My 20-Hour Experiment Learning to Play the Cajon

One of my new year's goals was to practice playing the cajon for 20 hours this year. I finished in May. Here's what, why, and how it went.

I have always loved drums, but I never learned. I never had a set around to practice on or books, videos, or drumming teachers. I did learn to play the guitar, but I have always preferred drum/percussion. My favorite drum sounds are from drumming on a 5 gallon bucket and from the cajon. The cajon is a wooden box with snare drum strings behind the front panel. The sound it makes changes depending on where and how you hit it. There are three basic sounds that it can make.

I saw this TED talk last year from Josh Kaufman on how it only take 20 hours of deliberate practice to learn any skill to a competent level. He argues that most of us aren't aiming to be world class which might take 10,000 hours. He gave a few guidelines such as identifying the most important skills involved and prioritizing those.

I decided to combine my curiosity about the 20 hours guidelines with my interest in the cajon. So I identified the basic things I wanted to learn (2 rhythms each in 3/4 and 4/4 time). I made a chart to track my progress and decided to practice 15 minutes per day for 4 days per week. Most days, I spent 5 minutes on a 4/4 rhythm, 5 on a 3/4 rhythm, and 5 minutes playing along to a song on my headphones.

I had so much fun. Around the 10-15 hour mark is where I began to feel like a percussionist. I learned to create my own fills, switch between rhythms, and relax while I was playing. I made myself a shaker from a pill bottle to add another sound to my playing.

I learned that I like rhythms with space between the sounds. Lots of cajon players show off how fast they can play and how fancy they can be. I prefer giving space between the sounds. I also prefer funkier/tribal-sounding rhythms.

I noticed that the cajon has just three sounds which makes playing along with my favorite songs much easier. Other instruments have many notes that need to be learned before you can start playing actual songs. I could play along with a song within the first week or so. I started noticing the time signature of songs that I listened to in the car and imagined playing along.

Kaufman's insight held true for me. I learned that 20 hours is enough time to learn basic competence on some skills. I recorded my kids and I playing a song together (one kid was on piano, one on guitar, and I was on cajon). My wife overheard the recording and asked where the drummer came from. She told me that maybe I should play that instead of guitar the next time I lead worship at our church. Some church members heard me practicing once and thought I must have been listening to loud music before they realized I was the musician.

The 20 hours was a great experiment that could be applied to many skills. What would I try with next?

Photography. I could figure out the portrait skills I wanted, and then work at them with dedication for 20 hours.

Art-Identify what painting or drawing skills I want to learn, and then just practice those for 20 hours.

Language-figure out what I need to know in my Hebrew, Greek, or Cherokee and then work at that specifically.

If you want to learn something, it's not too late or out of reach. Watch Josh Kaufman's video and give his 20 hours ideas a try.