Shakers

The shakers that are not eggs: kashaka, chajchas, cajon shakers, fruit and vegetable sets and a few oddities.

The GMP kashaka is two small gourds joined by a cord, played by swinging one around the hand and catching it. It takes a few minutes to learn and it is genuinely satisfying once it clicks, which makes it a good instrument for a student who has decided percussion is too easy to be interesting.

Goat hoof chajchas are a bundle of dried hooves on a handle, from the Andes. The sound is a loose, dry rattle with no pitch to it at all, quite unlike a bead shaker.

Mini cajon shakers from MEINL and NINO are small wooden boxes with a sharp, dry sound and a clear attack, which lets them hold a rhythm rather than filling texture.

Fruit and vegetable shaker sets give a familiar shape to hold, which matters more than it sounds in early years, since a child can be asked for the banana rather than the third one along.

Also here: the MEINL finger motion shaker worn on the fingers, the NINO salt and pepper pair, the GMP djembe shaker, the SUZUKI BARcussion shaker on a key base, and the Ohana shakerlele, a shaker built in the shape of a ukulele body.