Lesson video

Hello, my name is 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.

In this lesson, we're going to rehearse a texture of two or more parts, and for the learning outcome, we can hold our part as we build a texture in a beatboxing vocal ensemble.

Let's begin.

There's four key words for this lesson.

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

The second is rehearse, to practice in order to improve and prepare for performance.

The third is pulse, the regular steady heartbeat of the music.

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

As usual, it's important to warm up our voices and body for every music lesson.

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

When you're ready, follow these warmups.

<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.

(inhaling) (exhaling) (exhaling) Let's try again.

(inhaling) (exhaling) (exhaling) <v ->Kuh.

</v> <v ->Kuh.

</v> <v ->Kuh, kuh.

</v> <v ->Kuh, kuh.

</v> <v ->Tsa.

</v> <v ->Tsa.

</v> <v ->Tsa, tsa.

</v> <v ->Tsa, tsa.

</v> <v ->Tsa, tsa, tsa.

</v> <v ->Tsa, tsa, tsa.

</v> <v ->Mm.

</v> <v ->Mm.

</v> <v ->Vvv.

</v> <v ->Vvv.

</v> (exhaling) <v ->Kuh, puh, tuh.

(exhaling)</v> <v ->Kuh, puh, tuh.

(exhaling)</v> <v ->Fa, fa, fa.

(exhaling)</v> <v ->Fa, fa, fa.

(exhaling)</v> <v ->Mm,</v> kuh.

<v ->Mm,</v> kuh.

<v ->Vvv,</v> tuh.

<v ->Vvv.

</v> Tuh.

<v ->Fff.

</v> <v ->Fff.

</v> <v Instructor>Repeat after me.

</v> Gobbledygook, gobbledygook, hobblede, wobblede, bobblede ****.

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

<v ->The song "Build Me Up", develops our understanding</v> of texture and warms us up for beatboxing.

(fun hip-hop music) (singer beatboxing) (singer continues beatboxing) (singer continues beatboxing) ♪ Oh ♪ (fun jazz music) ♪ Oh, oh yeah ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ Oh, oh yeah ♪ (fun jazz music continues) ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ Oh, oh yeah ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ Oh, oh yeah ♪ (fun jazz music continues) ♪ Oh ♪ (singer beatboxing) ♪ Oh, oh yeah ♪ (singer beatboxing) (singer beatboxing) ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ Oh, oh yeah ♪ (singer beatboxing) <v ->Practice these vocal parts.

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

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

I'm focused.

I think my voice is warmed up and I feel relaxed.

Let's look at part one, rehearsing beatboxing sounds.

Let's watch Jason Singh, our expert, use his mouth and voice to mimic sounds of a kick drum, hi-hat, and snare drum.

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

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

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

One, two, three, four.

(Jason beatboxing) (Jason beatboxing) (Jason beatboxing) (Jason beatboxing) <v ->Well done.

</v> <v ->Each vocalization creates a different sound or timbre.

</v> Let's practice our drum kit sounds to make them as accurate as possible.

Remember how to shape your mouth to mimic the different sounds.

The hi-hat sound is locked in the letters, ts.

The snare drum sound is locked in the letter K, and the bass drum sound is locked in the letter B.

If you want to improve your bass drum B sound, make the B for boat, lips closed, let the pressure build up and control the release of your lips just enough so they vibrate for a short amount of time.

And if you want to improve your hi-hat ts sound, make the tuh as in hat sound, strengthen the consonant sound of tuh with a short burst of air.

Ts.

Follow through with a sound to create an open hi-hat effect.

If you want to improve your snare kuh sound, make the kuh as in kick, strengthen the sound with a burst of air, kuh, and keep your cheeks relaxed.

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

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

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

One, two, three, four.

(Jason beatboxing) (Jason beatboxing) (Jason beatboxing) (Jason beatboxing) Well done.

<v ->Let's check your understanding.

</v> Can you match these beatboxing sounds to the instruments? There's a snare drum, a hi-hat, and a bass drum, but not necessarily in that order.

Let's listen to A.

<v Beatboxer>Buh, buh,</v> buh.

<v ->And B</v> <v Singer>Kuh.

</v> Kuh.

Kuh.

Kuh.

<v ->And C.

</v> <v Beatboxer>Ts, ts, ts.

</v> <v ->A was the bass drum, so well done if you got that.

</v> B was the snare drum.

So C must have been the hi-hat.

We can combine drum kit sounds together to create a beat box rhythm.

Try putting the bass drum and snare sounds together, keeping a steady pulse.

Buh, kuh.

Buh, kuh.

Buh, kuh.

Buh, kuh.

Now try a different rhythm Buh, buh, kuh.

Kuh, buh, buh, kuh.

In two groups, combine the hi-hat sound with the new bass drum rhythm.

Rehearse these beatboxing sounds to the backing track.

Keeping a steady pulse.

So the first part is on the beat and goes ts, ts, ts, ts, ts, ts, ts, ts And the second part is a little bit more complicated and goes buh, buh, kuh.

Kuh, buh, buh, kuh.

Kuh, buh, buh, kuh.

Kuh.

See if you can practice these two things on top of each other in a group.

How did you keep a steady pulse? Well, Jacob listened to the beat and kept in time with the backing track, and Izzy performed together with everyone else.

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

Let's practice the shaker and clave sounds to make them as accurate as possible.

To make the shaker beatboxing sound, move your lips forward and vocalize ch.

So do it like this.

Ch, ch.

Ch, ch.

Ch, ch.

Ch, ch.

To make the claves' beatboxing sound, click your tongue on the roof of your mouth.

(tongue clicking) So to do it with the right rhythm, we want to do it like this.

(tongue clicking) (tongue clicking) (tongue clicking) Notice that fourth note is just outside of the main beat.

In two groups, combine the shaker and clave sounds keeping a steady pulse.

The first one will go like this.

Ch, ch.

Ch, ch.

Ch, ch.

Ch, ch.

And the clave sound will go like this.

(tongue clicking) (tongue clicking) (tongue clicking) Rehearse these beatboxing sounds to the backing track, listening carefully to each other.

How did listening to each other help? Jacob says he listened carefully to the other part and made sure his shaker wasn't too loud.

And Izzy said, listening to the other part helped me to sound that tricky fourth clave note in the right place.

What is the musical element which describes the sound or tone of an instrument? It's timbre.

Here's a task.

Divide into four groups to rehearse the beatboxing sounds together, including the new bass drum rhythm.

At each part, one by one, repeat the sounds over and over again, keeping a steady pulse.

Remember, you can pause the video and go back if you need to to hear these sounds.

Now rehearse the beatboxing sound as part of a "Build Me Up" song texture, listening carefully, and keeping in time with each other.

When you've done this, have a think about why you think it is important to rehearse.

Why is rehearsing important? Well, Andeep says, I improve when I rehearse and my performance becomes more accurate.

Aisha says, it allows me to get better at keeping in time and performing as an ensemble.

And Jean says, I feel proud that I have achieved my very best.

Part two of the lesson is about holding a part in a musical texture.

We're going to watch Jason Singh perform again and he's gonna use a loop station to record his initial beatboxing sounds.

Let's take a look.

(Jason beatboxing) (Jason beatboxing) (Jason beatboxing) (Jason beatboxing) (Jason beatboxing) (Jason beatboxing) (Jason beatboxing) (Jason beatboxing) That was incredible, wasn't it? A loop station allows musicians to record, playback, and layer musical phrases.

Multiple layers create the texture.

Listen to the song, "Build Me Up".

It's made of five layers.

These multiple layers create a thick texture.

Part one is spoken.

Part two is song.

Part three is also sung.

Part four is a keyboard accompaniment, and part five is a beatboxing accompaniment.

See if you can hear each sound as they get layered on top of each other.

Rehearse the song in two parts.

Start with part one and then add part two.

Listen to each layer of the song as you perform your own part so that you can fit yours into the overall performance.

In order to improve, you'll need to do this several times.

Let's listen to all those parts together.

(singer beatboxing) <v Ed>First comes the first voice.

</v> Now.

(singer beatboxing continues) (upbeat jazz music) (singer beatboxing continues) (upbeat jazz music continues) <v Ed>Now we're gonna hear the next vocal.

</v> ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ Oh, oh yeah ♪ (singer beatboxing continues) (upbeat jazz music continues) ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ Oh, oh yeah ♪ <v Ed>And now the next vocal on top.

</v> ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ Oh, oh yeah ♪ (singer beatboxing continues) (upbeat jazz music continues) ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ Oh, oh yeah ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ Oh, oh yeah ♪ (singer beatboxing continues) (upbeat jazz music continues) ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ Oh, oh yeah ♪ <v ->Aisha says, when performing different layers together,</v> try to feel the pulse.

Watch other people to help the performance stay together and listen to how the parts fit together.

True or false? To improve a performance, in parts, it is important to try and ignore the other layers of sound.

Is that true? Or false? Well done, it's false.

When you're performing different lines as an ensemble, it's important you connect with other performers by looking at and listening to them.

Here's another task.

"Build Me Up".

I want you to divide into three groups, decide which groups will vocalize the spoken parts, which group will sing part one, and which group will sing part two.

Using our rehearsal strategies, practice your three layer piece with the keyboard and beatboxing accompaniment.

And as an extra challenge, you might like to add in the beatboxing rhythm you practiced for Task A and rehearse just with the keyboard accompaniment.

You may like to prepare for a performance, but this isn't essential.

Good luck.

Remember to go back in this video and find these audio files or download them separately so that you can practice as much as you like at your own pace.

How did you rehearse successfully? Well, for Andeep, we performed the song more than once and practiced the tricky bits.

Aisha says, we listened to and watched the other members of our ensemble.

It's very important.

And Jun said, we kept a steady pulse.

Well done everyone.

This comes to the end of the lesson now.

So in summary, from what we've learned today, beatboxing sounds can be laid with vocal parts to make a texture of two or more parts.

To hold a part in a texture, it's important to rehearse together as a musical ensemble.

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

And different beatboxing sounds create different timbres when they imitate instruments.

Well done everyone.

What a great lesson.

I hope you've learned lots.

I've really enjoyed listening to the different beatboxing ideas.

See you next time.