Beatboxing is not that different from normal human speech. You only have to start developing a rhythmical feeling and you have to stress the pronunciation of certain letters and vowels until you can talk in the beatbox language. Listen to some music by famous beatboxers such as Killa Kela, Rahzel, Roxorloops, Biz Markie, Doug E. Fresh, Matisyahu, Blake Lewis (American Idol finalist), or even Bobby McFerrin (The artist of 'Don't Worry Be Happy.' He created the whole song using only his voice dubbed on different tracks to create many different 'instruments'). Many of the techniques that are used by these beatboxers are explained here.
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[edit]Steps
Basic Beatbox Techniques
Three basic sounds and the beat
1. Learn how to make the classic kick drum {b}, hi-hat {t} and classic snare drum {psh}. (more about this below)
2. Combine the three sounds into an 8-beat such as this: { b t psh t / b t psh t } or {b t psh t / b b psh t }
3. Concentrate on getting the timing right. If you make a mistake, keep going, do not stop or pause.
4. Start off slowly and build up speed once you can do the 8-beat without losing timing.
When you start getting really good start the t sound b sound and the pft sound they are the simplest beat boxing technices!
The classic kick drum {b}
The simplest way to make the classic kick drum is to say the letter 'b'.
To make it sound louder and punchier, you need to do what we call a lip oscillation. This is where you let air vibrate through your lips - a bit like 'blow a raspberry'. Once you can do this, you make a very short lip oscillation.
1. Make the b sound as if you are saying b from the word bogus.
2. This time, with your lips closed, let the pressure build up.
3. You need to control the release of you lips just enough to let them vibrate for a short amount of time.
The hi-hat
closed {t}
1. Make a simple "ts" sound but have your teeth closed or lightly closed.
2. Move the tip of your tongue forward behind your front teeth for a thin hat sound and to the traditional t position for a heavy hat sound.
open {ts}
1. Make a simple t sound but have your teeth lightly closed.
2. Move the tip of your tongue forward behind your front teeth for a thin hat sound and to the traditional t position for a heavy hat sound.
3. Breath out for longer to create the open hat sound.
You can also do successive hi-hats by making a "tktktktk" sound, using the mid-back of your tongue to make the "k" sound. You can make an open hi-hat sound by drawing out the breath in the "ts" hi-hat, so it's more like "tssss" for a more realistic open hat sound.
Another way of producing a realistic high-hat sound is to make a "ts" sound with your teeth clenched.
The classic snare drum {p}
The simplest way of making a classic snare sound is to say the letter 'p'. However, making a 'p' sound is too quiet.
To make it louder you can do several things. The first is to make a lip oscillation. This is where you push the air out of your lips making them vibrate. The second is where you breath out at the same time making a [ ph ] sound.
To make the 'p' sound more interesting and more snare-like, most beatboxers add a second fricative (continuous) sound to the initial 'p' sound: pf ps psh bk.
Variation {pf}
It is similar to the bass drum, only you use the very front of your lips instead of the side, and you tighten them more.
1. Pull your lips in a bit so that your lips are sort of hidden, as if you had no teeth.
2. Build up a little air pressure behind the hidden lips.
3. Swing your lips out (not literally swing) and just before they return to their normal position (un-hidden), release the air with a "P" sound.
4. Immediately after you release the air and get the P sound out, tighten your bottom lip up against your bottom teeth to make a "fff" sound.
Develop a good bass drum sound
This is done by pressing your lips together and building up pressure with your tongue and jaw, pushing your tongue forward from the back of your mouth and closing your opened jaw at the same time. Let your lips part toward the side for just a moment so the air can escape, and it should make a bass drum sound. You want to add pressure with your lungs, but not so much that you have an airy sound afterward.
If you're not making a bassy enough sound, you need to relax your lips a bit. If your sound isn't making a bass drum sound at all, you need to tighten your lips, or make sure that you're doing it off to the side of your lips.
Another way to approach it is to say "puh." Then, take off the "uh" so that all you hear is the initial attack on the word, so that it comes out like a little puff. Try your hardest to not let any of the "uh" sound come out, and also try to not have any breathy sound or air noise with it.
Once you feel comfortable with that, you can slightly tighten your lips and force a larger amount of air through your lips to make a bigger sounding kick drum.
Another way to make a snare sound
Bring your tongue to the back of your mouth and build up pressure with your tongue or lungs. Use your tongue if you're looking for speed, or use your lungs if you want to breathe in at the same time as you make the sound. Try saying "pff," making the "f's" stop just a millisecond or so after the "p." Lifting the corners of your mouth and holding your lips really tight when making the initial "p" will help it sound more realistic. You can also use the same technique to change the apparent pitch of the snare.
Drum-machine snare sound
First say "ish." Then, try saying "ish" without adding the "sh" at the end, again going only for the intial attack. Make it very staccato (short), and you should get a sort of grunt in the back of your throat. Push a little bit when you say it, so that it has a big, accented attack.
Once you're comfortable with that, add the "sh" on the end and you'll get a synth-like snare sound. You can also work on moving the grunt so that it feels like it's coming from the top of your throat, for a higher drum sound, or so that it feels more like it's coming out of the lower part of your throat, for a lower drum sound.
The crash cymbal
This is one of the easier sounds to make. Whisper (don't say) the syllable "chish." Then, do it again, but this time clench your teeth and take the vowel out, going from "ch" straight to "sh" without little or no transition, and you'll have a basic crash cymbal.
The reversed cymbal
Place the tip of your tongue so that it touches the place where your top teeth meet your palate. Keeping your lips about a half-inch apart, breath in forcefully through your mouth. Notice how the air blows past your teeth and tongue and makes a sort of small rushing sound. Then, breath in forcefully again, and this time close your lips as your breathing in; they should sort of feel like they're popping closed, without making a popping sound.
Breathe
You would be surprised at the number of human beatboxers who pass out because they forget that their lungs need oxygen. You may want to start by incorporating your breath into the beat. Eventually you will gain a great deal of lung capacity throughout your practice. An intermediate technique is to breathe in during a tongue snare, since it requires the least amount of lung capacity. An expert will have slowly practiced breathing whilest beatboxing each sound independently (see previous step), thus separating their breathing from the beat, allowing several kinds of bass sounds, snare sounds, and even some hi-hat sounds to continue without pause. As an alternative to breating exercises, there are many sounds that can be done breathing inwards such as variations on the snare and handclap sounds.
Inward Sounds
One thing that puzzles people is how beatboxers can beatbox for a long time without actually taking a breath. Well, the answer is to make a sound and breathe in at the same time! We call these inward sounds. What is more, as you'll discover, some of the best sounds are made like this!
There are many ways of making inward sounds. Nearly every sound that can be made outwards can be made inwards - although it may take some practice to get it right!
Holding the mic
Microphone technique is very important for performing or if you just want to enhance the sound made by your mouth. And there are different ways of holding the microphone. Many beatboxers deliver poor performances because they hold the microphone incorrectly and thus they fail to maximise the power and clarity of the sounds they produce.
While you can just hold the mic as you would while singing, some beatboxers find that putting the mic between your ring and middle fingers and then gripping it with your first two fingers on top of the bulb and your thumb at the bottom results in a cleaner, more crisp sound. Try not to breathe into the mic while you beatbox.
Advanced Beatbox Techniques
Here's where you'll find out how to do some of the more interesting techniques. Don't worry if you aren't getting it at first, all of these techniques will come with time.
Sweeping bass drum (X)
This should be used in place of a bass drum. It takes about 1/2-1 beat to perform. To do a sweeping bass drum, start out like you're about to do a bass drum. Then let your lips loose so they flap when you push air past them. Then touch the tip of your tongue to the inside gum of your bottom teeth and push it forward to perform the technique.
Techno Bass (U)
This is done by making an "oof" sound, as if you've just been hit in the stomach. Do it while keeping your mouth closed. You should be able to feel it in your chest.
Techno Snare (G)
This is done the same way as the Techno Bass, but position your mouth as if you were going to make a "shh" sound. You'll still get the bass sound underneath.
Scratching
This is done by reversing the airflow of any of the previous techniques. A commonly misunderstood technique, scratching involves different tongue and lip movements depending on the instrument you are trying to "scratch" with. To understand better, record yourself laying down a beat. Then using a music program, like windows recorder, listen to it in reverse. Learning to emulate those reversed sounds literally doubles your known techniques. Also, try making the sound, and then its reverse immediately afterwards (Ex: A bass sound followed by its reverse in quick succession make the standard 'scratch' noise).
Jazz Brushes
Lightly blow out through your mouth while trying to sustain the letter "f." By blowing slightly harder on the beats 2 and 4, you'll have the accents.
Rimshot
Whisper the word "kaw," then say it again without letting any of the "aw" through. Push on the "k" a little harder and you'll get a rimshot.
Click Roll (Kkkk)
This is a very difficult technique to perform at first, but once you know how, you can use it any time. To start, position your tongue so that the right (or left, depending on preference) side is resting right above where your top teeth meet your gum. Then pull the back of your tongue toward the back of your throat to do a click roll.
Humming the Baseline and beatboxing at the same time
This technique isn't as difficult as singing, but when you're just starting off, it is easy to get lost. To start, you must first realize that their are two ways to hum: one is from the throat (say "ahh") and the other is through the nose ("mmmmmm"), which is considerably harder to get used to but immeasurably more versatile. The key to humming and beatboxing at the same time is to start with a baseline or melody in mind. Listen to rap hooks, whether they be hummed or not (For example, listen to Parliament Funkadelic's "Flashlight" and practice humming the melody, then try beatboxing over top of it; James Brown is also great for melodies). Scour your music collection for baselines and melodies to hum, then try and put some of your beats or someone else's beats over top of it.It is necessary to learn how to hum a melody or baseline for several reasons, especially if you plan to learn to start singing. This is the area of beatboxing that takes some originality! If you've tried to beatbox and hum at the same time, you must have realized that you've lost of some of your proficiency with certain beat techniques (the Techno Bass and Techno Snare are severely limited, as well as the click roll becomes, if not totally unusable, very hard to hear). Learning what works takes time and practice. If you ever find yourself in a beatbox battle, don't forget that while your endurance and speed are important, using new and interesting melodies and baselines win always win the crowd.
Inward Humming
This is an advanced technique which is not widely used in the realm of beatboxing. There are several resources available on how to sing/hum inwards. For the purposes of beatboxing, when you need to breathe really bad, it may be a good idea to hum inwards. You can always continue humming the same melody, but the pitch (note) will change drastically. With practice, you can correct this pitch change to some extent, but many beatboxing experts who use inward humming decide to change the melody when switching from outward humming to inward humming.
Trumpet Sound
1. Hum falsetto (that's high pitched - like Mickey Mouse).
2. Lift the back of your tongue to make the sound thinner and sharper.
3. Add a loose, lip oscillation (classic kick drum) to the front of each note.
4. Close your eyes, let rip and pretend you are Louis Armstrong.
Singing and beatboxing at the same time
This isn't a very hard technique,once you get to know the basic principles. The key to singing and beatboxing at the same time is to line up consonant sounds with the bass and vowel sounds with the snare. Don't try to add hi-hats in, as even the best beatboxers have trouble in that respect.
A worked example is provided here, and hopefully you can use the basic technique described to adapt to any other song. Once you know how it's done it is easy.
(b)if your (pff)mother (b)(b)on(b)(pff)ly knew(b)knew(pff) (Rahzel's IYMOK-routine)
Listen to the song you want to beatbox to a few times to find out where the beat goes. In the example above, the beats are marked out.
Sing the tune a few times with words.
Try and fit in the beats. Most songs will have the beat in front of the words.
Since the word 'if' in our example starts with a vowel, it is easy to fit in the bass just before it, as though you were saying 'bif'. Note however, that the 'b' must be low and if necessary, separate the beats from the words a little when you first start.
Now the word 'mother'. It starts with a consonant. In this case, you could drop the 'm' and substitute it with the 'pff' since they sound quite close when said together quickly. Or, you could stagger the word just a little so that the beat comes first, and the lyric slightly delayed. If you choose the first, you will end up singing 'pffother'. Notice that your top teeth contact your lower lip, which is what creates the m-like sound. If you can manipulate this, it will sound a lot better.
For the double beat on 'on', you can hum the pitch while doing 'b-b-on', then come in straight away with 'b pff-ly knew', all the while humming the pitch. For the 'on', you might find that the sound breaks if you do the second bass beat. To remedy this, hum through your nose. This can be done simply by pushing the back of your tongue up to close off against your soft upper palate. This hum now comes out through your nose, and is not interrupted by what you do with your mouth.
The 'knew' echoes and fades off.
These steps can be adapted for any song with a beat. Keep practicing, with different songs and soon you will be able to ad-lib more easily.
[edit]Patterns
Modified drum tab
The first line is for the snare sound. This can be a tongue snare, a lip snare, or any other snare. Next is the Hi-hat line, and the third is the Bass line. Another line can be added at the bottom for miscellaneous sounds, which should be defined below the tab and apply only to that pattern. Here's an example:
S |----|K---|----|K---||----|K---|----|K---|
H |--T-|--T-|--T-|--T-||----|----|----|----|
B |B---|----|B---|----||B---|----|B---|----|
V |----|----|----|----||--W-|--W-|--W-|--W-|
W = Vocalized "What?"
Beats are separated by single lines, bars by double lines. Here's a key for the symbols:
Bass
JB= Bumskid bass drum
B = Strong bass drum
b = Soft bass drum
X = Sweeping bass drum
U = Techno bass drum
Snare
K = Tongue snare (without lungs)
C = Tongue snare (with lungs)
P = Pff or lip snare
G = Techno snare
Hi-Hat
T = "Ts" snare
S = "Tssss" open snare
t = front part of successive hi-hats
k = back part of successive hi-hats
Other
Kkkk = Click Roll
Basic Beat
This is the basic beat. All beginners should start here and work their way up.
S |----|K---|----|K---||----|K---|----|K---|
H |--T-|--T-|--T-|--T-||--T-|--T-|--T-|--T-|
B |B---|----|B---|----||B---|----|B---|----|
Double Hi-hat
This one sounds cool and is a good exercise for speeding up your hi-hats without using the successive hi-hat sounds.
S |----|K---|----|K---||----|K---|----|K---|
H |--TT|--TT|--TT|--TT||--TT|--TT|--TT|--TT|
B |B---|----|B---|----||B---|----|B---|----|
Modified Double Hi-hat
This is a more advanced beat that should only be attempted if you can successfully do the Double Hi-hat pattern with perfect accuracy. It switches up the rythms in the Double Hi-hat pattern to make it more interesting.
S |----|K---|----|K---||----|K---|----|K---|
H |--TT|----|TT--|--TT||--TT|----|TT--|--TT|
B |B---|--B-|--B-|----||B---|--B-|--B-|-B--|
Advanced Beat
This is a very advanced beat. Only try it if you've mastered the above patterns as well as the successive hi-hat(tktktk).
S |----|K---|----|K---||----|K---|----|K---|
H |-tk-|-tk-|tk-t|-tkt||-tk-|-tk-|tkSS|--tk|
B |B--b|---B|--B-|----||B--b|---B|--B-|----|
Techno Beat
S |----|G---|----|G---||----|G---|----|G---|
H |--tk|--tk|--tk|--tk||--tk|--tk|--tk|--tk|
B |U---|----|U---|----||U---|----|U---|----|
Simple but Cool Beat
This beat has 16 beats in it. ch4nders split it into 4 beats. it sounds cool when it is faster
|B t t t |K t t K |t k t B |K t t K |
1--------2--------3--------4-------
MIMS "This is Why i'm Hott" beat
When it says D, do a quick double bass kick.
S |--K-|--K-|--K-|--K-|
H |-t-t|t--t|-t-t|t--t|
B |B---|-D--|B---|-D--|
Snoop Dogg’s “Drop It Like It’s hot” Beat
For the t line, you actually click your tongue. The number three represents a relatively open mouth, for a higher more open sound. One represents a small “O” shaped mouth, for a low tongue click, and 2 is somewhere in the middle. The beat is quite difficult, and you can practice doing just the bass and snare until you feel ready to add the tongue clicks. Additionally, you may add a high pitched “Snoooop” humming in your throat. Listen to the song to see what it’s like. By shiitake228
v|snoooooooooooooooo
t|--3--2--|1--2----|
S|----k---|----k---|
B|b--b--b-|--b-----|
v|ooooooooooooooooooop
t|--1--2--|3--2----|
S|----k---|----k---|
B|b--b--b-|--b-----|
Create your own patterns
Don't be afraid to use odd sounding beats. Fool around with the location of the different sounds, as long as they flow.
Tips
Make sure that you know how to beatbox while exhaling and how to beatbox without exhaling. This can help you sing and beatbox at the same time.
Practice wherever possible. Because you don't have to have anything but your body, you can practice at home, at work, at school, on the bus, just about anywhere is appropriate. One of the best places to practice is in the bathroom because there are good acoustics and the beats sound a lot better.
If you start out beatboxing, or trying to do a difficult beat, always start out practicing the beat with weak sounds. This way it's easier to do everything smoothly in the beat. After some time you'll get the timing just right and then you can put your focus on the loudness and clarity of your sounds. This is easier on the head, because you already know WHEN to do those sounds, even if they were weak at first.
Always practice with a consistent tempo. This means that you should try to keep the same speed throughout a pattern.
Try to find other beatboxers and beatbox together. It's fun and you can learn things from your new friends.
Periodically take a drink of water to keep your mouth from drying out.
Certain types of lip gloss can be really good on the lips to beatbox for a long time without having to suffer from dry lips. It's also healthy for them.
