Chords for Cajon Lesson 1 - The Basics

_ _ _ _ _ Hi, in this first lesson we're going to start with basics.
We're going to take it right back to the beginning and start with the fundamentals of playing the cajon.
I'm going to show you the basic hits and some basic patterns.
I'll play it in three different speeds once we get to the patterns, but right now we're
just going to concentrate on how to stroke or hit the cajon in a correct way to achieve
the correct tone that you require.
_ _ _ So here we are, basics, right back to the beginning.
Now I use three main hits when I hit the cajon.
I use a bass tone, which is located here.
I use a slap tone, which is located here.
And I use a high slap tone, which is located on the edge here.
_ Now for this exercise, we should practice even strokes with both hands, no matter if
you're right-handed or left-handed.
_ We should just go through the three main strokes.
So starting with the bass one, _ slap, high slap.
_ Bass, slap, high slap.
And how you should hit the bass, you want your hand not cupped.
If you cup your hands, you're going to lose a lot of tone there.
You want it just slightly, so there's a slight cup in it, but [F] not_
You'll find it.
Once you hear the tone, [Em] experiment.
The slap, you know, you want your_
That's where your knuckles are there, for that slap.
It's going to be hitting with your fingers.
_ [N] On the edge, your knuckles here, _ wrapping the edge.
But not so you hurt yourself.
You don't want to hurt yourself.
The cajon is a piece of wood at the end of the day, and we're hitting a piece of wood.
We don't want to damage ourselves.
So let's practice that pattern.
I'm not using my foot right now.
We're going to come to that later.
Just leave your foot off the instrument, and we'll practice those tones. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
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So the thing to do now would be to pause the video and go away and practice those. _
_ _ _ _ Now I just want to explain a little thing about posture.
_ Basically, sometimes I see guys playing and they lunge right down here and they're bending
over to get the bass tone, and to be honest, you're not going to have a lot of control
doing that, and also you're going to injure your back.
So your posture is very important indeed.
You need to have your back straight, and you need to feel centered.
I'm big into_
If your posture's correct, then you've got maximum power available to you and energy
available to you to play.
So that's really important.
Now we're going to move on and we're going to play a groove.
Our first groove, simple groove.
No foot action right now.
We're just going to be playing with the_
I always keep my foot just kind of down there anyway.
I use my left foot when I'm doing pitch change.
So this is our first groove anyway.
Slowly.
_ It's in 4-4.
1-2-3-4. _
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_ So that incorporates all the tones that we've learned in the first lesson here, and it gets
us going with a wee rhythm in 4-4.
So again, the rhythm after 4.
1-2-3-4. _
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So the first hits are_
The first part of the groove is_
So that's two bass hits.
Leading with your left hand _ into the first beat.
So it's 1-2-3-4.
1-2-3-4.
So that's how I'm kind of counting it in my head there.
And [B] first hit.
The third one is the slap.
Not the high slap, which comes later.
Just the slap.
So that's the second part.
So first part, second part.
So simple, it's just ridiculous. _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ So let's try that a bit faster after 4.
1-2-3-4. _ _
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A little faster.
1-2-3-4. _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [G] _
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[C#] So there's our first lesson, the basics.
_ I mean, there are more basics, there's more [G#] techniques, but I think for right now, [D#] you
need to just go away and practice the fundamentals until you achieve the tone that you require.
[E] Try that groove, try those different tones.
Explore the drum, find different tones. _
Again, posture is important.
You need to [C] be staying up straight, and you need to be_
You're not bending down to go to the cajon.
You're just up here.
You don't need to go really far down to hit that bass note.
Within reach.
Of course, your upper body is [F#] going to be moving, but you want to try and remember just
to keep that [B] posture.
Not so you're stiff.
You need to be able to move about.
_ _ [N] _ But you just need to keep that posture so you're not hunched like this, because you're
just going to do your back in.
I've done my back in before I started thinking about posture.
So _ yeah, anyway, that's our first lesson.
_ _ Tune in for the second lesson, which will be more advanced rhythms, basically, in 4-4.
Okay, so take care.
Until then, bye-bye. _
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