Preview: UK Beatbox Championships

On October 2, Bristol will hold the elimination round and under 18s heats of this year’s UK Beatbox Championships. We caught up with 2015 World Beatbox Champions, The Beatbox Collective and explored what it means to be a Beatboxer. The collective is made up of Ball-Zee, Mc Zani, Hobbit, Bellatrix, The BFG and Bass6, all highly talented individuals and award winners in their own right.

Beatboxing is the art of turning your mouth into a musical instrument by using techniques such as lip-rolling and air-blowing to imitate percussion instruments. Its roots lie in tribal cultures from around the world dating back to the travelling French performers of the 1300s known as ‘troubadours’ (poet musicians). Later, jazz musicians like Ella Fitzgerald used ‘scat’ vocal techniques to create melodies and rhythms, in turn inspiring ’80s hip hop artists such as NYC’s Doug E Fresh, who claims to be the pioneer of the modern day art of beatboxing.

“We were always making sounds growing up,” says Beatbox Collective member Bass6, “whether impressions of favourite cartoon characters, teachers, impersonating music or just sound fx. The term ‘beatboxing’ wasn’t very known at an early age and we naturally projected our voices to the amusement of friends. About 15 years ago the UK scene really came together through Humanbeatbox.com and we started to meet up in the park, trade tricks and push the boundaries alongside the ever-changing music scene. Influences like Rahzel, Doug E Fresh, Biz Markie and Michael Winslow – these artists were the gateway to believing this was a relevant and exciting art form to pursue..

Beatboxing is great expression. It opens the mind more than singing, exercises the body and is a great breathing technique. We have a lot of people with a range of learning disabilities in the scene and this is an incredible way to exercise the mind and body. It has helped a wide range of people as a great way to emit energy and to distract and calm the mind.  Its an ideal way to create confidence and interact with everyone whilst encouraging noise and expression and this is a great learning style for anyone of any ability.”

Beatboxing is also beneficial for your voice, according to USA-based researcher Dr H Steven Sims who discovered that beatbox techniques could ease the pressure singing can put on the vocal cords, and has recommended that singers incorporate it into their training. Some schools now teach beatboxing in music lessons, and with the internet at our fingertips you can easily find ‘how to’ videos and articles on sites such as www.humanbeatbox.com. 

“We all go out to teach workshops at various capacities,” says Zani, “whether it be at a school, youth centre, a company team building day. So it has a lot of accessibility.  It can be taught at all levels. You just have to gauge the type of person taking part. Also beatboxing is muscle memory, so the more you train your instrument, the better you become. Anybody can make any sound. It helps if you have a sense of rhythm as that will help with timing, but in terms of learning the sounds we all have the instrument to do it.

If I pick up a guitar I wouldn’t be able to play anything. After a few months…maybe a few tunes, but after two, three or four years I would have got to a great level. The same rule applies to beatboxing and how much time you are willing to practice and dedicate to the art form.”

Beatboxing keeps growing in popularity – not just here in the UK, but all across the world: 

“It’s had a massive evolution in the past five years, thanks to the internet and social media,” Zani explains, “and I think it’s still evolving as beatboxing is still in its infant stage. What the mainstream need to be careful about is to not over-saturate it like what happened with the b-boy scene at one point. It needs to maintain its culture and credibility. And as for music there are many instances where there is a beatboxer featured but you probably won’t even recognise that its a beatboxer.

“It is also a universal language. I did a show in China recently and I met a few beatboxers there. I can’t speak Chinese and they couldn’t speak English but the only way we communicated was through beatboxing. It was amazing because I spent the whole night with them and we were just jamming – exchanging sounds and beats, and not once speaking.”

Despite its world recognition and popularity in education settings, the scene is still very much dominated by men. Bellatrix – the only female in the collective – comments on this imbalance saying, “although we have come a long way over the years, as with many things, beatboxing is still a long way from finding gender balance. I think that having more women visible in the infrastructure of our community events, like the UK beatboxing championships for example, would be a great step towards a message that beatboxing is for everybody. Last year all of the judges and all of the hosts were men, which was very disconcerting. I opened a conversation with the organisers who were very receptive to my concerns and this year we have some female representation with Eva Lazarus as one of the hosts. This is a positive start, but we are still at the beginning of a very long road what with 100% of the solo competitors being male. Grace Savage and I will be returning to defend our team champions title mainly for this reason.”

The other judges include Beatbox Collective member Zani, Bristol saxophone looper Mr Woodnote and French beatbox champion Alexinho. Live acts performing include Dabbla who just released his brilliant album Year of the Monkey on High Focus records. The Beatbox Collective will be demonstrating why they’re the world champions, and there will be live art from Scribble and Scratch and workshops teaching people how to beatbox. 

In the meantime, if you fancy practicing the art form yourselves – here’s a quick lesson to get you started. Say “Cats and Boots” or “Boots and Cats”. Now practice pushing the air out of your mouth on the letter ‘B’ to create a bass drum sound. Then try sucking the air in on the letter ‘K’ to recreate a snare drum. Finally try to push the air out of your mouth whilst touching the back of your teeth as you make the sound “Tss”. This noise should then start to resemble a high hat.  Now practise the different ways you can say “cats and boots” and the different speeds at which you can do it. You’re beatboxing!  Have fun practising, and try not to spit over whoever is near you.

The 2016 UK Beatbox Championships, The Island, October 2. For more information visit www.ukbeatboxchampionships.com. Tune into BCFM 93.2fm  from midnight on Friday, October 14 to hear a live hip-hop cypher special on DJ Spungold’s Boom Time Radio Show, featuring guest beatboxer DJ Pye. Video interview with High Focus Records’ Dabbla coming soon to Baby Boomtown Show on Youtube.