Cuíca

Cuíca

Cuíca (pronounced KWEE-kah) is a Brazilian friction drum often used in samba music. The tone it produces has a high-pitched squeaky timbre.

The body of the cuíca is normally made of metal. It has a single head, normally six to ten inches in diameter (15-25 cm), made of animal skin. A thin bamboo stick is attached to the centre of, and perpendicular to, the drum head, stretching into the drum's interior. The instrument is held under one arm at chest height with the help of a shoulder strap. To play the cuíca, the musician rubs the stick up and down with a wet cloth held in one hand, using the thumb of the other hand to press down on the skin of the drum near the place where the stick is attached. The rubbing motion produces the sound and the pitch is increased or decreased by changing the pressure on the thumb.

The cuíca plays an important rhythmic role in samba music of all kinds. It is particularly notable as a fixture of Rio de Janeiro's Carnival groups, which feature entire sections of cuíca players. It is so commonly used in radio-oriented samba music that in the absence of a cuíca player, Brazilian singers or other musicians imitate the sound of the cuíca with their voices.

Examples of the cuíca in popular non-Brazilian music include:

• Paul Simon's "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard"
• The Millennium's "To Claudia On Thursday"
• Beck's "Tropicalia" on the album Mutations and "High Five (Rock The Catskills)" on the album Odelay, starting at 2:10 and finishing at 2:30
• Barenaked Ladies' "Enid"
• Bob Marley's "Could You Be Loved"
• Fishbone's "The Warmth of Your Breath" on the album Give a Monkey a Brain and He'll Swear He's the Center of the Universe
• Jamiroquai's "Music of the Mind" from the album Emergency on Planet Earth
• Miles Davis's later work, such as the Black Beauty: Live at the Fillmore West album.
• Dido's "Thank You"
• Gruff Rhys's "Gyrru Gyrru Gyrru" from the album Candylion