The Cajon: a seat with a beat

Over the weekend, Percussionist Jonny Barker introduced me to the cajon, which means "box" in Spanish.  You gotta take a look at the video and hear this instrument, well.. when Jonny plays it, because the video also proves that whatever rhythmic skill I've attained on the clarinet DOES NOT translate to the percussion world.  My drum solo is comparable to Bill Cosby's dancing.  In the interview questions below, you will learn all about the cajon, and why Jonny's mom is awesome.

Interview

Tashina: When did you first become interested in percussion?

Jonny: When I was in 6^th grade.  That’s when they start doing band in elementary school. I’ll be honest, I was not one of the kids who thought they would grow up to be a rock star drummer. In 6^th grade, when they started introducing instruments, the one that appealed to me most was drums. And so I loved it and wanted to try it, but up until that point I hadn’t really been huge into it.

Tashina: Were your parents hesitant about your choice?

Jonny: Actually, my mom defended my choice.  At the elementary school that I went to, it was required to take two years of piano before they would let you do percussion.  Because the keyboard instruments—xylophone, marimba, vibraphone—are laid out exactly like the keyboard on the piano.  And because learning piano was a requisite in our family anyway, I had like 4 years of piano and was like “Oh, I want to play drums, that would be so much fun.”  But there was another girl in my class who wanted to play drums, and the band teacher said she didn’t need two percussionists—this was an elementary school band, and she only need one.  The other girl’s father was a drummer, and so maybe the band teacher thought that she probably had a little more experience, so she wanted to give the spot to the girl. So she wanted to put me on trumpet.  I was actually supposed to be a trumpet player.  I went home that day, and was kinda bummed out. My mom asked me what was wrong, and I was like, “Well, she wouldn’t let me play drums, she wants me to play trumpet.” And my mom was like, “Well, do you want to play trumpet?” And was like, “No.” And so she called up the band teacher and was like, “If my son wants to play drums, then teach him drums.” And so there were two percussionists that year. The next year we went to the junior high, and the other girl had no interest in playing in the band, so she didn’t continue and I did.  10-12 years later, whatever it is, drums have kinda turned into my life. So it's funny to think that I was that close to being a trumpet player.

Tashina: What is the best part about being a percussionist? 

Jonny: The versatility.  I think being a percussionist almost allows me to be involved in 99% of the music out there.  I mean, I can be involved in almost any genre, in almost any setting, in almost any country. It’s so universal, and there are so many different aspects to percussion.

Tashina: We hear a lot of “drummer” jokes, about percussionists being simpleminded and void of true musical skill; how do you respond to those stereotypes? 

Jonny: I would say that like most any other stereotypes, they spawn from truth.  Honestly, it’s my personality, that I don’t mind being the ‘butt of the jokes’ anyway, so I kind of embrace it. Percussion really is a very, very simple instrument.  I mean something like saxophone, or clarinet, or even viola, where you’re thinking about “is my pitch off?”  I mean you’re doing minute tuning, you have to hear all these things.  With percussion you feel it, it’s simple.  The most you have to count to is four. It is not a difficult instrument at all. Once you get into the technique, there is a lot to know, but the instrument itself is very simple. So it probably stems from the idea that, where you guys are playing these beautiful melodies, we’re in the back of the band banging on stuff, which is what the caveman did thousands of years ago. The stereotypes don’t bother me, I think they’re fun.

Tashina: What is the cajon?

Jonny: The cajon is quite simply a box. The Spanish word cajon means box.  You sit on it, you can hit any of it, but it is usually played but hitting the front plate, which is made out of pine, ash, or something similar. It’s 100% hollow.  Very thin boards make up the box. There’s a hole cut in the back for the sound to escape from.  The most complicated part about it, is that there are some wires that run on the back side of the front plate, that will vibrate when you hit it, and that’s what gives it that snare sound.  But it quite literally is just a box that you hit in rhythm.  That’s all it is.  Again, going back to being very simplistic.

Tashina: What is the origin of the cajon? 

Jonny: The cajon originated hundreds of years ago. It kinda got its start when the slave trade was big and booming.  They were bringing over these slaves from Africa, that obviously had very, very strong ties to percussion, and drumming, and drum circles… that was a huge part of their culture. And now they were being thrown into the Caribbean area and South America, where the slave traders would take away their drums—and any sort of their culture—in attempt to assimilate them. So they wouldn’t be able to do their drum circles, and any time they made drums, the drums would be confiscated.   So they would sneak behind the white man’s back. They would empty crates, drawers, boxes, or whatever they could get their hands on, and bang on the boxes.  And as soon as the white man came, they would quickly fill it back up and pretend like nothing was going on. And that was how they were able to continue their culture.  Overtime, they got more specialized, and now you have a really cool, Afro-Cuban, Brazilian instrument that is used in a lot of different genres. They are very versatile and very fun.

Tashina: When did you first play the Cajon? 

Jonny: Honestly, I’m pretty new to the cajon. I didn’t really get to play around with the cajon much until getting to college. It’s not overly common, or found in a lot of high schools.  It is an instrument that’s not used in a lot of wind symphony settings—the sound gets drowned out a lot.  So it’s usually more in smaller ensembles, which is more of college thing, than a lot of high schools teach.  So I got to it in college. About 3 years ago, was when we started playing with them.  I loved them.  I saw it in a recital, and I immediately approached the professor, and was like “what is this amazing contraption from the gods?”  And she actually held kinda a little seminar in class, she explained it, and she started teaching it. And now I use it a lot for acoustic settings, like with guitarists.

Tashina: Do any other commonly-used percussion instruments double as furniture?

Jonny: Most a lot of mine do.  I will use my cymbals as hangers.  I will use the drums as tabletops, but not necessarily to sit on.  If a drummer ever saw you sitting on his drum, he would get very upset.   The cajon: 100% okay.

Tashina: I have dainty clarinet hands, and I’m scared that if I slap this box all over the place, it’s going to hurt.  Will this be a painful experience?

Jonny: I’ll tell you what Dr. Vartan tells me: if it stings, you’re doing it right. So there is a little bit of sting, but that is actually what you go for with a lot of instruments.

Viola with Vigor

This week I met with Violist Logan Butt, and he granted me access into the life of a violist: no-nonsense, Brahms-loving, heroic, human pincushions. Take a look at the video, where I team up with The Destroyer and we embark on a mission to conquer the quintessential song of a beginning musician. You should also scroll through my interview questions with Logan, and learn why string players should wear eye protection.

Interview

Tashina: How would you describe the sound of the viola? What does the viola provide that the violin or cello can’t?

Logan: Well, the viola is considered to have a very mellow and smooth sound, so in terms of range it is pretty similar to the violin, but it doesn’t have that natural screechiness—or it doesn’t pierce your ears like a violin would. And then compared to the cello, they are very different—they are not really on the same terms when it comes to the sound they produce. The cello is more like the human voice sound, that’s how it’s seen. Whereas the viola is more like an extension of the violin into the lower registers, but it’s more pleasant.

Tashina: How did you first start playing viola?

Logan: In high school, I joined orchestra as the piano player, so I was just going to accompany the orchestra. But then we didn’t have a lot of piano songs, and so my teacher suggested that I learn a string instrument. So she gave me a viola and she started giving me 5-minute lessons at the start of every day. And then I started getting private lessons a little bit later.

Tashina: Were you pleased that she had chosen that you play the viola, or had you preferred something else?

Logan: I had thought about what instruments I wanted to play among the string instruments, and the viola was actually last, because it has a different clef. And so I know treble clef, I know bass clef, so violin… cello… bass wouldn’t be a problem, so I was actually a little disappointed that she picked the viola.

Tashina: Looking back on it now, how do you feel about having the viola forced on you?

Logan: I feel great.

Tashina: Which symphonic composer loves violas the most?

Logan: The first thing that jumped out, especially from my private teacher and other violists I have talked to, is Brahms. He wrote a lot of really good chamber music. He was one of the first guys to write really important viola sonatas. And also viola quintets, which would be two violins, two violas, and a cello. And even some string sextets, which also have two violas. He didn’t write any concertos though. There’s Bartok, who has probably the most famous viola concerto. And so the violas love Bartok. They also like Telemann a lot, but I don’t know of him personally.

Tashina: Which composer gives you the crappiest parts, which composer hates violas?

Logan: The further back you go, the worse the viola parts. Because back then they didn’t care. It was more of a chore or something. Mozart is bad. Bach is bad. They’re all bad back then. But also, it’s kinda the opposite. In general, modern music produces good viola parts. The more modern, the more viola attention. But it is probably more for novelty value than anything. Still, we don’t complain.

Tashina: What I’m scared about when I think about playing with string instruments, is that everyone has a stick that they are flying around... someone is bound to get their eye poked out. So, have you ever witnessed, or yourself personally, been stabbed by a stand partner?

Logan: Oh yeah, many times. It happens a lot.

Tashina: That’s not comforting.

Logan: Yeah, well, clarinets can pass out if they hold their breath too long. We all have things we have to deal with. But usually the guy sitting on left gets stabbed, because he’s the one who gets the bow pointed toward him, and it is angled upward towards his face, so that’s usually a problem. But at the same time, when you hold the viola, you kinda have your right arm up, protecting your face, so if you do get stabbed, you’ll be stabbed in the side or in the arm. Unless you have a measure of rests and they don’t, which would be weird anyway.

Tashina: And what’s the proper reaction if you’re stabbed?

Logan: There is no proper reaction, you just have to live with it. And then offer to sit on the right next time and get him back. But I used to kick my brother when we were playing, if he missed an entrance or something. He used to play violin, and I would play viola, and we were right in the middle, so we were sitting right next to each other. I could kick him if he stabbed me or if he missed an entrance.

Tashina: You and I have spoken before about ‘viola mentality,’ could you elaborate on this?

Logan: Yes, basically the first thing is that in the viola section, we split the people up into two groups: In the first one, they’re the people who aren’t really happy to be there. They just kinda want to blend-in and not do anything. So they see themselves as an overlooked instrument, that doesn’t get any good parts, that’s not important, that’s pretty much an inferior version of the violin... And that’s really common—kinda the default mentality. And the “viola mentality” is what keeps people from ending up like that. It’s the thought that the viola is actually a more important instrument than the others. Which is very true, because the viola gets these parts that, even though they are not very flashy or exciting by themselves, they have a much bigger impact than other overrated things—like melody and stuff. Because we usually get off-beats and we don’t get a lot of melodies. But what we do get are usually the thirds of the chord, or important notes in the middle. And if you have a weak section, then the piece becomes tonally ambiguous at times. So we convince ourselves that that’s why we’re so important—to prevent that. And also, we get a lot of quarter notes and eighth notes, so we’re kinda like the timekeepers. Viola mentality is kinda a no-nonsense attitude. It’s “we’re not like the violins, we don’t squeak, we’re not drama queens, we just do what we need to do, and we’re the heroes of the orchestra, that no one notices.”

Tashina: And you prescribe to that mentality?

Logan: Very much so.

Tashina: What’s worse: a beginning violist or a beginning violinist?

Logan: Being a beginning violinist is much worse. The instruments are pretty much the same, so when it comes to the technical issues when you’re just starting, it’s pretty similar in terms of how you begin and the things that you learn. The only difference is that the violin sounds really bad until it starts to sound good. Whereas the viola—it always sounds like a viola. But the beginning violins… they squeak, they make a lot of terrible noises, they’re at the higher pitches and more intense registers. So if you’re going to be practicing the same thing, you might as well do it on the viola.

Tashina: You are a pianist, what’s going on with piano these days?

Logan: I am in a trio, with you!

Tashina: That’s true.

Logan: And I’m also doing a Shostakovitch quintet. And then at the end of February, I’m performing in the Halversen Concerto concert with the Orchestra of Southern Utah.

Tashina: When is that performance?

Logan: February 24th, at 7:00, in the Heritage Center.

Tashina: I very much look forward to that. I’ve been hearing good things.

Logan: Oh yeah, well, they’re accurate :)

Blog Birthday

cover your ears blog was born today! Every week for the next 13 weeks, I will be learning a new musical instrument/skill.  If you have a musical skill -from the sousaphone, to spoons, to flutter tonguing- I want to feature you in this blog!

Musicians featured in this blog will participate in a quick interview, and then present a 15-30 minute crash course on their instrument/skill. The interview/crash course may be videoed and/or photographed. If you aren't within traveling distance of Cedar City, Utah, you probably cannot be featured in the blog.

Next week, our Featured Musican is Logan Butt, who will be teaching me viola. He has been playing viola in the Orchestra of Southern Utah for almost 4 years, and is also an accomplished pianist.

Keep following, and let me know if you'd like to be featured in cover your ears.