Chocalho

The chocalho is a member of the shaken and scraped idiophones (Hornbostel–Sachs 112.11). Learn how it makes its sound and explore related instruments.

How the chocalho makes its sound

In the Hornbostel–Sachs system, which classifies instruments by how they produce sound, the chocalho belongs to the shaken and scraped idiophones: the body is shaken, scraped or split – rattles, maracas and guiros.

More broadly it is one of the idiophones, where the solid body of the instrument itself vibrates, without strings or a stretched membrane.

Players shape its sound through technique and materials; the resonating body filters the raw vibration, boosting some harmonics and damping others.

From Wikipedia

"Chocalho" is the generic name for "shaker" in Portuguese. There are various types of idiophones using this name in Portuguese, not always being the same instrument:

a kind of jingle stick used to play samba music;