Introduction

This is one of the most common ways of making a snare drum sound in human beatboxing. Here is an example of a classic snare drum made using one of the variations described below: 

Method

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. 

Variations

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 This video demonstrates the classic snare with pf, ps and psh variations:

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	classic_snare.wmv (1.1Mb)
	classic_snare.mp4 (1.1Mb)

[ pf ] method

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.
   

In Context

Here is an example of the Classic Snare used in a more complex groove:

And here's the pattern (repeated in the MP3):

and here is the groove expressed in Standard Beatbox Notation (SBN):

[ bm tt tt bm / ps t t bm / t bm t bm / ps t t t ]