h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Cuica (or Cuíca) - A37292808
Author: 2legs - Help support 'Nose Aid', so I can get a replacement nose...: F64235?thread=5659307 - U169793

This has been in edited guide writing workshop forum a while, the conversation for which should* be; F10431939?thread=5602477
I think it still needs a bit of work, but not really quite sure what, there doesnt' appear to be a great deal more information on the cuica itself, hence why I put the introductory bit about Samba in to make it a bit more of a decent length...

come-on it ain't that* awful... honnest

Might help if you ran it through a spell checker
Here's some corrections anyway


origion -origin
Rio de Janiero-Rio de Janeiro
ohter - other
Barenaked - bare naked
matterials - materials
useually - usually
perpendicula - perpendicular
comfetably - comfortably
origionated - originated
origionally - originally
mimik - mimic
femal - female


Other musicians to use it include: # Lighten Up -- Beastie Boys: Check Your Head (1992)
# Spider -- Herbie Hancock: Secrets (1976)


cheers

I really must get myself a sensible working spell check for entrys I'll try add those in and put in the corrections later today after I've done some work

Google tool bar is a good thing to have, it has all these'buttons' you can add to it and the spell check is a pretty good one. It quite often gives you British english and American english alternatives which is a good thing.

Apart from thinking that you only wrote this so you could get Bare Naked Ladies into an entry - I'm a bit stumped as to what could be added too.

I don't know much about other samba percussion, but I guess I could find out, but then it'd be more of an entry on 'Samba percussion' rather than just the cuica I'm also hoping to be able to record some sounds from my cuica to accompany the entry at some point as an aviators thing I'll have another* go at getting round to doing the corrections to this today, never found time yesterday as th enew bass guitar arrived ooo guess thats another entry to write then

maybe the Cuica's European relatives? The Rommelpot and Brummtopf (Dutch/Flemish and German respectively) use a very similar method, and I know there's a Romanian and a Hungarian version, too...

Ooo never heard of those its looking more and more like the weekend before I'll get a chance to have a look at making the changes to the entry this damn work project thing,... really getting in teh way of stuff, I may have to complain about all this work they keep giving me to do to my manager

, 2legs.

And I believe there's also an Italian version, Here's a French language site with a lot of different names for the instrument.

http://dictionnaire.sensagent.com/Tambour%20%C3%A0%20friction/fr-fr/

Oh, and in Dutch it's got *two* names - 'rommelpot', as Mala already mentioned, but also 'foekepot'.

And the related Low German Rummelpott, of course

I've a bit of a quibble with you regarding this bit, 2legs:

"It is a good idea to hold it like this with the head pointing upwards at a 45 Degree angle, as this will prevent moisture from the cloth from ending up on the drum head; This could potentially weaken the drum head and lead to it ripping or tearing."

I think this is simply wrong. As the skin absorbs moisture, it expands, it becomes more slack, and the sound of the drum becomes deeper as the tension is lower. A lot of people who play goat-skinned drums intentionally dampen the skin with water to give it a deeper timbre.

The drier the head, the tighter the head, and the tighter the head, the greater the risk of ripping and tearing.

Any progress with this, 2legs?

err err aaa err,

can I lie and say 'yes'? which means... err nope entirley forgotten about it I'll try* have a look at it tonight or over the weekend really sometimes I have a mind like a... err... ya know one of those thigns... with holes in it.... rice....

Things with holes and rice in them?

You have a mind like a stuffed pepper?

yes. white and kinda squishy on the inside, and green or red on the outside

Content wise, this looks pretty much there - in fact it reads nicely. Sure there's punctuation and grammar and spelling stuff that needs clearing up, but that's not the be all and end all.

Do have anything more to add to this 2legs?

Looks *nearly* ready for picking...

ERrr, yeh, and err, I was just letting it marinade for a while... did I have anything specific to change/put in/take out? I can't quite remember

I found the "Brief History of Samba" was a bit offputting, as you spring it on us very suddenly, with warning. I'd prefer to see the descriptions of the instrument come first. After you have mentioned that the Cuica is used in Samba music, then you can put in the brief history of Samba.

You can make quite a passable temporary cuica from a McDonalds coke container with lid and a straw.