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
register
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