Category: Auxiliary Percussion

A cowbell song immediately stands out whether the listener is thinking about the cowbell or not. It’s an instrument that you cannot avoid easily and often becomes an element that glues the song...

Getting called to play cajon on a gig is not always easy for a drum set player to accept. This is a call I’ve fielded for many years now, and I’m always left with the same question: What will it...

Timbales are shallow single-headed drums that developed in the Cuban dance bands of the 19th and 20th centuries. They are widely popular in many different types of modern Latin bands, and learning...

The cajon’s place in music is both popular and diverse. From the mountains of Peru to the islands of the Caribbean, boxes have been used to substitute other drums for hundreds of years. What’s...

“Don’t you have some bongos?” I used to hear that all the time when a full drum set was too much for the situation. This question annoyed me when I was younger, but eventually I became curious...

The situation is undeniable when a non-percussionist asks me for something to shake, like a tambourine or a shaker. Frankly, I don’t think many people realize how much auxiliary percussion impacts...