Cajon?

[Mark Robison]

Anyone have experience playing the cajon in a live "unplugged" setting? I'm thninking about getting one and wonder if anyone has any advice.....

[Tom Drenon III]

Yep,I play on on the road with Darryl Worley in an accoustic show. It is cool,however if your doing a long set it can get a little tiresome on your back as you have to bend over and tilt it back to play it. I found that if I take a small snare drum and set it up in front of the cajon it makes it a bit easier. I use my left hand for the kick and my right hand for the snare(with some sort of brushes) to play the snare part. It sounds better to me and our FOH engineer likes it better as well.
Also if you use the other brush in your left hand with the bass pattern it kinda gives it a little snap(top end) to help define the kick hits.
By using a small snare it also gives you the freedom of using the snare as a conga type drum,snares off of course.
This is only my obseravtion and one way of using it. They are fun and can add a lot to an accoustic show,I say get one and try it out.
If I were you I would get the new one with the footswitch that activates the snare bed,I got mine JUST before the came out with this feature and I wish I had that one instead. It makes it easier to go from snare to no snare with just a tap of your heal.
Good luck,hope this helps in some way!!!

Tom