Songs · 122 BPM · 3/4 · straight · 66 bars · easy
Little Boxes - Malvina Reynolds
122 BPM · 1:38 · sits on the waltz.
What you play
B bass · S snare · g ghost · restIntro4 bars · 1 written ×4
Accents only for the first four bars, so the track has room to establish itself before you fill anything in.
Verse 18 bars · 1 written ×8
Bass on 1, and the two snares after it noticeably lighter. If all three land at the same volume you have a march, and nobody can dance to a march in three.
Chorus 18 bars · 1 written ×8
Ghosts out, three strokes to the bar. This is the version that fits under a singer, and most of the time it is the one to play.
Verse 28 bars · 1 written ×8
Bass on 1, and the two snares after it noticeably lighter. If all three land at the same volume you have a march, and nobody can dance to a march in three.
Chorus 28 bars · 1 written ×8
Ghosts out, three strokes to the bar. This is the version that fits under a singer, and most of the time it is the one to play.
Verse 38 bars · 1 written ×8
Bass on 1, and the two snares after it noticeably lighter. If all three land at the same volume you have a march, and nobody can dance to a march in three.
Chorus 38 bars · 1 written ×8
Ghosts out, three strokes to the bar. This is the version that fits under a singer, and most of the time it is the one to play.
Bridge8 bars · 1 written ×8
Pull back to the accents here. The last chorus only lands if something came down before it.
Final chorus4 bars · 1 written ×4
Ghosts out, three strokes to the bar. This is the version that fits under a singer, and most of the time it is the one to play.
Outro2 bars · 1 written ×2
Strip back to the accents and stop on a downbeat rather than fading out.
How to play it
- 1Learn the groove on its own first: The waltz. Everything here sits on it.
- 2Play the Intro and the Outro . They are accents only, and the whole song is easier when those two ends are automatic.
- 3Play the whole arrangement , then bring it up . Quick enough that tension in your arm will end the take early. Watch your shoulders rather than your hands.
- 4Record the whole song in headphones, 66 bars, about 1:38.
Listen forThree beats to the bar with 1 clearly the heaviest, the two snares matched and lighter, and the accent on the same beat in the last bar as in the first, with the intro and the outro sparse and the tempo holding across the whole length.
start 85 · pass 122 BPM · take about 98s
Record a take
I start the backing at 85 BPM, count one bar, and stop after about 98s. Phone about a metre away, facing the front plate. Headphones, or the microphone hears the backing as you. You get my notes within a minute of sending it.
Watch out for
- • All three beats at the same weight, which turns a waltz into a march
- • The bar quietly regrouping itself into fours or sixes
- • The tempo rising once the metre stops feeling strange
A cajón part for Little Boxes by Malvina Reynolds: 122 BPM, 66 bars, played all the way through. Learn the groove, play along, and record a take.
This is a cajón part for Little Boxes by Malvina Reynolds, written to fit the record rather than copied off it. The tempo, the metre and the length were measured from the recording, so you can start the track and this arrangement together and still be together at the end.
It runs at 122 BPM in 3/4, which is 66 bars across 1:38. Quick enough that tension in your arm will end the take early. Watch your shoulders rather than your hands.
The groove underneath it
It sits on The waltz, so if any of this feels shaky the fastest route is that page rather than this one: the same pattern with nothing else going on, at whatever tempo you can actually hold.
The arrangement thins out for the intro and the outro and fills in through the middle. That shape is the difference between playing a groove and playing a song, and it costs you nothing but restraint at the two ends.
The exercise underneath it
2-1 - Two minutes, zero drift
Endurance and metronome lock on quarter-note bass.
Practise it with RafaRead about this
- How to play cajónThe whole instrument on one page, in the order that actually works.
- How to practise cajón with a metronomeHow to use a click so it makes you better instead of making you miserable.
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