unplugged fest the year of the cat music by hooper vox by oldrottenhead

[Rolow]

Another fine collaboration from ol'hoop'rhead

The cajon sounds real good.

[Geir]

Can't be away many days if you don't wanna miss out on good stuff here!!

Whenever "ol'hoop'rhead" posts something I know it's goona be good. This is no exception. The quality in both production and performance is excellent as always and I really enjoyed this unplugged version of you guys. The recorder (strange name for a wooden (or plastic) pipe with some holes in it) added a nice flavour to the song.

Cajon hand drum (homemade)

Do you have an DIY instruction on that one Ken? It sounds good !!

[henwrench]

Brilliant all round! Lovin' the new avatar Jim, looks like you're at some kind of awards ceremony LOL

                                      henwrench

[lg]

Guys!!!!!!!
I love this more than the original.
That cheap-ee plastic recorder is STELLAR Dude!
I gotta go listen again.
This is going to my mp3 player!

More, more, more

LG

[Frank53]

Great song and a beautiful rendition. The bed track is nicely played (the recorder fits perfectly), and Jim... a great job as always.

Frank

[hooper]

Cajon hand drum (homemade)

Do you have an DIY instruction on that one Ken? It sounds good !!

Geir

I'm sure you would have fun building and playing a cajon.  I just ad-libed building mine after seeing one in person and then looking at some for sale and how-to articles online.  (Google: How make cajon hand drum)  I don't think you can go too wrong as long as you end up with a fairly resonant box that will give different pitched sounds when struck at different locations on the box.  Flip an acoustic guitar upside-down on your lap, play it like bongos with your hands and you're not too far off from what you get with a cajon.  Some cajons leave one corner of one side attached loosely so that it will flap.  My cajon has a 'slap block' on one corner that does the same thing.  Some cajons have snare-like strings inside.

My cajon is 12"x14"x20" with ¼" plywood on 3 sides, 1/8" plywood on the 4th side and ¾" plywood for the bottom and top.  The 1/8" side when struck with a meaty palm of the hand produces the 'kick drum' sound.  The slap block produces the 'snare' sound and other locations on the box produce various pitched 'tom-tom' sounds.

The first guy I ever saw playing a cajon was in a hotel lobby in Cancun, Mexico with a little power trio: guitar, cajon and flute. Unbelievable!  I went up and talked with him during the break and took a look at 'the box'.  It was home-made out of 1/8" masonite and had some old guitar strings inside for snares.  They had a mic wrapped in foam stuffed in the box and into the sound system and it sounded huge.  This guy also had cymbal... so he would be flailing away on the cajon during the song and then reach out and slap the cymbal with his bare hand!  It sounded fantastic!

Hoop

[Wiley]

Just had another listen and have to say you two really did an excellent job on this!!
PJ

[cuthbert]

Very interesting information about the cajon - I had no idea how sophisticated they could be!

Thanks hooper for posting the details of how you made yours - I've got some plywood down in the basement that's looking for some good use...

[Geir]

Thank you Hooper, I too think I've got some leftovers in the garage ....... and a couple of old strings ...

[hooper]

Cuthbert and Geir, I'll look forward to hearing you play your new cajons!