while the player holds the güira firmly with one hand while using the scraper with their dominant hand, the güira is usually brushed (lightly scraped transversely) steadily on the downbeat with a preceding "and-a" in its characteristic galloping figure; it is also sometimes played in more soloistic complex patterns that still generally mark the tempo. modern cumbia also sometimes features a (metal-sided) güira instead of the traditional (gourd-bodied) guiro. typical rhythmic patterns for cumbia include the "golpe" ("gallop").