I got a cajon for a while ago, and it's definitely the best bang for my buck I've gotten in a long time.

My younger son has got a knack for rhythm, and had been playing on the back of church pews for years. I'd been looking for some way to get him a drum kit, but the usual constraints (money, no place to put it, money, no room in the car, money, "what do you need another instrument for?"... money) stopped me from getting a real kit or even an electronic one.

We ended up getting a Aspire cajon. It's got snare wires inside instead of the more traditional strings inside, so it's got more of a "rock" sound.

It's great. My older son tried it out first, but he sort of floundered around. (He's now plays bass ). The younger one took to it like a duck to water - ten minutes later we were heading to church, and he's been playing ever since. I ended up getting a pair of Blastix and plastic brushes to add to the variety of the sound, but it sounds fine just played by hand.

You can play it as a "latin percussion" instrument, or as a replacement for a simple drum part. It's easy to lug around, and doubles as furniture. It's much quieter in a living room than a drum kit, but in halls and churches is loud enough not to need a mike. It's easy to fit into the car (I put the brushes inside it), and people love to play it. It doesn't much coordination to play, and is a ton of fun. If you've got a youth group or are looking for a percussion instrument, I highly recommend one.

-- David Cuny
My virtual singer development blog

Vocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?