A box with a heartbeat
Cajon means "drawer" or "box" in Spanish. It is a box drum: you sit on it and play the face — the front panel — with your hands, fingers or brushes, and really with anything, even your feet.
By striking different areas of the face, and by applying pressure with the heel of your hand or foot while playing, you draw out an amazing range of tones and timbres — from deep bass-drum lows to sharp, snare-like highs. That range is why the cajon is used in modern music as a whole drum kit in a box.
The box that breaks invisible chains
The cajon was born among the African slaves taken to Peru, whose skin drums were prohibited. Working the ports and plantations, packing fish and vegetables into wooden crates, they began playing their heartbeat rhythms on the boxes around them.
Out of that defiance and that longing for rhythm, the Peruvian cajon was born — the heartbeat of Afro-Peruvian music, in styles like the festejo.
The Flamenco Cajon
Three hundred years on, the cajon had become an absolute national pride of Peru. In 1977, on tour in Lima, the legendary flamenco guitarist Paco de Lucía attended a gathering at the Spanish ambassador's residence, where the great Peruvian singer Chabuca Granda performed with percussionist Caitro Soto — and a cajon was given to Paco as a gift.
It was his percussionist, Rubem Dantas, who fell for the sound first — the box reminded him of the table in his grandmother's house in Bahía — and who proposed bringing it into the group. Dantas fixed guitar strings against the inside of the front board, giving the box the snarier, airier voice flamenco needed.
Until that moment, flamenco's only percussion was hand claps and foot stomps accompanying the guitars, the singing and the dance. In 1981, Paco de Lucía's "Solo quiero caminar" became the first flamenco album to feature the cajon — and the instrument was adopted almost instantly as flamenco's main percussion.
A drum kit in a box
For decades, the cajon stayed a well-kept secret of Peru and flamenco, until a very few unsuspecting pioneers began to discover it right at the dawn of social media and YouTube, when the world became one small village. One of them was Heidi Joubert, a young lady from South Africa, who found the cajon through flamenco and fused it into modern Western styles. With its strings, it was ideal: it sounded like a drum kit in a box, bass drum and snare in one instrument.
Through pioneers like Heidi Joubert, Paul Jennings and Ross McCallum — and the reach of YouTube and the internet — the cajon spread far beyond Afro-Peruvian music and flamenco into modern music: drummers using it for stripped-down kits, acoustic sets, smaller clubs and church groups adopting it as a substitute for the drum kit.
The bridge — and it's only just begun
In the last ten years, the cajon has inspired a wave of innovative new instruments — Heidi's Travel Cruz Cajon, the Bongo Cajon, compact cajon kits — a whole new hybrid family growing between percussion and the drum kit.
The cajon is the bridge between percussion and the drum kit — and its story has only just begun.
The story has only just begun — be part of it
The cajon is still writing its history, and you can help make it. Join the largest community of cajon players — sign up to my newsletter and be the first to hear about awesome cajon workshops, cajon festivals and cajon camps coming your way.
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Leave a comment
9 comments
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Hello Heidi,
I am a self-educated djembé player and I discovered by chance this wonderfull instrument.
Il realy enjoy by playing percussion.
I saw your lessons videos on youtube and I realy liked them.
So I decided to become a cajon player.
And as I make wooden furniture, I decided to build myself my cajon.
The varnish is now dry and I’m a hurry to play tonight with my choir.
I want to thank you for your great videos. -
Saludos Heidi,
I am starting to play Djembe and now looking into buying a cajon from you here in the USA. It will be expensive but if the sound is what I hear in your videos I am in.I have tried alot of cajones at stores and they are cheaply made (warped wood or not constructed well with a bad snare sound.
I am going to revolutionize my own cajon sound and style of playing.I can feel it. I hope the quality is what I think it will be and … see you out there in cajon world!-
Ole! Kick some butt!
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Hei, I’m Iwan from Indonesia, what is the different between the trapezoidal cajon and the plain box cajon? thanks
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Hello Iwan! Aku dari Malaysia. Trapezoid Cajons are played on the top of the drum, like a Conga(not Conga strokes, just played like one). You do not get to sit on the drum like a normal Cajon. Most of them have no strings, so they sound like a Peruvian. Hope I helped.
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I’m brasilian cojonist Nd i will Be in London from 3 to 7 of november and i would like to have a lesson with you, is that possible ?
How muth is it ? Do you have a telefone number to talo to you?
Thks for all! -
Hallo Heidi. I was recently given a Cajon as a gift and have found your onnlie videos very helpful in learning to play thank you for your generosity in providing them and for sharing your talent! I hope soon to be busking with a friend who plays guitar, and would like to add a small cymbal like the one you are using on the video in Liverpool station. Does this have a particular name, and is it something that regular music shops stock? Or can you suggest an onnlie supplier? Finally do you have any plans to perform in South Wales where I live (or somewhere near)? I would love to hear Fernandos Kitchen live. Cheers Les.
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Hello!
i use many different cymbals, and have just today talked with a distribution company to sell cymbals in our online store! I would say a good one to start with is the Stagg 8 inch splash, it’s cheap too!!!
Good luck with the busking, please send me some vids whne you do have some up, I would love to see it!
Heidi
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Heidi,
Greetings from a new fan. I was born into a family of music and all things entertaining, and found myself naturally gravitating toward the natural sounds and rythmic beats of percussion and thanks to my very loving father who helped me believe, and always encouraged me to push myself beyond my comfort zone which is how I overcame my fear of failure, and the difficulty of having extremely small hands/fingers my weaknesses to decently pick and strum acoustic guitar