Cavaquinho Warrior character art

The Cavaquinho, Batida First

Every page here speaks cavaquinho as a first language: which eighths get a down stroke, which get an up stroke, which get chopped into a mute, and what note the chop puts on top.

Cavaquinho Chords The Batidas Scales Tuner

Free, playable references for the cavaquinho — every voicing charted for the D–G–B–D strings, with the batida cell it can chop through alongside and every derived number recomputed in CI.

One Neck, Three Cells

One instrument covered deeply rather than four covered thinly: the four-string cavaquinho, plus the three batida cells that turn its chords into rhythm.

Cavaquinho

  • Tuned D–G–B–D — the open strings spell G major
  • 4 single steel strings on one fretted neck
  • The chop engine of samba and choro

Samba

  • Four mutes in eight slots
  • The busiest chop of the three cells
  • A struck final eighth — the mute that pushes

Teleco-Teco

  • Six ringing strokes, two mutes
  • A near-constant down-up chug
  • The busiest strike count of the three

Choro

  • No mute anywhere in the bar
  • Three rests, room to breathe
  • The settled cell

What Lives Here

Chords

Every key and quality charted string by string, frets and fingers named — ready for a batida to chop through.

Scales

Note maps across the four strings with every root marked, ready to be phrased as fills between cells.

Fretboard Explorer

Light up any set of notes across the DGBD neck — small enough to actually memorise.

Progressions

Each key's chord family, arranged for the roda — see which chords the turnaround leans on.

Exercises

Daily chopping and timing drills with tab and playback built in.

The Three Batidas

Samba, teleco-teco, choro — every cell recomputed slot by slot in CI, mutes included.

Chord of the Day

The network's shared daily pick — read as a top voice and an open-string ledger.

Free Tools

Tuner, metronome, theme builder — in the browser, no sign-up.

How It Works

1

Start From a Root

Pick a root and a quality — every charted voicing arrives on the D–G–B–D strings with its frets and fingers named, drawn for this neck and no other.

2

Read It String by String

Charts name what each string carries, scale maps mark every root, and the cell tables say which eighth gets a down stroke, an up stroke, or a mute — and which are silent.

3

Set It Moving

Playback on every voicing, drills with tab and sound, and three computed cells to chop any chord through — a chord you can only hold still is a chord you have not learned yet.

The Batida's Home

Cavaquinho Warrior is the Warrior Network's deep home for the cavaquinho. On a cavaquinho the interesting question is rarely which chord — it is which eighths get a down stroke, which get an up stroke, and which get chopped into a mute. So this site is built from the batida outward: chords charted ready for a cell to chop through, scales mapped as raw material for the fills between cells, and every derived number recomputed in CI rather than copied from a book.

Cavaquinho Questions, Answered

More on the full FAQ page.

What makes Cavaquinho Warrior different from a general chord site?
Every page is written from the batida inward: chords are charted ready for a cell to chop through, scales are mapped as material for the fills between cells, and the three batida cells are recomputed slot by slot in CI rather than copied from a book.
What tuning does this site use?
D–G–B–D, the Brazilian standard the registry models — four single strings whose open notes already spell a G major triad, with the two outer strings sounding the same D an octave apart.
I play ukulele or guitar. Will any of this carry over?
The left hand carries over quickly — four strings tuned in a familiar-feeling shape. What is new is the right hand's job: a cavaquinho states rhythm as a repeating batida cell rather than a strum, and the cell pages teach exactly that.
Do I need to read music to use this site?
No. Everything here is charts, tab, and playback — string numbers, fret numbers, and audio on every voicing and drill, so the ear can vet a shape before the fingers commit.
Does any of this cost money?
No — every chart, cell table, drill, and tool on Cavaquinho Warrior is free, with no ads, no account, and no upsell waiting at the end.