How to sit on a cajón

This is the least interesting page on the site and the one that fixes the most takes. A cajón is the only drum where your whole body weight is resting on the instrument, so how you sit is not comfort advice. It is part of the sound.

The setup, in order

Sit near the front edge of the box. Not centred, not back. Sitting back presses your weight onto the rear of the top panel and pulls life out of the plate.
Feet flat, roughly shoulder width, box between your ankles. Your legs are what stop the box walking away from you while you play, and a box that creeps forward takes your hand position with it.
Lean forward about ten degrees. Enough that your hands reach the plate without stretching, not so much that you are curled over it. If your chin is above the top edge of the box, you have gone too far.
Let your arms hang, then bring them to the plate. Wherever they land is your natural playing position. Do not correct it. Move the box instead.

Height matters too. A standard cajón puts most adults at roughly the same knee angle as a dining chair. If your knees are higher than your hips you will be fighting the box all evening, and the usual fix is a cushion, not a different technique.

Where the hands go

Bass lives dead centre, a hand-width down from the top edge. Snare lives in the top corners. Ghosts live near the corners too, just quieter. From a proper seated position all three should be reachable without leaning, because the moment you have to lean for the snare, your timing on the snare goes.

Small thing that matters: keep the sound hole clear. It faces backwards, and if you have the box tucked against a sofa or a wall you are muffling your own bass and then blaming your hand.

Signs you are sitting wrong

Your shoulders ache after ten minutes. You are holding your arms up instead of dropping them.
Your bass is a thud, not a boom, no matter what your hand does. Your weight is on the plate.
The box slides forward as you play. Your feet are too far back.
Your snare is inconsistent. You are reaching, and reaching adds a different distance every time.
Your lower back complains. You are curled over rather than hinged forward from the hips.

Playing standing, or on a stand

You can, and plenty of live players do it so they can sing without folding in half. It costs you bass depth, because part of what makes the low end is the box being coupled to a body. If you are going to gig standing up, learn seated first. Get the sound in your hands before you change the conditions.