Lesson video

Hello, my name's Dr.

Southall.

We're gonna be learning today about using different vocal timbres, so join me and let's see what we can learn and have lots of fun on the way.

Okay, we're gonna be layering beatboxing sounds in this lesson, and our outcome is that we're gonna be able to begin to layer beatboxing vocal sounds together.

There's four keywords for this lesson.

The first is texture, the combination of different layers and sounds.

Beatboxing.

Use of the mouth and voice to mimic sounds such as a drum machine.

Mimicry.

The process of imitating something like the sound of an instrument.

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

We're gonna start off with a warm-up to get our voices and bodies ready for this music lesson and make sure that we're reducing any risks to our voice.

We'll start with a warm-up of our mouth and tongue with tongue twisters and gently stretch our vocal cords with vocal exercises to help keep our voices strong and healthy.

If you're ready, follow these warm-ups so that you are ready for music.

<v ->Join in with this breathing warm-up.

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

Take a deep breath in and then blow.

Let's try again.

(instructors vocalizing) (instructors continue vocalizing) <v Instructor>Repeat after me.

</v> Goobledegook, goobledegook.

Hobblede, wobblede, bobblede ****.

Jump up and down, all about town.

Round and around and around and around.

<v ->Next we're gonna do the song "Build Me Up"</v> to develop understanding of texture and warm ourselves up ready for some beatboxing.

Here we go.

(upbeat music) (singer vocalizing) (singer continues vocalizing) ♪ Oh oh ♪ ♪ Oh oh oh yeah ♪ ♪ Oh oh ♪ ♪ Oh oh oh yeah ♪ ♪ Oh oh ♪ ♪ Oh oh oh yeah ♪ ♪ Oh oh ♪ ♪ Oh oh oh yeah ♪ (singer vocalizing) ♪ Oh oh ♪ ♪ Oh oh oh yeah ♪ ♪ Oh oh ♪ ♪ Oh oh oh yeah ♪ <v ->Practice these vocal parts.

</v> The first is spoken and the second is sung.

(upbeat music) (singer vocalizing) (singer continues vocalizing) (singer continues vocalizing) (upbeat music continues) (music ends) (upbeat music) (singer vocalizing) (singer continues vocalizing) ♪ Oh oh ♪ ♪ Oh oh oh yeah ♪ ♪ Oh oh ♪ ♪ Oh oh oh yeah ♪ ♪ Oh oh ♪ ♪ Oh oh oh yeah ♪ ♪ Oh oh ♪ ♪ Oh oh oh yeah ♪ ♪ Oh oh ♪ ♪ Oh oh oh yeah ♪ ♪ Oh oh ♪ ♪ Oh oh oh yeah ♪ <v ->Are you ready to make music now?</v> I think I am.

I am focused, I think my voice is warmed up, and I feel relaxed.

Well, there's two parts to this lesson.

The first is "Learning new beatboxing sounds." So we're going to watch my hero, Jason Singh, beatboxing, and he's mimicking the sound of the drum machine and percussion instruments using his mouth and his voice.

Let's take a look.

(Jason beatboxing) (Jason continues beatboxing) That was very cool.

I wish I could do it as well as he did.

We can use the voice and mouth to beatbox sounds that mimic the bass drum, hi-hat, and snare drum.

The bass kick drum has a b sound at the beginning.

The hi-hat is a ts sound.

And the snare drum, a k sound.

Let's listen to the expert and see if you can mimic them.

<v ->Okay, so this is the sound</v> of the three instruments altogether.

The bass drum, the hi-hat, and the snare drum.

(Jason beatboxes) Now after four, we'll do it together.

One, two, three, four.

(Jason beatboxes) Well done.

<v ->Now, for a new sound,</v> the egg shaker is usually made from plastic and filled with beads.

It's held in the palm of your hand.

Let's listen to what it sounds like.

(egg shaker rattling) Now let's listen to Jason mimic the sound of the egg shaker with his voice.

<v ->So this is the sound of the shaker.

</v> It's a heavy percussion instrument and it sounds like this.

(Jason mimics egg shaker) <v ->I love it.

</v> To make the egg shaker beatboxing sound, move your lips forward and vocalize a ch sound.

<v ->So I'll do the shaker first and then it's your turn.

</v> (Jason mimics egg shaker) After four.

One, two, three, four.

(Jason mimics egg shaker) <v ->It's just like hearing an egg shaker rattling</v> if you're doing it really, really well, which Jason is very good at.

Each beatboxing sound represents a different percussion instrument, and every percussion instrument has its own special timbre.

Izzy says, "The timbre describes the unique sound or tone of an instrument." Remember, that's our keyword of the lesson.

In beatboxing, the voice is used in different ways to mimic the different instrumental timbres.

Here's another new sound.

Claves are short wooden sticks played by cradling one in the hand and using the other to strike it.

Let's listen to what it sounds like.

(claves clicking) Now let's listen to what Jason can do with his voice to mimic the sound of the claves.

<v ->This is the sound of the clave.

</v> It's your tongue on the roof of your mouth.

(Jason mimics claves) <v ->Okay, well, he's done a great job.

</v> Let's see if you can do a fantastic job as well.

See if you can make this beatboxing sound by clicking your tongue on the roof of your mouth.

Have a go.

<v ->So this is a clave pattern.

</v> I'll do it first and then we'll repeat it after four.

(Jason mimics claves) One, two, three, four.

(Jason mimics claves) <v ->Sam says, "Can you imagine</v> and hear the claves being struck?" I think you probably can, and I bet the sounds you've just made were very similar to the real thing.

Well done.

Let's have a quick check for understanding.

We've had two new sounds.

Let's listen to this file and decide which percussion instrument Jason is mimicking.

Is it A, claves, or B, the egg shaker? (Jason mimics rattling) Did you get it right? The answer was B, the egg shaker.

Well done.

What beatboxing vocalization do you use to mimic the sound of the claves? Is it A, a ch sound; B, a k sound; C, a b sound; or D, a tongue clicking sound? Well done if you got D.

It's a clicking sound with your tongue.

Now it's time to do some practice.

Focus on the different mouth shapes and sounds and practice each of these beatboxing vocalizations.

We have five different examples and I'm gonna play you each of the sounds and then you practice each one as well.

Here we go, good luck.

Remember, to practice these effectively, you will want to listen to these clips several times and repeat your own process.

(Jason mimics claves) (Jason vocalizes) <v ->And you take a deep breath in</v> and you push from the front of your lips.

(Jason vocalizing) (Jason continues vocalizing) (Jason vocalizes) <v ->Don't overthink your sound,</v> simply mimic what you hear and do your best.

I think you probably did a great job with at least three or four of those.

There are some tricky ones, but I think we're gonna be fine with some practice.

How did you try and do it? How do you try and mimic the timbre of each of the percussion instruments? Aisha says, "I used different vocalizations of letter sounds." I think we did too, didn't we? And Laura says, "I used my tongue, lips, and mouth in different ways to mimic the instrument sounds." We have to really think about the shape of our mouth and what we're doing to get those sounds accurate.

And Sofia says, "I listened carefully to the audio and tried to create the sound that I heard." Didn't we all? Part two of this lesson, "Layer known beatboxing sounds." Here we go.

Jason creates a thicker texture by layering beatboxing sounds.

Here, the hi-hat and the claves are layered together.

Let's watch.

(upbeat rhythm) (Jason mimics hi-hat) (Jason mimics claves) Sofia says, "Texture is a combination of different layers of sound." Did you hear the layers in that clip? I did, I was very impressed.

Okay, we're gonna split ourselves in two.

And the first group, we're gonna do hi-hat beatboxing.

In group two, we're gonna do clave beatboxing.

If you're on your own watching this video, you can just do each one in turn.

Once again, if you need to hear these clips several times, then do pause the video, rewind, and watch again.

Practice makes perfect.

(upbeat rhythm) (Jason mimics hi-hat) (Jason mimics claves) Did you manage to hold your part against the other group? Did you keep a steady pulse? Remember, if you're on your own, you could do it alongside the video if you would prefer.

I wonder if you could clearly hear the two different layers.

Let's listen to Jason layer four beatboxing sounds.

Now listen carefully and see if you can hear all four things happening.

(upbeat rhythm) (Jason mimics bass drum) (Jason mimics snare drum) (Jason mimics hi-hat) (Jason mimics claves) Did you hear the bass drum, the snare drum, the hi-hat, all layered on top of each other? See if you can repeat this and join in with the different sounds each time.

Just like before, I suggest you pause the video after it's finished, rewind and play again so you get lots of practice.

Good luck.

(upbeat rhythm) (Jason mimics bass drum) (Jason mimics snare drum) (Jason mimics hi-hat) (Jason mimics claves) What's the musical element that describes the combination of different layers and sounds? Well, it's texture.

Well done, Jacob.

Let's divide into two groups.

Practice layering the base drum and the snare drum as an ensemble.

Notice that the base drum falls on beats one and three, and the snare drum sits in between on beats two and four.

Make sure you'll watch this clip a couple of times so that you can really practice your listening to see if you can notice the different beats.

(upbeat rhythm) (Jason mimics bass drum and snare drum) Let's do it again and swap groups.

(upbeat rhythm) (Jason mimics bass drum and snare drum) Now let's practice layering the hi-hat and claves in two groups.

Notice that the hi-hat falls on every beat, but that the fourth note of the claves comes in slightly earlier than the fourth beat.

It's quite tricky.

(upbeat rhythm) (Jason mimics hi-hat) (Jason mimics claves) Let's repeat and swap over.

(upbeat rhythm) (Jason mimics hi-hat) (Jason mimics claves) Now let's divide into four groups and layer all four beatboxing sounds to create a thicker texture.

And we'll rotate those groups so you've contributed to each part of the ensemble.

So there's four different parts, you're gonna practice each one eventually as we rotate the group.

Keep focusing on the accurate mimicry of the sounds, even when the layering gets tricky.

Now, you're definitely going to want to do this a couple of times, so if you need to, please pause the video after it's played and start it over again for reference.

(upbeat rhythm) (Jason mimics bass drum) (Jason mimics snare drum) (Jason mimics hi-hat) (Jason mimics claves) Well, let's have a think.

How did it go? Did you keep a steady beat with the two sounds alternating? It's quite difficult.

And when you were layering your hi-hat and claves, did the rhythm fit well together? Because we did have some bits that were a little bit tricky and slightly off the beat, didn't we? And then when we've got to all four sounds, could you hear all four layers individually? Could you identify them all when you were playing together? And did it create an authentic beatboxing sound? I hope so.

Well done today.

Fantastic as always.

We'll just summarize the lesson briefly so we can use our voices to mimic different percussion instruments in a beatboxing style.

Fantastic.

Beatboxing sounds are created using different mouth shapes and letter sounds.

Every percussion instrument has a unique timbre, and we mimic this timbre with beatboxing.

Two or more musical lines layered together create a musical texture.

The more lines, the thicker the texture.

Well done.

I hope you've enjoyed today's lesson and I'll see you next time.

Bye.