How Do We Create Music

there are many different ways

that we can create music you can be a

vocalist or an instrumentalist

somebody can be a songwriter or produce

behind the scenes

but what if i want to combine these in

an odd way

i want to take all these and put them

together

but not actually play an instrument on

the side or produce behind the scenes

i want to do it all by myself all with

just my body

i want to make certain that i am pushing

myself to my absolute limit

and making certain that everybody has a

different experience

with the music that i’m creating than i

could do with any other medium

i’m henry neff and i’m a beatboxer now

normally when you think of beatboxing

you think of the simple

and yes beatboxing is technically the

replication of a drum machine

sound and that’s what i actually do for

my acapella group buck that

on the screen you’ll see buck that

acapella performing at

the icca quarterfinals at case western

reserve

in cleveland ohio during this nine

groups got together

and we all competed to see who can make

it to the next round

our group ended up winning this and i

ended up winning best beatboxer

on the left side you have nick who’s a

fantastic baritone he’s a gorgeous lower

towards the center you have dev dev is

one of our best soloists if not our best

soloist he is an unbelievably unique 10

or 2 voice and he can hit notes that you

wouldn’t normally hear then

off the screen on the right you have

molov molov is a spectacular vocalist

he can hit runs that you would never

hear and also can hit high breathy notes

like no one else in the group

then on the right side you have

me in the black blazer and a white shirt

i don’t do any of this i don’t sing and

hit runs

i don’t do anything spectacular with the

group

i am the beat boxer i keep everyone

together

i’m the structure behind everyone i am

the backbone for the performance

but with this it comes at a cost i don’t

get to do everything artistically that i

would love to do

being the backbone i don’t get to make

weird noises and

create a completely different musical

idea i am here to structure everyone

else

but let’s go back a little bit further

about five or so years to my junior year

of high school

i was really really big into youtube i

used to watch everything trying to learn

anything that i possibly could about

random stuff on the internet

but one day i came across a video of a

hungarian man going on stage

and without any sort

of musical backing or electronic help

created sounds that sounded like an edm

track

or a dubstep album i had never heard

anything like this and i swear they had

put a machine in his body or they were

producing it behind the scenes

but they weren’t this man was able to

create all these noises with just his

mouth throat and chest

i was completely bewildered and was

immediately hooked on this idea of

beatboxing

and over the next several years kept on

watching youtube and finding new people

to get invested in

people like alex seno tyler dubia and

napalm all who are spectacular

and are able to teach you completely

different styles of this art form

as i got more and more invested i

started to get very invested into the

competitive scene

not the icca competitive scene but the

solo beatbox competitive scene

in this circumstance you will see one

versus one beatboxing

people creating tracks on their own

creating completely different ideas

and trying to battle against each other

to make it to the next round

this is not you are the backbone to the

group you

are the group you are creating

everything

that is being put out there so

with these ideas comes a lot of

different

techniques that you can use to make your

sound

completely different from another person

that you’re battling against

i’m going to go over some of those ideas

we’re going to do a little performance

and it’s slowly going to turn from

your normal beatboxing that you would

hear in an icca group and slowly morph

into something you would hear in a solo

battle

something that is completely past that

artistically

here goes

i don’t want to hear a sound

[Music]

[Laughter]

aah

so with these ideas

you can create something completely

different

using throat base i can completely mimic

the sound of the bass section that i

would normally be with

with high harmonies i can mimic the

sounds of a 10 or 2 or 10 or 1.

[Music]

but with other sounds i can also make it

sound like somebody’s producing behind

the scenes

with lip bass or tongue base

something that you normally wouldn’t

hear elsewhere

this is my own track that i get to build

and

i get to push my body to the absolute

limit

trying to create this i spend a lot of

time

testing out random noises in my house

trust me my parents and my little

brother

are not a huge fan of it but over time

i’ve slowly taught myself to create art

that i love to do

and it is completely different from any

other art form

if you go home and you try this if you

start watching youtube videos and start

picking up skills

for other art forms you may find find

something you are very interested in

and you may be able to pick it up

immediately

look into this try and find something

new

and maybe you’ll find the next art form

that really changes your life

thank you