: Is it possible to play bongos on bed? I'm not sure if this the right place to ask this, can a patient play bongos while in bed? He cannot bend one of his knees. I understand that there is a bongo stand that can be put on

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Using a normal drum/cymbal stand with a boom arm would be likely to tip over while playing it. So my thinking would be to have a stand that straddles the bed with legs on either side and a bar going across the bed. The stand would be similar to a drum rack like this:

These type of drum racks are quite expensive (at least 0 or more) and probably overkill for just a set of bongos, but you could probably rig up a similar design using inexpensive PVC pipe. Something like this:

PVC pipe will be lighter but place something heavy over the bottom feet and it should stay in place and not move around. This type of PVC stand will also come apart easily so you can store it away when he's not playing.

Next you will need some kind of bongo clamp that will grip the bongos themselves like this (but without using the part that attaches to the seat):

And finally a clamp that will clamp the bongo stand to the main drum rack/PVC rack.

Or you could try to DIY some kind of clamp/strap that will attach the bongos to the main stand and hold them in place to save money. Buying actual drum hardware will be a lot more expensive than rigging up something yourself.

So hopefully these give you some ideas. And if you decide to go with the PVC stand, then as an optional designer note you can spray paint it black so it doesn't look as bad as the cheesy white PVC pipe. :)

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"Proper" bongo technique requires the player siting with the instrument between his/her legs. This allows the arms and hands to approach the top of the instrument with the best angle (the bongos slightly bending outward from the player).

I expect it will difficult while sitting in bed to obtain this optimal situation and furthermore almost for sure the instrument will be to high in relation to the body, forcing to bend the wrists and/or keeping the arms to high, which will be prone to cause fatigue or even injury.

Also, a good pair of bongos is relatively heavy (and blunt) object, laying it over ones legs, let alone an injured one, for a long period of time will probably bee very uncomfortable.

Having said that, and in the interest of the patient :-) here are a couple of ideas:

A smaller instrument - serious players will frown upon this, but if the purpose is to entertain and/or allow to practice, a smaller, lighter instrument will be more favorable to use in bed.

A plastic (ABS) instrument - again, this won't probably satisfy a serious player, but it's very light and comfortable to handle (no blunt "bumps") , which may be the most relevant factor in this case.

A wooden "bongo cajon". I gather this is a comparatively expensive option but seems to provide the most stable base and seems to be a little less tall than regular bongos, which in this case will be an advantage. Note that I've never tried this tpye of instrument, so I don't know what kind of sound it produces and if the touch and feel is comparable to a "real" bongo (probably not).

If you have the chance look for these kind of alternatives in a store and see what could work best, if not, probably an ABS "regular" bongo would be most sure and cost effective bet.