The road to here

In 2007 I uploaded my first YouTube video and back then I really had no idea of where it would all lead. The internet was at a new dawn and the chance to share what we we’re doing as musicians in video form was now possible. Very poor quality video by todays standards but possible non the less. It felt like quite a magical time and the real chance to reach people around the world was something I was keen to jump on.

Some of the early days back in Glasgow.

After starting to gain some solid views on the new YouTube website and now that the cajon was quickly gaining some real traction around the world as a major player in the world of percussion instruments, I realised that even though by this point I had been playing drums and percussion for 12 years (really not that long at all), I was going to need to put in some study and learn this instrument for real.

I set upon learning the techniques and rhythms of the cajon. Rumba, bulerias, traditional Afro-Peruvian rhythms like zamacueca, lando, and festejo interested me along with the traditions and origins of the instrument itself. I was absolutely hooked and obsessed with it.

Quickly I began adapting the cajon to the styles I was playing, rock, funk, pop, and also traditional Scottish music. The cajon was so versatile and along with respecting and learning the traditions I wanted to adapt it for the music I was playing.

I wanted to show my growing audience what I was learning and discovering so I began posting some lesson videos. The lessons and what I was teaching online began to gain a lot of traction and I wanted to build my own site which would serve as a central hub for learning cajon. I wanted it to be a place where they could learn cajon, from beginner to advanced, in a step-by-step way, without the hassle of having to trawl YouTube and other sites for content they could stick together in a sort of makeshift course which had no clear direction.

So in the late summer of 2011 I set about enacting my plan of creating such a place. The trouble was that back in 2011 it was simply not as easy to build your own online course platform as it is today. As well as that I didn’t have all the skills I needed to record and edit videos pro looking (for the time) lesson videos, and build a website that could host lots of video content and manage member subscriptions. Of course we can all do that through the likes of Squarespace now, but back then it was a real challenge.

PlayCajon V.1 (2012)

Anyway, 6 months later I had managed it and in January of 2012 I launched PlayCajon V.1. PlayCajon went on to be incredibly popular among budding cajon players all over the world and it led to some very fun projects for me. I was asked to author the Hal Leonard Cajon Method and eventually the Hal Leonard Djembe method as well. I worked with TED ED to create some cajon educational content and PlayCajon grew and grew.

In 2017 after moving to LA I began working with Drum Channel to setup and run their podcast. This was after running my own PlayCajon Podcast for a few years and getting to interview some of the most well known percussionists in the world. This kicked it up a notch for me with Drum Channel and I was able to have some inspiring and very fun conversations with some of the legends of the drumming and percussion game. This is when I also signed with Latin Percussion as an endorser who I proudly endorse to this day. They really have a wonderful team to work with behind the scenes and of course their instruments are second to none.

with Don Lombardi and J.R Robinson after recording the first episode of the Drum Channel Podcast

In 2018 I moved back to Scotland and at that point I was feeling burnt out with creating the content and I shifted my focus to my other passion for a while which is photography. I was still always playing music but I was heavily invested in growing my photography and filmmaking skills at this time.

Then in 2019, the pandemic stopped everything and when many were taking their music online, I felt very different and really was not ready to start uploading again. With the world in the grips of not knowing how the future would be I had to take some time to reflect on where I was going. So I did that, still playing music, still growing my music, photo and video skills, but not ready to come back online yet.

Finally, at the beginning of 2024 I felt like I was really ready to come back to making videos and lessons again. In what is now a whole new world of content creation to how it was when I uploaded my first YouTube video in 2007, I began attempting to, not only begin growing my YouTube channel again but to also start growing on TikTok and Instagram. Along with the audience I had grown over the past 19 years I found that I was reaching a whole new wave of people. Of course I found this immensely encouraging and just kept going and going with it.

Eventually I started to feel that PlayCajon had kind of reached its peak and I wanted to create a new place for people to find my courses, lessons, and content. I wanted for it to feel more personal and not so much like a brand, even though I suppose this is now my personal brand LOL.

So after 19 years of uploading percussion content and lessons to the internet, the next phase of what I want to offer to the percussion world is here: pauljpercussion.com.

It really feels like a hell of a journey up to this point and these writings really only scratch the surface but I wanted to share some of it with you.

Whether you have been here since 2007 or are brand new, thank you so much!

Paul

Present day