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Hey there! So I've just been doing some cajon practice and today I thought I'd do something
a little bit different and bring all my gear out here. I've just gone for a little bit
of a walk. And I thought this would be a nice place to share something that I've been working
on today with you guys. So I wanted to look at one thing in particular today. I've just
been having a lot of fun with that old foot slide. And I've been thinking about how I
can really use the dynamic of that and make sort of more of an impact when the grooves
comes in. So I want to show you two fills today. And the first one's fairly simple to
give you a bit of an idea. And then the second one has got a couple of other things that
you can practice and work on. So let's start off with the first one. It's just a 16th note
fill, so just one e and a two e and a three e and a four e and a. And we just do a full
bar of that followed by a full bar of groove. So what really makes that fill is just the
couple of accents that we've thrown in. So if we count it out we get: One e and a two
e and a THREE e and a FOUR e and a. And then you're into the next bar. And it's like those
extra accents they really set that up because what happens is you take out all the volume
when you put your foot on the caion and you slide it down and you've got that quiet kind
of pitch bend and you sort of hit 'em with the couple of accents and then it's into the
next bar. So, there's something that we can get started with. Let's check out the next
one! We've got a couple of things going on there. The first half is a herta which is
one of those rudiments. Anyway, I've got a video about that if you want to check that
out. But then the second part of that is the triplet where you kind of run down the rest
of the fill and then really smack it down on beat one. So the trick with this one and
probably something you could apply to the other one as well is just to start off the
fill just as quietly as possible and then use that dynamic of the pitch bend down to
really make the impact on beat one of the next bar. And so with all this stuff about
dynamics in mind, here' s just a couple of ways that you can really play with some of
the quietest and loudest sounds on your cajon. It just comes down to a couple of interesting
techniques that I've been trying to work on. So the first trick that I want to show you
is just using one finger on each hand and then sort of building that up into using the
whole hand just to create that dynamic shift. So by starting out that fill with just one
finger and then two, then three, then the entire hands, what I was able to do is really
build up the body of the sound from almost nothing to as loud as possible. And more than
just hitting the instrument with less force, what really helps that dynamic, and this is
kind of the main point. We're altering not just the way that we hit it but how we hit
the drum. And that's a really nice way to practice dynamics. And so there we have a
few things that I've been thinking about when I've been practicing cajon today. So we've
got the easy fill and the slightly more difficult fill and a couple of tips on how to think
about your dynamics and how to not hit the drum with more force, or less force to create
dynamics but change what you're hitting the drum with. So just a few things to think about
when you're practicing next. I'm probably going to continue practicing out here for
a little while. It's kind of nice. I'll see you guys on the next video any way! So if
you want to keep up to date with all my new videos. If you're checking these out for the
first time. You can always subscribe to the channel and you'll be the first to know when
there's a new video. So see you guys on the next one!