A yelping puppy, a scolding monkey, people have many descriptions of the sound of a cuica, A wonderfully versatile instrument, the cuica acts as a backup voice in small bands, a lead instrument in pop music, or a melodic touch to a samba bateria. What Sambadromo enredo can be complete without the reverberating, haunting wails of 80 cuicas! Cuicas are friction drums, producing sounds from the vibrations of a stick attached to the center of the drumhead inside the drumshell.