by Emily Caldwell, staff reporter

A few weeks ago, my friend brought her ukulele to our study session. Once I managed to get over the annoyance I felt towards both her and her baby guitar, I was intrigued by how quickly she said she had learned how to play, especially because she had only purchased the thing a few days before. I decided then that I was going to pick up a small musical instrument as a hobby (and bring it to all of our future study sessions so that she could suffer like I did). Except I didn’t know which instrument to choose. It had to be small, it had to be fun, and most importantly, it had to be something I could pick up easily (I did not want to spend a lifetime learning how to play it, so I decided to pick something in a field with which I was familiar). I eventually settled on a mini cajon.

I played percussion in middle school band, so I considered myself fairly decent at playing instruments of that nature. As far as cajons go, I actually found out about them by accident- I was scrolling through my Amazon search of ‘small drums’ and somehow managed to click on an add on the side. It brought me to this German website that claimed it make some pretty amazing cajons. I was befuddled: what is a cajon?

A cajon is basically a wooden musical box that, when you hit with your hands in certain ways and in certain spots, produces drum-like noises. The traditional cajons are these big wooden boxes that you sit on the top of and bend down to play between your legs. There are built-in snares in the middle of the box and as you get closer to the outside it becomes more acoustic-sounding in nature. They are rather popular among bands that use a whole lot more acoustic guitar than anything else (if you know Ben Howard, there is a lot of cajon-playing in his music) because the cajon is known for being a subtle instrument that doesn’t overpower the rest of the band. The version I purchased is a mini cajon, which is basically just the traditional cajon, but smaller, so that you can hold it in your lap or between your knees when you sit.

I ordered the Meinl Mini Cajon off of Amazon, and when I received it and pulled it out of the package, it was smaller than it looked in the pictures. Still, it appeared well built and well constructed. I was rather impressed with the quality with which it was made; for only paying $29.99, it exceeded my expectations. Sure, it was a pretty small instrument, but the quality did not suffer because of it, which was very comforting.

I began to play it, and almost immediately noticed that the mini-cajon struggled to produce any low, bass notes. I would hit where the guy on the instructional video hit (alright, yes, I used an instructional YouTube video), but it wouldn’t make the deep noise I thought it was going to. The only sounds I could get to come out of it were high-pitched tones and the snare sound you got from hitting it in the middle. The drum was also at times awkward to hold, but maybe that was just me and my gangly appendages.

Despite these small shortcomings, I absolutely loved it. And the best part was that my friends could play it, too. It is an incredibly fun instrument; I pretty much carry it around with me anywhere that’s not school. It’s convenient, versatile, and unique. If you are looking for a small instrument to pick up, whether you want to learn how to play percussion instruments or, like me, want to simply revive an old practice that used to be a part of your life, I highly recommend the cajon.