A cajón ( Spanish: [kaˈxon] ka- KHON ; "box, crate, drawer") is a box-shaped percussion instrument originally from Peru , played by slapping the front or rear faces (generally thin plywood ) with the hands, fingers, or sometimes implements such as brushes, mallets, or sticks. Cajóns are primarily played in Afro-Peruvian music (specifically música criolla ), but have made their way into flamenco as well. The term cajón is also applied to other box drums used in Latin American music , such as the Cuban cajón de rumba and the Mexican cajón de tapeo .
47-410: Sheets of 13 to 19 mm ( 1 ⁄ 2 to 3 ⁄ 4 inch) thick wood are generally used for five sides of the box. A thinner sheet of plywood is nailed on as the sixth side, and acts as the striking surface or head. The striking surface of the cajón drum is commonly referred to as the tapa . A sound hole is cut on the back side. The modern cajón may have rubber feet, and has several screws at
94-605: A composite bowl back body, are said to produce a clear and bright sound. Tacoma Guitars has developed a unique "paisley" sound hole placed on the left side of the upper bout of their "Wing Series" guitars. This is a relatively low-stress area that requires less bracing to support the hole. A few hollowbody or semi-hollow electric guitars , such as the Fender Telecaster Thinline and the Gibson ES-120T , have one f-hole instead of two, usually on
141-453: A "rim shot" (striking the rim) technique for contrast, were introduced by Johnny McDonagh . The drum is usually played in a seated position, held vertically on the player's thigh and supported by their upper body and arm (usually on the left side, for a right-handed player), with the hand placed on the inside of the skin where it is able to control the tension (and therefore the pitch and timbre) by applying varying amounts of pressure and also
188-399: A 4/4 time. The bodhrán player must stick to this rhythm but is free to improvise within the structure: most simply, they may enunciate the first beat of four, making a sound like ONE two three four ONE two three four; but they can syncopate, put in double pulses, according to the rhythmic characteristics of the tunes being played. This is the difference between sensitive and insensitive playing,
235-409: A completeness and dynamic richness close to that of a drums, through the use of metal brushes. Another way of playing the cajón is to use an ordinary bass drum pedal, thus turning the cajón into an indirect percussion instrument which can be played with the feet. This enables the player to beat it just like a pedal- bass drum , thus leaving the hands (and one other foot) free to play other instruments. On
282-402: A food server, and for storing food or tools. She argues that its use as musical instrument was restricted to ritual use in rural areas. She claims that while the earliest evidence of its use beyond ritual occurs in 1842, its use as a general instrument did not become widespread until the 1960s, when Seán Ó Riada used it. There are no known references to this particular name for a drum prior to
329-444: A matter of much concern to other traditional musicians. Because the bodhrán typically plays 16th notes (Kerry style), a great deal of variety can be introduced by these syncopations and the use of rests. Combined with manual pitch changes and naturally occurring tonal variations in an animal skin drumhead, the bodhrán can almost sound as melodically expressive as other non-percussive instruments. Playing styles have all been affected by
376-518: A peak in popularity by 1850, and by the end of the 19th century cajón players were experimenting with the design of the instrument by bending some of the planks in the cajón's body to alter the instrument's patterns of sound vibration. After slavery the cajón was spread to a much larger audience including Criollos . Given that the cajón comes from musicians who were enslaved in the Spanish colonial Americas, there are two complementary origin theories for
423-464: A popular accompaniment to traditional dance music. In the South West of England a similar instrument made from the frame of a garden sieve was once popular and known as a Riddle Drum. In Cornish traditional music they are called a crowdy-crawn ; the use of this instrument to store odds and ends led to the name also being used to mean "miscellaneous". The bodhrán has also found application within
470-405: A rosette is usually a single one, under the strings. C-holes, D-holes and F-holes are usually made in pairs placed symmetrically on both sides of the strings. Most hollowbody and semi-hollow electric guitars also have F-holes. Though sound holes help acoustic instruments project sound more efficiently, sound does not emanate solely from the sound hole. Sound emanates from the surface area of
517-569: A short film taken by folklorist Kevin Danaher in Athea, County Limerick in 1946 show bodhráns with jingles being played with a ’'cipín" in a style that is relatable to that of contemporary bodhrán playing . The Irish word bodhrán (plural bodhráin ), indicating a drum, is first mentioned in the Rosa Anglica , "a manuscript that was written no earlier than the 15th and no later than
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#1732776752164564-461: A stick. Traditional skin drums made by some Native Americans are very close in design to the bodhrán as well. It has also been suggested that the origin of the instrument may be the skin trays used in Ireland for carrying peat or grain; the earliest bodhrán may have simply been a skin stretched across a wood frame without any means of attachment. The Cornish frame drum crowdy-crawn , which
611-454: Is a frame drum used in Irish music ranging from 25 to 65 cm (10–26 in) in diameter, with most drums measuring 35–45 cm (14–18 in). The sides of the drum are 9–20 cm ( 3 + 1 ⁄ 2 –8 in) deep. A goatskin head is tacked to one side (synthetic heads or other animal skins are sometimes used). The other side is open-ended for one hand to be placed against
658-432: Is often played on a smaller (14–15 inch) and deeper (4–6 inch) drum with a thinner resonant skin, prepared like the skin of a Lambeg drum . The tipper in this style is usually straight and most of the expressive action is focused on the top end of the drum. The concept involves allowing a greater vs. lesser amount of the skin to resonate, with the "skin hand" acting as a moving bearing edge . Top-end players move
705-423: Is often used as a bass drum by bands instead of a full drum kit when performing in minimalist settings, as the cajón can simultaneously serve as both a bass drum and a seat for the drummer. Though occasionally played by some bands in place of the bodhrán , the cajón has become a popular instrument in the folk music of Ireland , where the quieter and higher-pitched bodhrán traditional frame drum serves
752-604: Is one of the most basic of drums and as such it is similar to the frame drums distributed widely across northern Africa from the Middle East , and has cognates in instruments used for Arabic music and the musical traditions of the Mediterranean region (see Music of North Africa , Music of Greece etc.). A larger form is found in the Iranian daf , which is played with the fingers in an upright position, without
799-487: The Rosa Anglica , "a manuscript that was written no earlier than the 15th and no later than the 16th century, or very early in the 17th century." Although various drums (played with either hands or sticks) have been used in Ireland since ancient times, the bodhrán itself did not gain wide recognition as a legitimate musical instrument until the Irish traditional music resurgence in the 1960s in which it became known through
846-425: The 16th century, or very early in the 17th century." Third-generation bodhrán maker Caramel Tobin suggests that the name bodhrán means "skin tray". He also suggests a link with the Irish word bodhar , meaning, among other things, a drum or a dull sound (it also means deaf ). A relatively new introduction to Irish music , the bodhrán without jingles has largely supplanted its predecessor. The bodhrán
893-544: The Americas". In the 2000s (decade), the cajón was heard extensively in Coastal Peruvian musical styles such as Tondero , Zamacueca and Peruvian Waltz , Spanish modern Flamenco and certain styles of modern Cuban Rumba . The modern cajón is often used to accompany a solo acoustic guitar or piano . The cajón is becoming rapidly popular in blues , pop , rock , funk , world music , jazz , etc. The cajón
940-452: The Celtic music of Galicia , often accompanying the gaita gallega ( Galician bagpipes ). The drum is struck either with the bare hand or with a lathe - turned piece of wood called a bone , tipper , beater , stick or cipín . Tippers were originally fashioned from a double-ended knuckle bone, but are now commonly made from ash, holly, or hickory wood. Brush-ended beaters, and
987-495: The amount of surface area being played, with the back of the hand against the crossbar, if present. The drum is struck with the other arm (usually the right) and is played either with the bare hand or with a tipper. There are numerous playing styles, mostly named after the region of Ireland in which they originated. The most common is Kerry style, which uses a two-headed tipper; the West Limerick style uses only one end of
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#17327767521641034-410: The atmospheric conditions. Composer Seán Ó Riada declared the bodhrán to be the native drum of the ancient Celts (as did bodhrán maker Paraic McNeela), suggesting that it was possibly used originally for winnowing or wool dying, with a musical history that predated Christianity , native to southwest Ireland . However, according to musician Ronan Nolan, former editor of Irish Music magazine,
1081-508: The back of the player's hand, as is sometimes still done, rather than with a cipín , also known in English as a "tipper.” In remote parts of the south-west, the "poor man's tambourine" – made from farm implements and without the jingles – was in popular use among mummers , or wren boys . In the early 20th century, home-made frame drums were constructed using willow branches as frames, leather as drumheads, and pennies as jingles. Photographs and
1128-596: The bass side. B&G Guitars, a private build guitar company from Tel Aviv, Israel, uses their signature "backwards" sound holes on their guitars. Holes not positioned on the top of an acoustic guitar are called soundports . They are usually supplementary to a main sound hole, and are located on an instrument's side facing upward in playing position, allowing players to monitor their own sound. Bodhr%C3%A1n The bodhrán ( / ˈ b aʊ r ɑː n , b aʊ ˈ r ɑː n , ˈ b ɔːr ɑː n , ˈ b ɔːr ə n / , Irish: [ˈbˠəuɾˠaːnˠ] ; plural bodhráin )
1175-777: The bodhrán became a globally recognized instrument. In the 1970s, virtuoso players such as The Boys of the Lough 's Robin Morton, The Chieftains ' Peadar Mercier, Planxty 's Christy Moore , Tommy Hayes of Stockton's Wing and De Dannan 's Johnny "Ringo" McDonagh further developed playing techniques. Although most common in Ireland, the bodhrán has gained popularity throughout the Celtic music world, especially in Scotland , Cape Breton , North mainland Nova Scotia , Newfoundland , and Prince Edward Island . In Southern England tambourines were
1222-404: The bodhrán evolved in the mid-19th century from the tambourine , which can be heard on some Irish music recordings dating back to the 1920s. A large oil painting on canvas from 1833 by Daniel Maclise (1806–1870) depicts a Halloween house party where a tambourine-style bodhrán features clearly. It is in a group of musicians with union pipes , a fiddle , and a fife . The bodhrán is struck with
1269-427: The cajón originated as "the box of the people who carried fruit and worked in the ports," putting it down to play on whenever they had a moment. Another theory is that enslaved people used boxes as musical instruments to subvert Spanish colonial bans on music in predominantly African areas, essentially disguising their instruments. While early 20th century versions of the festejo appeared to have been performed without
1316-512: The cajón, especially due to the influence of Perú Negro , a musical ensemble founded in 1969, the cajón began to be more important than the guitar and, indeed, became "a new symbol of Peruvian blackness". After a short 1977 visit to a diplomat’s party and a TV presentation in Lima along with Peruvian percussionist Caitro Soto , Spanish flamenco guitar player Paco de Lucía brought a cajón to Spain to use it in his own music, after being impressed by
1363-460: The center of the drum), and dampens unwanted overtones, allowing for greater control of the drum's sound. Electrical tape is preferred because the adhesive is rubber-based and will stretch with the skin even after bonding to it, lessening the likelihood of bubbles and other changes in the tape occurring when the skin tension is changed by tuning or atmospheric conditions. Owners of lower quality drums, with thick and rough skins, may also choose to sand
1410-516: The evolution and improvements in effectiveness of violin F-hole design over time. One of the conclusions of this paper was that acoustic conductance (air flow) is proportional to the length of the perimeter of the sound hole and not the area. They proved this mathematically, and showed how it drove the evolution of shape of the F-holes in the violin family. The highest air flow in a violin's F-hole are
1457-404: The inside of the drum head to control the pitch and timbre . One or two crossbars, sometimes removable, may be inside the frame, but this is increasingly rare on modern instruments. Some professional modern bodhráns integrate mechanical tuning systems similar to those used on drums found in drum kits . It is usually with a hex key that the bodhrán skins are tightened or loosened depending on
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1504-477: The instrument, enabling them to play it with a single foot. There are also lap cajons (which are smaller and more portable) that sit on the lap of the musician. The instrument has been played not only with hands, but also with plastic and metal brushes, as used for drum kits , for example with the Pen Technique, developed by Patrizio Migliarini, which allows the musician to play jazz and funky rhythms with
1551-543: The instrument. It is possible that the drum is a direct descendant of a number of boxlike musical instruments from west and central Africa, especially Angola , and the Antilles . These instruments were adapted by enslaved people from the Spanish shipping crates at their disposal. In port cities like Matanzas, Cuba , codfish shipping crates and small dresser drawers became similar instruments. Peruvian musician and ethnomusicologist Susana Baca recounts her mother's story that
1598-403: The introduction of the internal tone ring, driven against the skin to tension/loosen it by screws. This was invented by Seamus O'Kane , from Dungiven , County Londonderry , Northern Ireland , to combat the damp conditions of Donegal in 1975. This system was copied from banjo design but adapted for bodhráns. For a few years only about six drums of this type were made, so it was not until the idea
1645-414: The majority of tipper strikes at the bottom of the head. In any of these styles, crossbars are most often absent, allowing a more unrestricted access for the left hand to modify the tone. This enables a more melodic approach to this rhythm instrument, with a wide range of tones being employed. When playing the bodhrán as an accompaniment to Irish music, different beats may be used. For example, reels have
1692-404: The music of Seán Ó Riada and others. The second wave roots revival of Irish traditional music in the 1960s and 1970s brought virtuoso bodhrán playing to the forefront, when it was further popularized by bands such as Ceoltóirí Chualann and The Chieftains . It was not featured at Fleadh Cheoil until 1973. Growing interest led to internationally available LP recordings, at which time
1739-508: The other hand, it also restricts the player's standard cajón-playing position, as when the cajón is placed on the ground, in the bass drum location, it is hard for the performer to slap it with her or his hands. Sound hole A sound hole is an opening in the body of a stringed musical instrument , usually the upper sound board . Sound holes have different shapes: Some instruments come in more than one style ( mandolins may have F-holes, round or oval holes). A round or oval hole or
1786-426: The places at the top and bottom where the points nearly touch the other side. The effect is analogous to putting one's thumb over the end of a hose to accelerate the water coming out. By this measure, the open round hole of a flat-top acoustic guitar is not very effective. Some Ovation stringed instruments feature a particularly unique sound hole architecture with multiple smaller sound holes that, being combined with
1833-405: The players to become more musical and delicate in their playing. It is currently not unusual for the rim of a bodhrán to be covered with electrical tape, either by the drum-maker or the owner. This innovation was introduced to Seamus O’Kane from bodhrán player, Johnny ‘Ringo’ McDonagh in the 1970s. This both reduces "edge-loading" (where the vibrations in the skin hit the rim and bounce back toward
1880-554: The rhythmic possibilities of the instrument. According to percussion historians, it was Pepe Ébano who introduced the cajón into Spanish flamenco, later used with Paco de Lucía in the percussion of " Entre dos aguas ". In 2001, the cajón was declared National Heritage by the Peruvian National Institute of Culture . In 2014, the Organization of American States declared the cajón an "Instrument of Peru for
1927-411: The same purpose, and has a unique playing style. The player sits astride the box, tilting it at an angle while striking the head between their knees. The percussionist can play the sides with the top of their palms and fingers for additional sounds. Some harder hitting players use protective drumming gloves to protect their hands from bruises and blisters. Some percussionists attach a bass drum pedal to
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1974-408: The skin hand from the bottom and towards the top of the drum to generate increasingly high pitches. By making a "C" shape with the skin hand, the player can help enhance and even amplify the sound. The same concept can be employed while playing at the front of the drum (the skin hand moving towards and away from the player) or in a "bottom end" style, which is essentially top end, but upside down, with
2021-540: The sounding boards, with sound holes providing an opening into the resonant chamber formed by the body, letting the sounding boards vibrate more freely, and letting vibrating air inside the instrument travel outside the instrument. The F-holes in the violin family instruments also serve the purpose of enabling a luthier to use specialized tools to adjust the sound post inside the instrument. In 2015, researchers at MIT , in collaboration with violin makers at North Bennet Street School , published an analysis that charted
2068-424: The tipper. Later players such as Robbie Breathnach, Tommy Hayes, Aidan "Scobie" McDonnell , Abe Doron, and Damien Quinn developed sophisticated pitch-varying techniques which allow players to follow the tune being played. This was the birth of the "top-end" style. Their breakthrough in this style has achieved local and international acclaim, with many beginners now being educated in this manner. This "top-end" style
2115-458: The top for adjusting percussive timbre . The cajón is the most widely used Afro-Peruvian musical instrument since the late 19th century. Enslaved people of west and central African origin in the Americas are considered to be the source of the cajón drum. Currently, the instrument is common in musical performance throughout some of the Americas and Spain. The cajón was developed during the periods of slavery in coastal Peru. The instrument reached
2162-463: Was also used for harvesting grain, was known as early as 1880. Peter Kennedy observed a similar instrument in Dorset and Wiltshire in the 1950s, where it was known as a " riddle drum ", a riddle being a large sieve for separating soil particles from stones etc. Dorothea Hast has stated that until the mid-twentieth century the bodhrán was mainly used as a tray for separating chaff, in baking, as
2209-520: Was taken and refined by makers that it caught on. This system is now being used by makers from many diverse cultures worldwide. It has revolutionized the making and playing of bodhráns by removing the threat of atmospheric conditions to the tension of the drumhead. The accepted philosophy of thick skins was challenged also at this time by O'Kane's introduction of thin Lambeg skins. This allowed the bodhrán to achieve both higher and lower crisp notes and allowed
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