The History of the Cajon

The cajon is an incredibly popular percussion instrument, but this seemingly straightforward bit of kit is easily underestimated in terms of what it can add to music, and is a ton of fun to play. Time for a closer look into its origin story.

What’s a Cajon?

In case you haven’t checked out our Cajon FAQ yet, here’s a quick explanation of what a cajon is. The word ‘cajon’ is Spanish for ‘crate’, which is pretty accurate since cajons are basically wooden boxes with a hole in the back, just like a resonant chamber. A standard model measures 30 by 30 centimetres and is 50 centimetres high, but you can easily make an improvised cajon out of the body of an old guitar, a cardboard box, fruit crate, or a nightstand flipped upside down with one drawer open. The history and development of the cajon is relatively similar to that of the various frame drums out there since both instruments can ultimately be traced back to Africa and South America.

Where Does the Cajon Come From?

As far as we know, music has always been a powerful means of communication for people — one that also helps unite us. Aware of this and afraid of riots, Spanish colonists banned all musical instruments in South America and the Caribbean during the age of slavery. As a result, slaves brought in from Africa started making music with wooden crates, allowing them to keep up morale and communicate with one another. These wooden crates were not only easy to come by, but extremely versatile since they also served as stools, and didn’t look like actual musical instruments. Enslaved people also used drawers, cabinets and tables as improvised instruments. Basically anything they could pull sound and rhythm out of. The earliest depiction of a wooden crate being used as a musical instrument can be seen in a Peruvian painting from the mid-nineteenth century, which explains why the cajon is commonly said to be a traditional Peruvian instrument.

Geschiedenis van de cajón

The Peruvian Cajon

Depending on where you are in the world, you might bump into a slightly different cajon. The most basic models are mainly found in Peru. These six-sided models feature a round sound hole in the back, and a front playing surface that’s made from a thinner slice of wood than the walls, allowing for better resonance. Peruvian cajons shape a dry, earthy sound framed by extra low frequencies, and play a straight-up backing role in Peruvian music. Peru is also the place where the cajita comes from. Based on tithe boxes, the cajita is a small wooden box with a lid (see the image below).

Cajita

The Cuban Cajon

Up north, in Cuba, they also used wooden boxes to make music. Cuban cajons come in various shapes and sizes, in fact, you can even find five-sided models. Instead of sitting on it and striking the front, Cuban-style cajons are usually played by striking the top — so more like congas. The various shapes and sizes allow for just as many sounds, which is in line with Cuban tradition in which every musician has their own distinct role. The highest-pitched Cuban cajon is called a ‘quinto’ (seen in the image below) and is mainly used for solos and signalling. The medium-pitched version is called the ‘salidor’ or ‘tres dos’ and is used for repeating rhythms. The lowest-pitched model is the ‘tumba’, which is used to tighten up the overall performance. Conga players will no doubt be familiar with these names. Just like their Peruvian counterpart, the Cuban cajon packs a dry sound.

Cubaanse quinto-cajón

The Modern Cajon: Flamenco, String and Snare Cajons

The cajon as we generally know it today is the flamenco cajon from the 1970s. The story goes that, while on tour in South America, famed flamenco guitarist Paco de Lucio heard the sound of a Peruvian cajon and was so enthusiastic about it that he brought one back to Spain, where it was tweaked to better match the Spanish flamenco sound. The top corners of the playing surface were made less tight so that claps sounded a tad fiercer, and old guitar strings were attached to the playing surface on the inside of the cajon to gain more attack in the bass frequency registers, resulting in what we now call a string cajon. String cajons are cut out for latin styles but can also be used in many other styles. At some point, someone decided to swap out the guitar strings for the snare wires of a snare drum (as seen in the image below), which marked the birth of the snare cajon. Since they’re a less aggressive substitute for drum kits, snare cajons are commonly used in acoustic pop. More recent developments in cajon-land are the electronic cajon and various add-ons, including cajon pedals.

String-cajon

What’s your favourite kind of cajon? Let us know in the comments!