Crazy woo-woo sound

Does anyone know the name of the instrument at the very beginning of this song? The one that makes the monkey noise. 🙂

Published by Matt

In 2002 I started contributing to Open Source software, and life has just gotten better from there. Co-founder of WordPress, founder Automattic.

22 thoughts on “Crazy woo-woo sound

  1. Matt, it would be helpful to know what lanuage this is, and/or where the music originated. It sounds like a samba beat, probably Portuguese, so I’m guessing Brazil. With those assumptions, I Googled “Brazilian musical instruments” and came up with a good possibility: The Cuica (the “i” should be accented).

    Nice song, by the way!

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  2. It’s tuned a bit high for a cuica; they’re usually pitched several octaves lower than that. There’s a good chance it’s actually a buhay, a very similar instrument from the Ukraine which has been picking up popularity in Samba for its similar variant sound.

    Cuica:

    Buhay:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tlLrEphmoI

    Mickey Mouse’s early whistling, such as in Steamboat Willie, was a buhay. (Sometimes you’ll see them called b[o|u]chka or berebenytsia.)

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  3. Thank you for asking this question and thanks to those who answered; you all have helped resolve a burning question amongst several of us in my office who like samba/bossa nova!!!

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