Working on this with a couple of students, I couldn’t find a simple straightforward page of Bossa Nova rhythms, with all the parts written out. Seems like a basic thing that should exist somewhere. I had to print out a page from Joel Rothman and crudely circle the parts I wanted him to work on:
Most serious musicians have pretty good handwriting, mine looks like a Cy Twombly painting:
Anyhow, here we go— some bossa warmup patterns, and a few performance patterns:
Play rim clicks on the snare drum with the left hand, play the right hand on any cymbal, or on the snare drum with a brush. Whenever you feel like it, add hihat played with your foot on beats 2 and 4. Tempo range for this is about quarter note = 120-180.
Get my short book Playing Samba and Bossa Nova for a fuller treatment of playing this style in a combo setting.