Cajon!
I haven’t posted in a while, but im starting up again. So I was looking for a percussion instrument that i could start playing, but i didn’t wanna just jump into something that i wasn’t reaaly excited for. Then I discovered the cajon. Cajon is spanish for box and that is literaly what it is. It’s a box. The drum came from peruvian slaves that would play on shipping crates. Cajons of today have strings, snares or even bells inside the drum to give it more sound. The one i have is about as tall as my knee and as wide as my foot. On the front of the drum there is a faceplate, or tapa, which is loosely screwed onto the rest of the drum. This is the side that you mostly play on. My cajon also has a knob on the right side that adjusts the snare inside the drum. So how do you play it? First you sit down on it facing the side with the tapa. On the tapa there are two main hits, they are very similar to that of a conga drum. The slap: simply slap the drum a little inside of the corners to get a snare-like slap sound. The bass: slightly cup your hand and hit the tapa just above the center of it. The cajon is useful because its bass and snare sound make it a cheap and portable alternative to a drum set.
This group in the video isn’t exactly what I prefer to listen to but it’s a good example of a modern use of the cajon, and the guy’s voice is pretty good.
Pretty soon i think im gonna get a video of me playing it with a little group im in.
