The History...

The origins of the Wind Technique goes back all the way to 1981, when the track 'Numbers', or 'Nummern' in German, was released by a 70s/80s German group called Kraftwerk. This was one of the most influential records of all time and the Wind Technique is partially a cover from this track. Today, it is known by almost every beatboxer around the globe for its unique sounds, speed of beats and that crisp snare.

Numbers Lyrics
Eins zwei drei vier fünf sechs sieben acht (german)
One two (english)
Uno due tre quattro (Italian)
Uno dos tres cuatro (Spanish)
Ichi ni san chi (Japanese)
Odin dva tri (Russian)

The Wind Technique is one of four routines that appear on Rahzel's influential album Make The Music 2000. After track 16 - a rendition of Rahzels often imitated 'If Your Mother Only Knew' routine - there is a secret track that features a man vs machine battle. The beatboxers respond with 'four elements', the second of which is the Wind Technique.

The artist that recorded this technique was not Rahzel himself, but close friend and fellow beatboxer Kenny Muhammad. Kenny also uses this routine in his live shows and the Wind Technique has become his trademark routine. Some say that Kenny changed the lyrics into some kind of chant/mantra to summon the wind element but this is an urban myth! Kraftwerk are still around today and if you want to hit them up, the site is www.kraftwerk.de where you can listen to some audios and short versions of their songs.

How to do it...

The Beat Pattern

The beat pattern for the Wind Technique is fairly complicated to master, but gets easier once you get the hang of it. One of its special techniques is the speed with which the hi-hats sounds are made as well as the speed of the beats going from the kicks to the vocals and the snares.

01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10	11	12	13	14	15	16
Bo	-	t	k	Ch	-	Bo	-	t	k	Bo	-	Ch	-	t	k

01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10	11	12	13	14	15	16
Bo	-	t	k	Ch	-	Bo	-	t	k	Bo	-	Ch	Bo	-	t

Hi-hats

Instead of using just normal hi-hats “ts-ts-ts”, Kenny uses “t-k-t-k” as his connecting hi-hats, thus making the beat faster and easier.

Voice

When Kenny speaks the lyrics, he doesn’t really say it in a normal voice, but he says it in a whispering tone to get the taste of the wind element.

Snare Drum

One of the hardest sounds to make is the snare sound. The snare drum Kenny uses for this technique is the inward ‘keh’ snare. You don’t have to use this as your preffered snare as there are other inward snares you can use, like the Inward K snare.

The Lyrics

The things most people really struggle with are the lyrics, long beat patterns and the connecting lyrics to the beats. For everyone who wants to learn the wind technique, here are the lyrics for you:

Wind Lyrics
ORSH-ARSH-LASH-LISH-BEAS-AHH-CEDO-AHH-SAI
[say in deep whisper]
ORSH-T-K-KEH-T-K-
LASH-T-K-KEH-T-K-
BEAS-T-K-KEH-T-K-
CEDO-KEH-T-K-
POO-T-K-KEH-
[When saying POO, say in high pitch]
POO-T-K-T-K-KEH-T-K-
POO-T-K-KEH-
POO-T-K-POO-KEH-T-K-
[From ORSH till the last POO-T-K-PFFT-T-K say all this in fast tempo]
UNOS-KEH-T-K-
DOS-T-K-KEH-T-K-
TRES-KEH
QUATROS-KEH-T-K-
B-ONE-KCH-T-K-TWO-
T-K-KEH-T-K-
POO-T-K-KEH-T-K-
TOOKA-TOOKA-TOOKA-TOOKA
[Say it from low to high pitch]
B-T-K-KEH-T-K
TOOKA-TOOKA-TOOKA -TOOKA
[Say it from low to high pitch]

PAH-KEH-TO-KEBISH-PAH-KEH-TO TOOKATOO-TOOKATOO-
PAH-KEH-TO-KEBISH-PAH-KEH-T- SIIIIPPP
[Say PAH and KEBISH in deep whisper]

Thanks to Dukebox, TyTe and E Wandan for their help with this article.