Lesson video

Hi, I am Dr.

Southall, and together we're gonna be learning today about discovering different vocal timbres.

So without further ado, let's dive straight in.

Today, we're going to be using beatboxing sounds and techniques and other ways of making sounds with our voices to imitate the sound of nature.

And our outcome is to mimic sounds of nature and use these to improvise stylistically using beatboxing sounds.

Let's begin.

We've got four key words.

The first one is improvise, to create music in the moment using the voice of instruments alone or with others.

The second is texture, the combination of different layers of sounds.

The third is mimicry, imitating something like the sound of an instrument.

And the fourth is timbre, the description of the sound or tone of an instrument.

And just like normal, we're gonna practice warming up first, to get our voices and bodies ready for the music lesson.

We're gonna focus on our breathing, warm up our mouth and tongue with tongue twisters, and gently stretch our vocal chords with vocal exercises to help keep our voices strong and healthy.

When you're ready, we'll follow these warmups so we're ready for music.

<v ->Join in with this breathing warmup.

</v> Let's imagine we are blowing candles out on a birthday cake.

Take a deep breath in and then blow.

(imitating candle blowing) Let's try again.

(imitating candle blowing) (instructors mimicking) (instructors mimicking) (instructors continue mimicking) <v ->Repeat after me.

</v> Gobbledegook, gobbledegook.

Hobblede, wobblede, gobbledegook.

Jump up and down, all about town, round and around and around and around.

<v ->So we'll start off by dividing into three groups</v> and building up the three part texture of build me up.

Part one, I'll start first, followed by part two, and then part three.

This warm up song's gonna help us understand texture and focus our listening.

Let's go.

(instructor beatboxing) (instructor continues beatboxing) (instructor continues beatboxing) (instructor vocalizing) (instructor continues beatboxing) (instructor vocalizing) (instructor vocalizing) (instructor vocalizing) <v ->Are you ready to make music now?</v> Hopefully, you're feeling relaxed and ready.

Your voice is warm and you're feeling focused, which is exactly the point of our exercises.

Well done for doing them.

There's just two parts to this lesson.

The first is vocal percussion sounds inspired by nature.

Beatboxing is not always rhythmic drum machine mimicry.

Artists like Jason Singh, who we've met before, combine other sounds in their work.

So let's listen to Jason recreating sounds of the sea.

And when you're watching this video, have a think about what he's doing and how he's doing it <v ->The sea.

</v> (Jason mimicking sea waves) (Jason mimicking sea waves) (Jason mimicking sea waves) <v ->I hope you enjoyed that.

</v> We're gonna look at how he did it.

So if you think about it, he changed the 'sh' sounds to mimic the different sounds and motions of the waves.

So he was thinking about how the sea makes sound, like what actions evoke the feeling of the sea, and using his voice to create that imagery.

Have a go and discover your sound to mimic the sound of the waves.

Lucas says, keep the sounds really quiet and atmospheric.

Sophia says, explore different 'sh' sounds and timbres by moving your lips closer, rounder, and wider or further apart.

See what sounds you can make.

Jason also is able to mimic the wind by vocalizing breathing in and out.

Let's watch.

<v ->So now I'm gonna make a backing track,</v> which is made up just of breathing in and out.

Check this out.

(Jason mimicking the wind) (Jason mimicking the wind) (Jason mimicking the wind) <v ->Now have a go and discover your sound</v> to mimic the wind.

Sofia says, can you control the flow of air to create gentle and stronger wind sounds? Let's just check your understanding so far.

What sounds are being mimicked in this clip? (mimicking sea sounds) Was it A, the sounds of the sea? B, the sounds of the wind? Or C, the sounds of bird song? Well, hopefully you got that right.

The answer is A, sounds of the sea.

Well done.

Jason sometimes creates new sounds.

Here he combines wind and sea sounds to create what he calls starburst.

Let's have a watch of what we mean by starburst.

<v ->So this next sound is what I call a starburst,</v> and it's basically throwing a sound and catching a sound.

So it goes- (mimicking starburst) And the other way around.

(mimicking starburst) <v ->Laura says, the sounds are performed forwards</v> and backwards.

And Aisha says, listen to how the sound is thrown and caught.

If you'd like to watch it again, please pause the video and rewind a little bit.

It's always great to listen to Jason.

He's very, very talented.

Once you've had a listen, try and create the starburst sound yourself.

To create effective vocal percussion, there's a few things you might do.

For example, you could change the shape of your mouth.

You could use your tongue and lips, you could use different dynamics, you might combine two sounds together or change the flow of air, or you might use different vocal sounds or timbres.

Let's do a check for understanding again.

True or false, beatboxing artists only use rhythmic patterns in their music.

Well, the answer is false.

Beatboxing is not always about just using drum machine mimicry.

As we've seen in this lesson, artists like Jason Singh can combine other sounds in their recordings.

Time for an independent task.

In pairs, practice vocalizing different sounds of nature.

Try starting by making quiet wave sounds and wind sounds similar to the ones we've looked at today so far.

Try changing the shape of your mouth and lips and changing the flow of air to make the sounds more effective.

And then ask yourselves, how closely are you mimicking sounds in nature? See if you can evaluate each other's sounds.

Practice making the starburst sound, both forwards and backwards.

And then finally, create a new vocal percussion sound inspired by nature.

Good luck, enjoy yourselves, and let's see what you can do.

How did you use mimicry in your improvisation? Andeep says he used gentle blowing sounds in and out to represent the wind.

And Aisha change the flow of air to mimic the movement of the waves.

And Jun says he changed the shape of his mouth to try and make the sound as realistic as possible.

Let's move on to part two, improvising sounds to create vocal textures.

Here's Jason again, our superhero.

Let's listen to Jason build up a vocal texture using beatboxing sounds.

He's gonna use something called a loop station to record those sounds.

And a loop station allows musicians to record, playback, and layer musical phrases.

Multiple layers create a texture.

So when you watch this clip, have a look for this loop station.

You can see it in his hand at the bottom of the screen, and try and see how he's using that to make these different types of sounds.

(Jason mimicking the wind) (Jason beatboxing) (Jason continues beatboxing) (Jason beatboxing) (Jason continues beatboxing) (Jason beatboxing) I wish I had a loop station at home.

It's very cool.

Let's check for understanding.

We can layer our wave and wind sounds to create an interesting vocal texture.

In pairs, create a vocal texture of two layers over the audio.

Partner one can use a quiet 'sh' sound to mimic the waves.

And partner two can recreate gentle blowing wind sounds.

(mimicking wind sounds) Have a go.

(gentle music) When Jason performs, he improvises, creating music in the moment, he uses his voice inspired by visual images, movement, and sounds from the natural world.

Let's take a look.

<v ->The sea.

</v> (Jason mimicking sea waves) (Jason mimicking sea waves) (Jason mimicking sea waves) (Jason mimicking sea waves) <v ->These timbres created by the voice are programmatic.

</v> They create a sound picture.

To improvise effectively, you might do some of the following, decide which sound is more prominent and when, vary the dynamics getting quieter and louder, and use your tongue and lips to alter the timbre.

In your pairs, create your sea and wind vocal texture again, this time practicing your improvising skills.

Let's check for understanding.

True or false.

When we improvise, we can't prepare anything in advance.

Is that true or is that false? Well, it's false.

When we improvise, we can rehearse musical ideas beforehand to help us when we are creating music In the moment.

It's time for another task.

Divide into groups to improvise using all of the sounds you've rehearsed to build a vocal texture.

The different layers of the texture will be, starburst sounds, both forward and backward, wind sounds, sea sounds, and your own sounds, and Jason's backing played as a line underneath the improvisation.

So I will play Jason doing the starburst sounds again, but if you'd like to hear any of the other ones, please rewind the video to find them.

Good luck.

<v ->So this next sound is what I call a starburst,</v> and it's basically throwing a sound and catching a sound so it goes- (Jason mimicking starburst) And the other way around.

(Jason mimicking starburst) <v ->I hope your improvisation was good.

</v> I hope you enjoyed it.

Perhaps you have feedback similar to our characters.

So Sam changed the shape of their mouths to use lips and tongue to create different timbres.

And Laura says, we tried using different dynamics to try and mimic the sounds of nature.

And Andeep says, we layered our parts in different ways to create interesting textures.

Notice they're all using this key vocabulary in their sentences.

Well done for sticking with us for this lesson.

I hope you've really enjoyed your improvisation and making different sounds that are inspired by nature.

Let's have a quick recap of the things we've covered.

So sounds in nature can be mimicked using the voice.

Sound effects such as altering the direction sound can be used to create interest and contrast.

We can create music in the moment using our voices or instruments alone or with others.

This is called improvisation.

And building up a performance of different textures requires rehearsal, evaluation, and improvement.

Thank you so much for joining me today.

I hope you've enjoyed it.

Well done for your contributions, and I'll see you next time.