The alfaia is a Brazilian membranophone. It is a wooden drum made of animal skin tensioned or loosened through ropes placed alongside the body of the instrument. Alfaias are usually between 40 centimetres (16 in) and 55 centimetres (22 in) in diameter. Their construction is similar to 19th-century American and European military or , and Latin American wooden bass drums. Their drumheads are clamped to the body through large wooden hoops, and they are played with distinctly-shaped thick wooden drum sticks. Sometimes the stick used in the dominant hand is marginally larger than the one used in the weak hand.