Origin of the Cajon

Hey all! Today I'm going to be talking about the origin of the cajon as I play the instrument myself and have been frequently asked where it comes from, only to shamefully utter the words "I have no idea!" For those of you that don't know what the cajon is, it is a box with either a snare or strings inside that you sit on and hit rhythmically and it sounds like a drum. Also, the word cajon is Spanish for box!


See the source image
As it turns out, no one really knows for sure where or when the cajon originated so I'm not the only one! However, there are many theories of when and where the cajon came from. What we do know for sure is that it was created sometime in the 16th century. It is thought that it started with African slaves in America. It was developed during the periods of slavery in Peru and reached a peak of popularity in 1850.  Another theory is that slaves used boxes as musical instruments to get around Spanish bans on music in mainly African areas. This meant that they could easily disguise cajons as seats or stools.


Nowadays, the cajon is much more common and is used in many different styles of music all around the world! 



(image is from wikidata.org)

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