Cajon flamenco Camaron (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I first came to learn about Cajon when a friend of mine told me that he is going to build one. I hardly knew what Cajon meant at the time and why would any musician like to become a carpenter. Gradually I’ve started to understand the magic.
A Cajon (box in Spanish) is a unique percussion instrument. In its simplest form it’s a wooden box on which the percussionist sits and play it with his hands. It originated from Peru where it is called simply – Cajon. Paco De Lucia the famous Spanish guitarist fell in love with the cajon in one of his visits to Peru and immediately decided to adopt it to the well known Flamenco style of dance and music. That was the breaking point of the Cajon Flamenco and this is what made Cajon’s popular in many music styles. The Cajon’s ability to produce both high and low percussion sounds make it ideal for drummers or small groups who want a full drum sound without having to set the full drums gear.
Today the Cajon is used in traditional Latin as well as Rock, Pop and other modern music styles. The Cajon Flamenco has snare string that distinct him from the “dry” sound of the traditional Peruvian Cajon. There are dozens of Cajon manufactures around the world and it’s popularity reached Japan and China.
The Cajon simple structure made it ideal for Do It Yourself projects and for customizations. There are secretes behind Cajon buildings but there are many examples and demonstrations over the Web showing how to do it right.
I did not yet hear my friend’s Cajon nor did I start building my own, what I did is to build my own website dedicated to Cajons and to Cajon’s players. It’s on http://www.eCajonFlamenco.com, check it out and let me know what you think!
Related articles
- How To Build A Cajon Box Drum (mademan.com)
- What’s in the box? (rattledrum.wordpress.com)
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