fingerpicking pattern applied to a II V I progression:

• Corcovado

Here is the bossa nova fingerpicking pattern applied to the opening 8 bars of the tune Corcovado:

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