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Hi, I'm Ross McCallum and today I'm here with the cajon. Now, this is one of my favourite drums,
It's so fun to play and it's extremely versatile
Now this video all about sharing some my enthusiasm for the cajon
though, we're going to get you going with some basic grooves but first
We'll have a listen to how it sounds,
and then get into the basics.
Now the first thing that we need to do is get comfortable at the cajon.
So when we sit, I want to make sure that my back is nice and straight
and that my arms are fairly relaxed and feeling kind of loose and ready to move.
Now the hands, I set them up just
up at the top of the cajon, at the playing surface here. And the other thing that I like to do is lean back
just slightly, so that these rubber feet are just off the ground
and I can reach more the drum more easily.
Now that we're comfortable at the cajon, let's look at the different sounds that we can make.
I like to keep things very simple, I just work with a simple bass and a snare.
So let's start with the bass.
We need to use most of the palm, but really focusing on the finger lengths.
And what we do is we find the resonant low on the front plate here.
When you do strike the drum, try not to deaden the sound too much by
pushing in, let the hand bounce off to let it resonate.
Now let's look at the snare.
The snare is a pretty similar thing but
we set up with the knuckles just about at the top of the cajon and use just the fingers to get this sound...
And they're the two sounds that we need to start playing some grooves on the cajon.
Okay, now the fundamental skill in building up grooves is
sequencing those sounds together.
And in music we're always talking about this in terms of
"patterns" and "beats and bars".
So let's make a pattern in a bar of 4 beats.
And we're going to have bass on 1, bass on 2
snare on 3, snare on 4.
So this pattern is really helpful for developing those bass and snare sounds.
You can really hear when one of them isn't quite keeping up.
because we're using both the right and left hands. So what we're going for is
a lot of consistency.
And you'll be able to hear when you've got that.
After a bit of practice you want each hit sounding big and open.
Now with all that together, let's learn a really popular groove
that you'll find useful in all kinds of musical settings. It's called the basic rock beat.
And the pattern for the basic rock beat is:
Bass on 1, snare on 2,
Bass on 3, snare on 4.
Now, as we repeat it, you start to hear that it flows quite nicely.
For starters we'll just do this with the right hand and then we'll bring in the left hand with its own special purpose.
Now, what I want to show you with the left hand
is how to fill in the gaps between
those bass and those snare strokes.
Now, this is a basic version of what we call the "rhythm tree".
You can see that we've got quarter notes, eighth notes and sixteenths.
In that basic rock beat that we played
our 1, 2, 3 and 4 that we counted - These are quarter notes.
For every quarter note you can fit two eight notes,
for every eighth note you can fit two sixteenth notes.
So, let's bring that left hand into our basic rock beat now.
What we need to first is count the bar in eighth notes.
So we've got 1 and 2 and
3 and 4 and.
And the left hand is playing those "ands" in between
the bass and the snare. Let's have a listen to that now.
Notice that with the left hand, I've been playing those strokes on the "and" notes a lot quieter.
Now these are ghost notes, and what they are is a way
you can add to the feel or fill in the space around a groove.
Now, we keep them quiet enough
to maintain the main pulse which is that,
bass, snare, bass snare.
I use them all the time just because of this and I think they sound great.
What we can do to take that one step further is to play these as 16th notes.
So again, we re-count the bar, this time as:
one e and a two e and a
three e and a four e and a.
So you can hear that we've got 4 sub-divisions to each beat.
Now again, the bass and snare is just on the
1, 2, 3 and 4.
And then using those ghost notes, we're going to fill in those other 16ths.
Let's have a listen to how that sounds.
In a lot of the grooves that I play on the cajon
I make big use of those 16th notes. Basically, I like the way that it feels
to have that constant motion
playing each 16th note as it comes up. Other than that you can
really accommodate some more complex rhythms more easily.
Because if you have an 8th or a 16th note variation
on the bass or the snare. It fits in with the motion
that you've already created.
Okay, so the next groove that I want to show you is a variation on that basic rock beat.
Now, the variation comes in as a
bass note and it's played on the "and" of 2.
Now to show you what I mean, I'll count out the bar
and I'll play at the same time so that you get the idea.
Let's make things a bit more interesting. I've got one more variation to show you
where the bass lands on a 16th - The "a" of 3.
Now, on top of that, the snare lands on the 2 and 4
as usual. As we get into it
I'll count out each beat and I'll play along.
So once you've got that together
you can start to make your own variations.
All you need to do is count out the bar (1 e and a 2 e and a 3 e and a 4 e and a)
And then you find different spots on that timeline
where you can put in different bass and snare strokes.
It gives you a lot of groove potential.
Now, here's a few more variations that I've come up with. Let's have a listen to those.
Now, I'm sure we could have a lot of fun just playing grooves.
But sometimes we have to stitch them together. A lot of the music we listen to has
different sections with different grooves.
And a lot of the time, we need some way of bridging that gap
between groove A and groove B. So what that might mean is a
fill of 16 snare strokes
Just something that fits between those but is different enough to
create easy transition. Now, I'll show you what I mean
with just a little exercise that I've come up with, we're just going to play
a few bars of groove A, then our fill
and then groove B.
Okay, now let's try a fill with a bit more variation.
I'm going to use all of those 16th notes to my advantage here.
And I've come up with a pattern.
Okay, let's have a listen to how that's going to sound.
Not every fill should cover the whole bar. A lot of the time I use just a 2 beat fill.
So what that means is starting on beat 3 of the bar
and filling all the way to beat 1 of the next bar.
I'll show you how that sounds.
These are great when you don't need your fill to be big and dramatic.
A lot of the time it's all about letting the feel of the playing
breath for just long enough so that when
you come back to the groove you come back comfortably.
Now that we've been through some of the basics of playing some grooves and some fills on the cajon
I want to share with you a few more ideas.
This one's called the foot slide technique and what it allows you to do is
change the pitch of the cajon as you play it
and to do it all you have to do is bring one of your feet on to the playing surface
and then slide with your heel up and down while playing.
Something else that really brings the cajon alive for me is this technique called the finger roll.
And all there is to it really is just alternating different strokes using different fingers on each hand. I'll show you how that works.
Now I mentioned earlier how versatile the cajon is.
Let's see what happens when I attach a pedal.
Now one of the greatest things about having this bass pedal is
that I can create a constant pulse and then have the freedom to use my hands
to create interesting rhythms on top of that. Let's see how it sounds.
There's just so much potential with the cajon.
You've seen how versatile it is, it's a lot of fun to play
and this video has just been about the basics but enough to get you started with your band.
and soon you'll be in the studio, on stage and having a lot of fun.
Now, when you do sit down to practice,
even if you are an absolute beginner, just keep in mind that
everything's going to start out really slow,
every groove is going to start out really calculated, getting each hit right.
But then, just keep in mind that with all the practice that you do, that's going to turn into something great.
Now, if you do have any questions,
on YouTube, just post them in that comment section
and I'll be around replying to them as much as I can.
Thanks for watching my Groove Guide, I hope you got a lot out of it, I'll see you on the next video!