These are just a few of the various percussion instruments I play, because sometimes a drum machine just doesn't give you what you need. The large wooden box is a cajon. The front panel is loosely screwed on, and there is a guitar string stretched across the back to make it rattle. Depending on how and where you strike it, the cajon can sound like a bass drum and a snare drum. On top of the cajon is a cheap pair of bongos I found at 10,000 Villages. The round jug-looking object in front of the cajon is an udu. You play it by slapping your hand over the hole in the side, and you can adjust the pitch by cupping your hand over the top hole. It makes a rubbery buh-DOONK sound, and if you slap the sides it makes a noise like a bouncing basketball. The flat metallic object is an LP compact conga, which is supposed to sound like a conga .. it sounds like a conga head, but it doesn't have the resonant boom that you get from the large wooden body of a real conga. I use this occasionally for its specific sound; it also performs well with brushes as a quiet, fake snare drum.
Contents copyright 1994-2009 by JW Kennedy.