Robonzo.com

One of my band mates, anxious to outfit me with a hand percussion instrument, recently purchased a Meinl cajon. Hand drumming is somewhat outside of my comfort zone. In fact, my experience with hand drums dates back a few years as a member of a percussion ensemble by the name of Groove Camp. Having now spent several rehearsals and gigs with it, I admit that the cajon has grown on me. More importantly, our audiences really dig it.

We’ve taken the time to record our new cajon at a couple of rehearsals and at one of our recent gigs. The sounds that we captured have made me a convert. I’ve found the trick to integrating the cajon into pop music, as pointed out by my band mates, is to imagine the snare and kick drum patterns normally played on the drum kit. My initial approach was to play more Latin influenced grooves. In the beginning I struggled to regain good hand drumming technique, while my band mates struggled to maintain and feel the original groove of our material. This went on until we circled back around to the absence of the kick/snare groove. The cajon provides a great kickdrum feel at the low-end middle of its front side. This particular model has wires strapped along the inside, which gives a great snare sound, especially near the top front side. Once I started playing the kick snare patterns and grooves, every song began to come to life. So the key, especially if you’re new to the cajon and/or hand drumming, is to think and play it like you would the drum kit, then spice things up with occasional Latin fill and groove. In addition to enjoying the cajon for what it offers, your performance will benefit from audience intrigue of this great percussion instrument.

See a number of phenomenal players by searching for “cajon” any number of video engines. Download me and the cajon with Redwood at a recent acoustic performance here.