The shaky egg, the bodhran, the tambourine, and various other percussion instruments can be a great addition, provided they are in the hands of someone who knows what to do with them—and know when not to do with them. THIS is an example of the bodhran well-used.

Unfortunately, instruments of this type are generally acquired by the congenitally unmusical who are dying to participate—and could conceivably die as a result of their insisting on participating.

Back in the Sixties, the non-musical person's instrument of choice was a brace of bongos. On only two or three occasions did I encounter someone who actually knew what they were for (other than to garner dirty looks and muttered curses), and they were professional percussionists. Once, some guy with a pair of bongos wandered into a coffeehouse where I was singing and began earning the animosity of everyone in the place. When he tried to accompany me on "Greensleeves" (6/8 time really threw him off!), the owner of the place politely but firmly told him to put them under his chair and leave them there.

There was another guy who liked to sit there and bang on the edge of his table. The owner laid the law down to him, too.

Don Firth