Yesterday I brought home a new piece of percussion equipment.

Now, for those of you keeping score at home (i.e. my wife), it’s not as if I was particularly lacking for percussion instruments before. In fact, some people would say that I have too much percussion equipment (again, that would be my wife saying that.)

I already have a pretty well stocked bag of tricks - congas, bongos, timbales, djembes and more. I also have a Roland HandSonic V-Percussion Controller, which synthesizes hundreds of sounds in a remarkably accurate fashion.

But, as can happen, I was hit by the urge to buy a Cajon. So I did.

If you are not familiar with a Cajon, here is a picture of mine:

As you can see, the Cajon is essentially a box. In fact, cajon means ‘crate’ or ‘box’. A thin piece of plywood is attached to the front of the box, and on the inside there are a series of wires to create a timbre effect.

You play the Cajon by sitting on top of it, tilting it slightly, and striking the front of it. You can vary the sound based on where you strike the drum (center for bass, top for mids, very top for cracking highs). You can also perform muting effects with your feet.

Because you sit on the Cajon, it makes it a very easy to integrate into your percussion setup - you simply swap out your stool for your Cajon! The Cajon has a unique sound, found often in Flamenco music, as well as Peruvian and Afro-Cuban styles. More recently, the Cajon is becoming the go-to drum for rock, pop and country musicians doing “unplugged” gigs. This is because a Cajon can be played in a way that closely mimics the sound of a conventional drum set, meaning that you do not have to significantly alter the feel of the song.

After trying several models, I opted for the Latin Percussion Mario Cortes Signature Cajon. Of all of the models that I tried, it had the best all around sound. I really am impressed with the range of sound from this drum - it has very low lows and a nice snapping high. The drum projects quite well - so much so that my wife asked me if it was mic’ed (it wasn’t).

Well, that’s all for now. I’ve got drums to play!