B-B-B-Beatbox: How to Beatbox
Beatboxing has become one of the most accessible and versatile music making instruments. With unlimited opportunities to innovate and a still burgeoning community, the most exciting time to be a part of this is now.
It’s not just boots-and-cats and boots-and-cats-and anymore, it’s weo-weo-bwow-bwow boo chicka ficka ticka p doo da.
Here’s some of the world’s best beatboxers submissions to the 2018 Grand Beatbox Battle, where hundreds of beatboxers from around the world gather for an annual showdown in Switzerland.
Whew! I’m even feeling out of breath just from watching that. No worries though, getting there takes more than a few Redbulls and alcohol.
So you want to get started? Awesome. So let’s get to it.
Beatboxing Fundamentals
Since I’m a big believer in using the best available, here are some of the best beatboxing fundamentals tutorials out there. All of these are great introductions, and they all have slightly different explanations of similar techniques. Try one and see if you have a grasp on a particular sound/concept, and if not, look at another one.
KRNFX’s Learn How to BeatBox with KRNFX
Orthobox’s You Can Beatbox Series: I find these great because Orthobox always presents a variety of different beats at the end of each video that you can learn and use to develop your fluency over sounds.
Hikakin: How To Beatbox (Where I personally got started!)
I should also mention Human Beatbox, https://www.humanbeatbox.com/lessons/, probably the best organized curation of beatboxing materials, even though the materials there are often lacking.
My personal practice though is to stick with YouTube and employ our 21st century search engine skills.
For acapella beatboxers, master these fundamentals! B-T-K and their variations are everything.
Here’s a link to work through to make sure you really are in control of the foundations of beatboxing:
How to practice and stick with beatboxing
Now that you’ve found yourself understanding some few basics sounds and are still excited about taking on this musical journey, what’s next?
The goal of your practice should be some combination of these three things:
- Cleaning up/mastering a sound: Listen to how top notch beatboxers sound, try to work towards getting to the same crispness and tone
- Improving technically: Be able to be clean and crisp faster and in a variety of different context for all your sounds
- Learning new repertoire/patterns/sounds!
Like with any new skill, you have to practice, practice, practice. My best advice for taking the dive are:
- Don’t feel bad for sucking — everyone starts from somewhere, and everyone starts from different places. Just be excited for what progress you are making!
- Integrate it into your life. Rather than trying to stick with strict practice routines and regimens, I found myself having a much better time just beatboxing whenever I felt like it. And the great thing about beatboxing is that that time is anytime, all the time, and anywhere. Whenever I found myself waiting in line, walking outside, or just being distracted, I’d start busting out my boots and cats.
How to level up your beatboxing:
Whenever you get a hold on some new sounds, the best way to integrate that into your regular arsenal is to put them into beats. Check out the Orthobox tutorials for some of his, and otherwise, just challenge yourself to make up your own.
Another habit that I’ve picked up and found useful is to practice via covering songs. Whatever is playing on the radio in the car or on Spotify, I’ll take that as a chance to practice by covering the drum line and then even ad libbing over the song. This will get you comfortable with beatboxing in time, for songs, and with your own creativity.
Finally, COPY COPY COPY. It’s not a crime to be unoriginal, and this will give you a sense for beatboxing flow, how to combine sounds, and what the science of beatboxing really tastes like. The beatboxing community thrives on YouTube, so spend your time crawling over all the delicious material out there.
SwissBeatbox is the premier beatboxing community/channel online.
Getting started is the most exciting part of the journey so take these few tidbits and pave your own path. B-B-B-Beatbox!
