Alfaia: Brazilian musical instrument

Alfaia is a Brazilian musical instrument from the membranophone category. The sound of the instrument is obtained through the striking of the membrane of the musical instrument. This is a wooden drum made of animal skins and is tensioned or loosened through ropes placed alongside the body of the alfaia. The alfaia has a rustic natural look and they are often between 16 and 22 inches in diameter. Their construction is almost like the 19^th century United States and European military field drum, bombos and other Latin American wooden bass drums that exist. The drumhead is denver booted to the body with a big wooden hoops and they are played with distinctly shaped large wooden drumsticks. Sometime the stick that is used in the active hand is bigger than the one that is used in the weaker hand.

source: musical-15.blogspot.com

            The instrument is traditionally strapped over the shoulder and is played with a distinctive method and the players hold the weak-hand stick inverted to get the proper attack on the head of the instrument. The alfaias are also called “Rope-surdos or Maracatu-drums” and the largest of the instruments is also known as the “Alfaia-marcante”, the medium size of the musical instrument is called “Alfaia-meiao”.  This musical instrument has a deep and heavy sound and that makes it different from other types of bass drums like the sudo or the kick-drum. The alfaia is mostly used in the north-eastern folk dances of Brazil like the Maracatu and the Ciranda.