80 Fitz shows us what it takes to build your basic range of sounds.
In this series of lessons, 80Fitz brings some really high-quality beatbox tutorials to show you how to perfect some new-school sounds.
Jump to exercise:
Tutorial 1: Throat bass + throat singing
Tutorial 3: Humming and beatboxing
Tutorial 8: Inward bass and inward bass roll
Tutorial 11: Inward drag breathing technique
Tutorial 14: Inward tongue roll
Tutorial 17: Power bass / lip oscillation
Tutorial 1: Throat bass + throat singing
Here is 80Fitz's first tutorial of the "tutorial Tuesday" series. Episode one starts with the throat bass, which is inspired by the one and only Reeps One.
To start off, the throat bass is broken into three steps.
Step 1: Sigh
Sigh really deeply and you should feel a low grumble in your throat. The sighing should show you and help you feel where you should be focusing on to create a bass tone
Step 2: Sustain low notes
The second step is to sigh really deep and hold out the grumbling noise that you feel in your chest and throat with a constant stream of air.
Don't push out too fast, just make sure you can sustain that note even if it's shaky.
Step 3: Lock bass tones
You have to find where your vibrations lock and click into place to become that resonant throat bass tone. You have to see where the tones lock, but once you do you can use different mouth positions, sounds, and phrases to modulate it.
Sample Beat: Boon dibba dibba Did Deh Kah
Tutorial 2: Siren Sound
In this tutorial, 80Fitz will show how to perfect the siren sound along with some variations.
The siren sound can be divided into two steps.
Step 1: Lower lip on top teeth
Place your lower lip in the middle of your top front teeth.
Step 2: Hum in falsetto
Combine the two sounds to create the resonant frequency that sounds like a siren. In theory, it's a quick sound to learn. The difficult lies in the transition when you're trying to incorporate the variations of the sirens into your beats.
Variations:
The 80Fitz drill is an example of a variation of the siren. You combine the throat oscillation with the siren, which creates an electronic sound.
The second variation is doing a low throat bass while having the mouth position of the siren sound. This creates a low, brass-like bass.
Tutorial 3: Humming and beatboxing
The key to beatbox and hum is to hit the kick and snare sound without breathing. The more you practice, the more you understand the technique. It takes a bit of time to build the strength in your lips.
Step 1: B kick and Pf snare without breathing out
The first step is to make these sounds without breathing outward and only using the lips. Contain the sound within your mouth.
Step 2: Hum one solid tone
Hum something comfortable within your range and maintain a solid consistency in your sound.
Step 3: Combine them!
Now hum and use the 'b' kick and 'pf' snare. Once you got that down, try adding the 't' hi-hat.
If you really want to challenge yourself, do a beat while humming outward then move on to doing the same beat while humming inward.
Tutorial 4: Outward K
The outward K sound is a simple sound to learn and is extremely versatile. It can be broken down into two main steps.
Step 1: Say a word with hard "K" sound
Start off by saying a word like "kite" and building up pressure in the back of your mouth and project the "K" sound as hard as you can.
Step 2: Remove vocalization
The second step is to remove the vocalization of the word and reduce it to only the hard "K" sound.
Try the beat: B t k t B t k t
If you're feeling confident, try to do the k sound in rapid succession!
Tutorial 5: Vocal scratch
This tutorial requires a disclaimer: this sound is very unique to each beatboxer. There is no right or wrong way to do it - everything is fair game! If it sounds cool, do it! This is the 80Fitz style of the vocal scratch.
Step 1: Say "Ibidda"
This is a phrase you can use in the middle of a phrase, which sounds like a DJ would when scratching a record.
You can practice saying "ibidda" and "dibidda" in quick succession.
Step 2: Say "Ibidda" in falsetto
Once you have the sound down and it's tight, you can start going higher and using your falsetto to make it sound like a real scratch. Combine it with other sounds like "oh yeah" and other phrases that sound cool!
Tutorial 7: Throat tap
This will be a fairly short and sweet tutorial, but it's important to know how to do this safely. Here are the steps.
Step 1: Just sing a flat and solid note.
Step 2: Take middle and index finger over adam's apple
Step 3: Tap the area while humming or singing and tap lightly so the sound modulates
Once you've perfected that, try doing the siren sound while throat tapping for a cool synthesizer sound!
Tutorial 8: Inward bass and inward bass roll
Before we start, it's important to start with a disclaimer. This sound is heavily dependent on your anatomy. If you struggle, don't worry and don't be discouraged! This is a difficult technique.
Here are the steps!
Step 1: Breath in heavily if you're gasping for air
When you breathe in heavily, you feel a rumble and feel a vibration in your chest. I'm feeling the vibration on the lower section of the throat and the top area of my chest.
Step 2: Control tone with mouth shape
You can control the tone of the inward bass by changing the shape of your mouth by making an "ooh" or "oh" sound. You can also add an inward "k."
Once you have perfected that, you can also breathe inward and outward, switching between the inward bass and outward throat bass.
The last tip is doing the inward bass roll, popularized by B-Art. It is basically using the inward tongue roll, while combining it with the inward bass. Once you got that down pat, you can also combine it with an inward "K." Listen to some B-Art for variation techniques!
Tutorial 9: Whistle Scratch
The whistle scratch is a very simple technique to explain, but difficult to master.
You take your lower lip and but it over the top of your bottom teeth. You breathe out and change the sound by moving your lip. When you speed it up, it sounds even more crisp.
Tip: Try saying "tchoo" or "tchew"
In rapid succession, it sounds like a laser or a scratch. Another combination you can do is doing an inward drag with it in the same position, doing a rapid inward and outward combo.
Tutorial 10: Vocal trumpet
When you're doing the trumpet, you're essentially singing with different lip positions. The trumpet sound can be broken into two steps.
Step 1: Tighten lips on one side
Choose a side that is most comfortable to you and blow out of the loose side. Once you're comfortable with that, proceed to the next step.
Step 2: Sing in falsetto
Sing a falsetto note while keeping your lips kind of tight and blowing out the looser side.
Once you perfect that, you can combine the trumpet sound with a uvula oscillation to make a rough modulated sound. You can also throw in vibrato if you're feeling fancy!
Tutorial 11: Inward drag breathing technique
If you want to hear the best inward drag in the world, be sure to check out Reeps One.
The inward drag is fairly easy to explain, but in practice could prove to be very tricky. This is mostly due to the difficulty of breath control, which takes quite a bit of practice.
The inward drag beat is a combination of sounds:
Kick (B) - inward drag (Hv) - outward drag (H^) over and over. This will look like
B - Hv - H^ | B - Hv - H^
Then you can replace the second "B" bass drum with a hi-hat (t)
B - Hv - H^ | T - Hv - H^
Once you have perfected that pattern, you can replace the third kick with a snare (Pf)
B - Hv - H^ | T - Hv - H^ | Pf - Hv - H^| T - Hv - H^
You can eventually do several different variations with different beat patterns, but be sure to practice your breath control, build up your core strength, and build up your chops! Shred it!
Tutorial 12: Sega Sound
The Sega sound is a difficult technique because it's a combination of several difficult techniques combined together.
Here are the sounds you will need:
Sound 1: Kiss sound
Tighten your lips really tight and create a vacuum from inside your mouth and suck in from one side of your lips.
Sound 2: Inward tongue roll
This is done by putting the tongue on the roof of your mouth. Breathe in and let your tongue flap against the roof of your mouth.
You can combine these two sounds by first doing the inward tongue roll THEN closing your mouth into the kissing sound. The tighter you keep your lips, the higher the sega sound will be.
Tutorial 13: Tongue bass
The tongue bass is a technique that is based almost entirely around the ability to roll your tongue. That is a basic beatbox technique, but for some it's very challenging. If rolling your tongue is giving you issues, don't give up, you can learn it but it might just take longer.
The basics of rolling your tongue is to channel air along the roof of the mouth and relaxing the front of your tongue allowing it to flap against the roof of your mouth making a "purring" sound.
Step 1: Increase speed of tongue roll
Funnel air along the roof of your mouth and slowly close the gap between your tongue and the roof of your mouth. This will increase the speed of your tongue oscillation.
Step 2: Use lips to shape the sound
Close your mouth to filter the higher frequency and create a lower tone by using your lips to shape the sound.
Step 3: Move lips rhythmically to create patterns
Change the shape of your mouth to create some wobbling and tones.
Tutorial 14: Inward tongue roll
The inward tongue roll is versatile and the opposite of the tongue bass from the last tutorial. Instead of pushing air outward, you fold the bottom side of your tongue to the roof of your mouth and breathe inward.
Tip: Combine the inward tongue roll with some inward vocalization!
Tutorial 15: Inward K snare
The inward K snare is a sound that every beatbox does differently, but this is the 80Fitz style inward K snare.
Use your tongue to seal off the space along the roof of your mouth. You're building pressure by breathing inward aggressively and releasing the pressure that was built up on the roof of your mouth.
The awesome part of the inward K sound is that you can breathe inward and get a whole breath of air in the middle of a beat.
Tip: To do successive K's, execute and inward K snare then close it off by closing your lips
Tutorial 16: Duck scratch
Step 1: Compress air with tongue to make hissing sound
Essentially, you're hissing like an angry cat. You're blowing air from both sides of your mouth and sealing off the space along your hard pallet. Air is flowing behind the back of my teeth and along my cheek to make that hissing noise.
Step 2: Increase air pressure
The next step is to increase the pressure and tighten the tongue along the roof of your mouth. The air passage should become narrow!
It will feel uncomfortable, but the harder you push, the tighter the sound it will be.
Step 3: Control air with different mouth shapes
The third step is to control the air flow. You're sending short bursts of high-pressure air from the back of your mouth quickly to make a DJ scratch sound.
You can adjust the tone by shaping your mouth in different positions. If you create an O sound and widen your lips (like a big fat ugly smile) thereafter, you will have that duck sound.
Tutorial 17: Power bass / lip oscillation
The outward lip oscillation is a staple of the beatbox arsenal and it sounds incredible on a mic. Once you get it down, you can get really creative with it and combine it with different techniques.
Step 1: Relax lips & sigh
Relax you lips and blow air slowly out of your mouth as if you were sighing with your mouth closed, making a little bit of a raspberry sound.
Step 2: Increase air pressure
The second step is to build more pressure and build a tighter vibration, creating a tighter oscillation.
Step 3: Add a B kick to the oscillation
You add all the three steps together while including the hard B kick in the beginning and following through with the raspberry sound.
Tutorial 18: Lip roll
The lip roll is a sound that has been popularized by new school beatboxers. The sound can be broken into three steps with two sounds. It is the inward pop and the outward pop.
Step 1: Inward pop using only mouth pressure
Create a vacuum in your mouth by tightening one side of your lips and letting the other be side loose. You're building a suction into your mouth and popping it inwards.
Step 2: Outward "wub" using only mouth pressure
You're building pressure in your mouth, not your lungs, and pushing air outward to create a wub sound.
Step 3: Alternate between outward and inward sounds
Once you build those facial muscles, you can do the inward and outward sounds in quick succession.
Tip: Add a throat bass while doing the successive lip rolls
Further learning: Lip roll tutorials with Kazu
Tutorial 19: Throat kick
The throat kick / electro kick is one of the first sounds that most beatboxers learn - but not everyone uses it. This sounds doesn't have steps - it's just taking one sound and moving it to the back of the throat.
Quickly, you close your mouth and move cough sound to back of the throat.
You close your mouth and open the soft pallet in the back of your throat and stop it from making a percussive sound out of your mouth. Be sure to contain it in your throat.
Tip: Do a minimal beat and combine with B kick (B) , throat kick (U), tongue roll (tu), throat kick (U)
Beat Pattern 1:
B - U - tu - U | B - U - tu - U | B - U - tu - U | B - U - tu - U
Add snare:
B - U - tu - U | Pf - U - tu - U | B - U - tu - U | Pf - U - tu - U
Tutorial 20: Pf snare
In this final tutorial, we will be covering the pf snare. It is the most powerful technique and stands as one of the most fundamental sounds in beatboxing.
First, you make a p sound. You say the word "puh" but focus on the consonant sound of the P by keeping your lips super tight.
Keep them pursed like you ate a super sour lemon.
After you make that percussive P sound, you follow up with an "ss" sound afterwards so it sounds like "Pss."
Once you've got that down, you can follow through with an "sh" or "f" sound after the hard P to make it sound like a snare.
Beat Pattern:
B - t - pf - t | B - t - pf - t | B - t - pf - t | B - t - pf - pf
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