Bringing rhythm wherever we go, Drummerszone took a few weeks off this summer. During our holidays, we found a way to spread the word and world of rhythm on a tinier scale while being almost offline: we built cajons with kids on our camping site. And we did it! Here is our photo-rundown on how to make kids happy with a real cajon built from cheap and scrap-like materials.
This year, Drummerszone took the time for a cool and relaxed summer holiday. Perhaps one to even be offline for a while - the impossible!
Camping site De Lievelinge in The Netherlands is one of the coolest to hang, stay, play your music and be creative on any level you want. But that's when it happens...
The Cajon Idea While staying at the campsite, yours truly suggested to the team to build some cajons with kids in their daily KidsLab. They agreed without hesitation!
The pics following below describe all the stages on how we made these cajons and built them with the kids. We decided on building 15 cajons. And watching the enthusiasm of the kids and people interested, it easily could have been 50.
Creating this all took over 30 hours to prepare, including sawing all the materials at the barn of the camping site with 35° Celsius or 95° Fahrenheit. The reward of the kids enjoying every stage of creating their personal cajon was worth it every minute. Days after the workshop kids were still working on their art on their self-made cajons and playing them.
A 7-year old girl named Roos even performed with her cajon on the campsite's weekly Open Stage.
The project Here is the entire project in a photo story. For more images just click on one of them to see all of them with this article.
Wood for Front and Back plates and Beams 4mm of cheap available wood + beams (± €45)
Sawed Beams and top and bottom Beams: 4 pieces of 290 x 30 x 30
bottom and top: 2 pieces of 300 x 300
Millenium DSN13-20 Snare strands Any cheap idea will do at a campsite. We cut the Milleniums into half and placed one in the center of the top of the cajon.
We ordered the cheapest 13" Millenium snares at the Thomann online store for €2,50 and cut them in half. All delivered at the camping site. Handy!
Sawing the side parts Four big plates are stacked here. Making 32 pieces for 16 cajons. The plates measured 1220 x 1190.
The result: 32 Cajon side parts dimensions: 500 x 280
Yes, we sanded all the edges - for every piece of wood involved and for savety.
32 front and back parts dimensions: 500 x 300
4mm parts for this purpose: it makes the snares and these BoomBoxes have that 'real' Cajon sound.
The frame built, and snare wires attached to the top of the cajon We cut the Millenium snares into half. The snare-effect is still the same. So, remember our campsite protocol here! It is not about an LP or Meinl level production! We are having fun here!
The first and only test model Our first campsite production ever, all sawed by hand. More like a try-out to see if all the parts would match. Still, why does everybody of every age like it so much when they see and understand the instrument?
15 construction kits ready for the kids Finished just in time for the workshop the next day.
Time to paint, build and play! With the help of residents of the camping site and some parents, 15 kids painted, built and took their cajons back to their tent.
With special thanks to Bart, Liselotte, Ivar, Rick, Thomas, Rian, Bonnie and Bram Hakkens.
Paint or build your cajon first?
With a little help from our friends
Sister and Brother ready to groove
The next Sheila E.!
An ode to camping De Lievelinge
Bring it home! And the other one to your sister. Earned!
