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 6th 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 6th 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.
0 comments:
Post a Comment