The caxirola has been announced the official instrument for the 2014 football World Cup to be held in Brazil
The vuvuzela - a plastic horn rose to prominence during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Thousands of fans packed in a stadium used this blaring instrument to cheer for their favorite team and the vuvuzela soon became every soccer fan's favorite instrument. As the world gears up for another round of football madness during the 2014 football World Cup to be held in Brazil, the caxirola has been announced the official instrument for the event, according to a press release.
The instrument draws inspiration from the African caxixi and was invented by Brazilian musician Carlinhos Brown. It is more subdued than the vuvuzela and this was tested by Stephan Paul of the Federal University of Santa Maria in Brazil. He concluded that the newly designed caxirola posed no threat to the user's ear.
For the study, 22 participants who had never seen the instrument were asked to play it in the way they thought it should be played. All participants either shook it by its long axis or short axis. The sound the instrument made on both instances was audible though a recording device placed in the participants' ears. Researchers noted that the sound energy produced by shaking the instrument by its long axis was twice as much than that produced by shaking its shorter axis. However, since volume depends logarithmically on the sound energy, the difference was barely noticeable by the ear.
Researchers also found that the sound pressure levels produced during both playing styles were equal to that of a normal conversation. It was also roughly 45 decibels lower than that of the vuvuzela. Comparatively, you would need 30,000 caxirolas to produce the same sound pressure level as a single vuvuzela.
Even before the recent announcement, the instrument has been surrounded by controversies. The Instrument was banned for the Confederations Cup last summer after disgruntled fans hurled the instrument on the field during a match last April. Therefore, whether the ban will be lifted for the 2014 World Cup is yet to be decided.
