My Youtube Lessons
Watch some of my Youtube lessons arranged in order for the beginner right here on my website. I have loads more video lessons on youtube! I would also recommend you subscribe to my youtube channel and go check out my specially made playlists.
If you enjoy my youtube lessons, you will definitely enjoy my NEW Modern Method for cajon video lessons! Check it out here
My Youtube beginners videos playlist
Below you will find my free cajon lessons for beginners, arranged in order as I believe you should learn the excercises. It’s a form of a cajon course. More videos and lessons to follow, even with guitarist and bassist, so keep an eye out! Be sure to subscribe to my Youtube channel and subscribe my newsletter to stay updated on new lessons & videos!
Lesson 1.
An introduction to the cajon, the basic sounds and a first excercise for the cajon
Lesson2
An introduction to the origin of the cajon and your first cajon funk groove
lesson 3
Funk / R&B / Hip-Hop – Basic 4/4 groove
Lesson 4
Here’s a basic Rumba groove lesson, explained and counted. A very important groove for any latin music!
Lesson 5
Blues/shuffle/R&B groove on the cajon Plus practise along song
Lesson 6
A first co-ordination groove lesson, where you learn to play with a brush,
your foot and your hand simultaneously, and learn the samba groove
Lesson 7
Learn your first Bulerias (flamenco pattern) on the cajon,
how to count it, clap it and play it.
Lesson 8
A reminder on how important posture is and how to get the optimum sound out of your cajon.
Lesson 9
Another co – ordination groove lesson, this time we look at the bossa nova
Lesson 10
A lesson on how to mic up your cajon for live concerts and studio work.
NEW LESSONS!
Modern Method for Cajon
I’ve compiled all the basics to get you started on the cajon! These are some fundamental lessons to help you build a strong foundation for becoming a great cajon player. Once you’ve gone through these and you got the hang of it, I would suggest you continue your learning with the Modern Method for Cajon 🙂
I trust that you will enjoy it immensely!
Let’s get started!
Playing time: 1hr 36 mins / 24 videos
I would love to hear from you!
What do you think of these lessons? Did you enjoy them? Do you have any questions? I would love to hear from you! Please leave a comment below!
115 Comments
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hola Heidi! hace rato que estoy practicando con tus videos, son excelentes!!! te felicito! tenia una consulta para hacerte, cuando empece a practicar note que se me habia hinchado una falange de la mano izquierda (con la que hago el sonido agudo en el cajon) del cuarto dedo contando desde el pulgar, y me dolia bastante, por lo que tuve que estar varios dias sin tocar…ese dolor se fue, pero ahora siento la misma hinchazon y dolor en la misma falange del dedo medio de esa misma mano, sera que estoy teniendo una mala tecnica al tocar o simplemente que mi cajon no es de buena calidad? tendre problemas futuros por los que deba ir al traumatologo?
mil gracias y un gran saludo desde Argentina!
I´m wainting for your reply! I really want to know what you think, if it´s missunderstood please tell me and I´ll write my question again 🙂 happy new year!!
Hello Paula, perhaps I did misunderstand your question, can you ask me again?? 🙂 Sorry!
ok! thanks for your reply! when I play the cajon it hurts me in the two middle fingers of the left hand… I mean, it hurts in the bones of that fingers, the phalanx. I wonder if I´m playing the wrong way or if simply it´s a bad cajon.. I tried to made my question easier haha excuse me for my poor english, cheers!!! and thanks you so much!
Hello Paula
It’s difficult to determine what is the problem if I cannot see you play, if you have a video or even a short vlip that shows how you hit the cajon and play, I would be better able to assist you in advising you as to whats the main issue, but you can be sure it is probably due to a mix of 2 things, 1, your technique (especially if you are a beginner, this is normal, it will take time for your technique to shape properly, just like learning to walk took time) and 2, if you haven’t got a good cajon, it is definitely partly due to that too!
But if you send me a little clip of you playing I can really give you specific advise ok!
Heidi
I am from Malaysia. Cajon is being popularised here in this country. Thank you so much for your wonderful lessons. I can’t find any teacher that teaches cajon, except watching and learning from youtube. Just a question, I am learning lesson 4 (rhumba), how can I speed up the rhythm? I can do it slowly, but once I speed it up, the whole groove collapse. Can give some tips how to speed things up? Thank you so much.
I made a cajon a couple of weeks ago and as I’m a drummer thought it would be easy to play the cajon. After looking at you lessons I’m now ‘feeling it’ and transferring my drum skills over. Impressed with you lovely, relaxed style. Keep it up girl:)
Thanks Dave!!! Hope your cajon sounds good! 🙂 Keep practising, it’s real easy!
Heidi
Ole!!!!!
Heidi, muchas gracias por tus clases y tomarte el tiempo….. Señorita a mi me gusta su style….
Very good Job, ur class its awesome, and been learning a lot….. Can u do one more class with the guitar,,, how to follow the guitar… Altos y bajos? Pls pls pls..:)..
Muchas Gracias…
Yamil from PR….
Rasta Nurse….
Hey Yamil
Great idea, I will definitely be looking into doing this for sure!!! Especially for the Flamenco eh! :-))
Keep updated with my lessons via my cajonbox newsletter ok!
Heidi
No se si sera muy tonto lo que te cuento, pero me cuesta mucho no hacer espejo con las manos, y lo hago al reves! jajaja..
Hola! Un gusto haber encontrado esta pagina, sos una genia! Siempre quise tocar percusion y me dijeron que empiece con un cajón peruano, que me encanta. Ahora estoy re feliz con tus clases pero practico con el borde de la silla jajaja… que cajon me recomendas que me mande a hacer? Que es el cajón cruz? Ojala vinieras a Argentina!!… Besos!
Hola Natalia! Gracias por las palabras, me alegro que te gustasen mis videos! 🙂 No entiendo muy bien lo que me preguntas acerca de que cajon te recomiendo mandar a hacer. Si te refieres al estilo de construccion, hay unos cuantos y es cuestion de gustos y necesidades. Antes habia basicamente cajones peruanos o flamencos, pero ahora hay muchas maneras de hacerlos. Hay alguien que los haga alla donde estas? El Cajon Cruz es mi marca. Me los hacen a mano en Espanya, y tengo dos tipos principales, uno con cuerdas de guitarra y el otro con cuerdas de piano. El de guitarra es mas flamenco y el de piano mas para musica moderna, pop, rock, funk, etc. No hago peruano de momento, porque pienso que el flamenco es mas versatil y tambien tiene mas tonos, el peruano es mas mate. El Cruz Cajon piano es un poco como el peruano, pero con un sonido mas agudo en la parte de arriba, sin el sonido mas como de snare drum que tiene el de cuerdas de guitarra, y tipicamente el cajon flamenco en general. Nada es mejor o peor, es cuestion de lo que te guste y de que musica vas a tocar con el! Si estas interesada en un Cruz, hago envios internacionales. Tengo varios clientes en la Argentina! Un beso
Ey! gracias por responderme. Si, es verdad, la traducción no es muy buena! jaja. Efectivamente te preguntaba con que cajón me convenía empezar… yo quiero hacer ritmos mas clásicos, salsa, ese tipo. Me conviene el flamenco entonces?. Cuanto esta el cajón cruz flamenco para comprarlo desde acá?. Saludos! y GRACIAS GRACIAS !!!
Hey Natalia!
Si, el Cajon flamenco es perefcto para ti! 🙂 At the moment we are adding new models to our Cruz cajon range, but the current Flamenco cruz cajon models cost £175 plus international postage and tracking at £55 to Argentina. All details are listed on the products page in our webshop!
Let me know if you need any more help!
Un salud
Heidi
I will be starting to follow your lessons soon when I have my Cajon. Will you come to Holland some day and perhaps perform at our little region radiostation?
I wouldn’t mind to perform at your radio station haha, it should be fun, Ek kan nie wag om Holland toe te gaan nie! :-)))
hello heidi!
your videos are great pls post more
maybe you make an europe tour?
thx
greetz from austria 😉
Hey Mike!
Thanks for the nice comment. We will be touring thu Europe next summer hopefully, keep an eye out!! 🙂
Heidi thank you and keep posting, i love your videos.
Greetings from Argentina. Please visit us!!!!!!
Hi Heidi,
I’m Mexican and i love the percussion, really get to work and learn a new instrument to forget everything, is beautiful!!!, thank your lessons are great!!!
Saludos y buena vibra!!
Hi Heidi ! I’m from Brazil !
When you come to visit us ? To personally appreciate your musicality!
Kisses,
Gudu
Hi everybody. Just received my new Cruz Cajon “Leon” all the way from Barcelona to Plovdiv, Bulgaria with no problems whatsoever. It is number 5 and fresh from the workshop. Looks great, now starting to annoy the neighbours (joke) by practising everyday. Heidi I love your lessons as they are easy to follow but saying that I think the flamenco rhythm will take me some time to master (got to learn to count in spanish – right!) keep music live! Phil, Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
Hello Phil
Wow nice one thanks man, super DUPER happy to see that you enoy our CD and your new Cruz cajon! Happy neighbour disturbing haha! Un dos, un dos tres….. 🙂
Heidi
Hello Heidi,
The cajon is brand new to me. Saw your videos and went out the next day and got myself a cajon. Today I will follow your first lesson with my new cajon. I play the guitar and I am hoping I can add the cajon to my music. I started with guitar a year ago. Looking forwards to learn more about this beautiful instrument the cajon. Thank you for sharing your knoledge with us. Can´t wait to be able to introduce some sounds to my own music. I loved your lessons!!! Love hearing you play!!!
Thank you for introducing the cajon to the world!!!
I had bought the cajon recently and I didn’t know how play this instrument. Since the cajon in Poland is still few popular instrument, I have no place to learn on it. I was looking for something on the internet for a long time, but no lessons didn’t fit me, and I didn’t understand a lot of words because I don’t know English so well 😛 And today, something wonderful happend – I found your lessons and immediately I liked how you play and how you explain. Your videos are very helpful !
As you can see, your lessons help people from all over the world, it is amazing, thank you for this very, very much! You are great! And I hope you will continue this videos, that why I wish you so much strength and an even greater love for what you do!
Greetings from Poland 🙂
Thanks for the awesome tutorials! After a few weeks of watching your videos and practicing I actually had the courage to join a local Flamenco group, you’re an amazing teacher.
I think I just fell in love. Your lessons are great! Thank you.
Hi Heidi,
Thanks for providing these superb video lessons. For me as a beginners it is sometimes hard to follow – event though I play drums for a while now. One thing that is particularly weird is having to “mirror” you in my brain – your right hand is on the left on the screen. Probably it would make sense to mirror your videos, or introduce a different camera angle filming in “birds eye view”. Or simply to have the tabs/scores published under each video. Your RLRL notation with the bold letters is a very good idea, but putting it below the video as text or picture would be helpful for practicing, without having to rewind the video.
Keep up the excellent work!
Oliver
Dear Oliver!
Thank you for the fabulous tips!!! I honestly did not think about mirroring my vids yet, that is simply genius!!! When I get a better vid editing software, I will definitely do that!!1 Thanks buddy, for sharing your very nice ideas here! 😉 Preciate it a lot!
Finding your lessons a perfect warmup before meeting at a community drum circle in Casper, Wyoming. Many thanks!
Hi David!
All the way from Wyoming, USA!!! Thanks for the nice comment, a community Drum circle Sounds groovy! 🙂
I’m from Madrid, Spain, so I do not speak or understand English very well, but I am learning a lot from your video lessons.
It’s a shame not to live in the same city and country to attend your classes.
Thank you.
Yo Antonio!
Gracias por el mensaje! 🙂 I am happy to hear you are learning, perhaps you learn some english from my lessons too while you’re at it, jaja! I might be visiting Spain for group classes and workshops in the coming year, sign up to my newsletter to stay updated on whats happening! And thank you for the nice comment, I appreciate it!
Saludos desde Londres
Thank you for keeping this updated with even more lessons! This is starting to become my new favorite site, it’s my one stop place for all things cajon. Thanks again Heidi for keeping me excited and motivated to learn more and push myself as a beginner cajon player.
Keep up the good work,
Dusten
:-))) Great to hear man!!! Will be posting up more vids as we go along.
Hi. I found your videos on youtube and since then found and now use your web page. Its great to have a page structured like this in order of which to follow the videos. Having learnt guitar by youtube its hard as all the videos are mixed together with no order, but its nice to be able to follow a method such as you have laid out, of which meant I went and bought my first Cajon today, a DG Chanela of which you are teaching me well.
Thank you kindly for the help and inspiration,
Michael
Hey Michael!
Thanks for the great feedback! It’s wonderful to hear I have somehow inspired you to get a cajon! Remember to check out my cruz cajons when you feel like a new cajon huh! 🙂 Keep practising bro, I will be posting up more vids, as much as I can, to help you keep learning!
Cajon love
Heidi
Hi Heidi,
Im brazilian but I live in Barcelona. Your video lessons are amanzing!!!! I didnt have any idea of how to play the cajon, and now only 3 weeks after I started practicing, I can follow all your lessons. Please keep uploading more videos, they are great and help a lot!!! I always thought that my right hand would be the “smart” hand, but sudenly I found out that the smart hand is the left one 😀
Actualy, when I´m playing I disconect from all my problems, its an hour of my day that I relax. I love it!!
Can ask you a couple of things? First of all, when are you planning to come to Barcelona? And the second thing is, can you teach the TURN (I dont know if thats the word I have to use… between the compasses)?
thanks a lot
xxxx
Hello Hello!!1
what a wonderful testimony on my lessons, I am so so glad I could help you leanr in just 3 weeks!!! :-))) As per your questions, I will be visiting Barcelona very woon (wiuthin the next 3 months), we might play a bit too, but I am actually going to the Prk workshop where they hand make my cruz cajones, so I am very exctied!! and as per turning the compass, I am a bit unsure of what you mean? Sorry….
Cajon love
Heidi
Hahaha what i wanted to tell you before is actually called brake!
I can do your excercises but i cant put them into a whole, Please help me Heidi!!
So when you coming you gonna do a workshop, because i would love to be a part of it and when and where are you playing???
Thank you so much!!
Hello Fernanda!
Where are you based, in London? If so I might be starting up a workshop on cajon sometime in September or October! 🙂 Sign up to the newsletter to stay updated! Mwha!
You are Amazing and Brilliant Cajon Player as well as trainor I have ever seen in my life. All your uploaded videos are very good. Keep uploading some more videos for beginners. Thank you very much for providing this wonderful training.
Regards,
Naveen G
Hello Naveen!
Thank you very much for your generous comment, it is always wondeful to hear how my work affects ppl’s lives, it is so encouraging! Thank you! It means a lot…