My name's Butterscotch.

I'm a singer, beatboxer, first female beatbox world champion

and you may have seen me on America's Got Talent

and today we're gonna break down 13 levels

of complexity in beatboxing.

[beatboxing]

Beatboxing is the art of vocal percussion

so every sound you make is only using your mouth.

It's one of the most unique things that you can do

because everyone is different

so we're all gonna have some sort of different style

that we add.

So remember, this is my version

of what makes beatboxing complex.

Level one, bass drum.

So we're gonna start with the simplest sound

which is the bass drum and this is the heartbeat.

It sets the tempo and the tone for whatever beat

you're gonna do.

So the perfect way to get this sound

is to really accentuate your lips

and the air pushing through.

And so what you're really doing

is forcing the air out of your mouth.

It's gonna take time to build up that muscle

in your lips but once you get the strength,

then it's gonna be a clean hard ...

So we have the bass drum but now,

we need another percussive element

to help drive that beat.

Level two, snare.

So we're gonna take bass drum and add a snare to it.

[beatboxing]

This is what actually makes the beat.

It's not just a heartbeat.

The easiest and quickest way to beatbox

is just to say boots and cats together.

Boots, cats.

Saying these two words together

are prepping your mouth for the right form

to beatbox with the right sounds.

So when you say these two words together,

you're creating a very simple rhythm

that people can play over or rap over

or jam over.

Boots, cats, boots, cats.

[beatboxing]

Level three, hi hat.

So we got the bass.

We've got the snare.

And now we're adding the hi hat.

And this is completing the elements

of the basic sounds of a drum kit.

Everything else in beatboxing,

they're just embellishments.

And if you wanna see the core elements,

here's a drum kit.

You've got your bass, you've got your snare,

and you've got your hi hat.

[beatboxing]

with the hi hat, you really wanna

make these sounds tight and this

is what makes the rhythm move.

It pushes it and it sounds almost

like a sprinkler too.

[beatboxing]

You don't want it to be too loose

'cause then you're gonna lose that technical sound

that you want.

That's just not gonna hit it.

You just gotta make it clean.

[beatboxing]

Hi hats can be closed.

[drumming]

Or they can also be open.

So now that we have our core sounds,

let's introduce a basic beat.

So beats can be anything but this

is the simplest, most basic hiphop beat.

So I'm taking the bass, I'm taking the snare

and I'm taking the hi hat and I'm gonna

put them in this order.

So I can throw in another bass drum

which makes the rhythm and the pattern

sound a little bit more exciting.

It's one thing to just make those sounds

but over time as you practice

and your lips get stronger, you're gonna

sound like this.

[beatboxing]

So this is super simple.

It's basically the Mary Had A Little Lamb of hiphop beats.

If you listen back to La Di Da Di, Doug E. Fresh,

the original human beat box,

this is the beat that's behind it.

♪ Yo, peep this ♪

♪ La Di Da Di, we like to party ♪

♪ We don't cause trouble, don't bother nobody ♪

So this whole time, the snare I've been using,

it can become kind of monotonous

if you're just always using the same type of snare,

even just within a song.

So what happens when I change it up

and make things a little bit more complex.

I can interchange the snare with a bunch

of other different sounds

and that's what makes it more dynamic.

I can do puh sounds.

[beatboxing]

So combining the puh.

You can mix them all up and come up

with all different kinds of snares.

The puh sounds are more like hitting the snare

or drum machine where as the [mimicking drums] sound

is like a rim shot.

You don't wanna use all the sounds all at once.

It'd be like having a drummer

just play every single drum and it's not

really making a beat, it's just sound.

[beatboxing]

So when you first start beatboxing,

you're pretty much gonna have to

plan out your breaths.

Most of the snares that I'm using,

I'm breathing outward.

So this is what it looks like when all the sounds

that I'm using are breathing out.

[beatboxing]

I ran out of breath because there's no time

to even catch my breath, whereas

if I'm breathing inward,

I can go faster, I can breathe

while I'm actually beatboxing.

I can just interlace my breathing

with the beat itself.

After a while, then it just becomes second nature

and you can just breathe within the beat.

So when you're a drummer, sometimes you

make two sounds at once.

I only have one mouth so this level

of complexity is taking two of the core elements

of the drum kit and putting them together.

So here's my bass and here's my hi hat

and I'm just gonna combine them.

So this is me doing it normal.

And this is me adding the bass and hi hat together.

[beatboxing]

You can add multiple sounds at the same time

but we're gonna save that for a couple levels later.

Everything we've been doing up to now

has been percussive but now level seven,

adding a bassline.

I don't have the vocal range to go super low

but what I can do is vibrate my lips

and get this certain frequency

that creates this tone and this pitch

so with this lip bass, I'm basically

just vibrating my lips but this

is getting a tighter form and you're actually

making pitches and tones.

So I'm gonna take this bass sound

and add it to the beat.

[beatboxing]

This is the limit of what I can do

with the bass sound since I don't

have the vocal cords that stretch that low

but with other beatboxers like Inertia,

[beatboxing]

who can go super, super low

that create this like subwoofer bass.

[beatboxing]

All levels up to now have been using my mouth

but now we're gonna add another level of complexity

by using my throat.

Level eight, humming.

Humming and beatboxing is one of the most difficult things

because you're using different parts of your mouth

and your throat and your lips all at the same time

so you wanna get that humming sound,

more kind of nasally, and then throw the beat

on top of that.

[beatboxing]

so when you're first starting out, just hum

and then make the bass drum noise at the same time.

The hardest thing is adding the snare on top of that

because a lot of people will wanna go--

[beatboxing]

But that doesn't really sound that great.

If you go [humming] and then [mimicking bass].

[beatboxing]

That's a little bit cleaner.

So I'm gonna take that bass sound

and add another note on top of it.

Which gives it a richer sound.

One of my favorite beatboxers

is the current world female beatbox champion,

Kaila Mullady, and she adds these musical elements

to make her beatboxing stand out.

[beatboxing]

So far, everything we've done has

been instrumental so let's add some lyrics.

The easiest way to begin is to start with B words

because you're already saying buh

with the bass drum so you can say banana.

♪ Banana ♪

Or you could say beatbox.

♪ Beat, box, beat, box ♪

You can also use it with P 'cause that's the same shape

that your mouth is already making for those sounds.

Pop tart, pop tart, pop tart.

♪ Pop tart ♪

So with other consonants, it's a little bit harder.

♪ Crunchy taco ♪

♪ Crunchy taco ♪

There is a split second, like say if I'm saying zebra,

I'm just saying it a split hair after I do the bass drum

so it's zebra, zebra, zebra.

But if I'm doing it so fast, it sounds

like I'm doing it at the same time.

Zebra, zebra, zebra.

Or if you have a guh sound

which sounds almost impossible to do a [mimicking drums]

and a guh sound at the same time

but once you've been doing it a long time,

pretty much any word is possible.

♪ Gorilla ♪

[beatboxing]

♪ Gorilla ♪

So the most exciting moment in beatbox history

for me is when Rahzel beatboxed and sang

at the same time.

♪ If your mother only knew ♪

He sang if, if.

You wouldn't normally think a bass drum

and if would go at the same time.

If your mother.

♪ If your mother ♪

Mother.

At the same time, that's crazy too.

♪ If your mother only knew ♪

[beatboxing]

Before that, people had rapped and beatboxed,

maybe did a little singing in beatbox

but it wasn't as cohesive and clean

and it blew people's minds.

That's one of the reasons I'm beatboxing today.

There's a form that's kind of taking off as well

that Kid Lucky started and amazing beatboxers

like Kaila Mullady are doing it.

[beatboxing]

♪ I ain't going nowhere if you ain't by my side ♪

So now we're gonna get more complex

by adding different sound effects.

This is where you find your style.

What really makes you stand out.

So these are different sounds that I've

been developing over the years.

I have the lip bass.

Tongue bass.

Growl bass.

Slizzer roll.

Trumpet.

Scratching.

♪ Ah yeah ♪

When I was younger, I used to bark like a dog.

I would do that in class and scare people.

You don't have to be good at all these different sounds

to be a good beatboxer.

Just find the sounds that you love

and that represent you and that's your style.

I would say my trumpet is one of my most unique

and signature sounds.

It brings out what makes my music me.

I'm inspired by people like Miles Davis

or Dizzy Gillespie.

I love jazz and that's what I grew up with.

I love classical music so I'm trying

to get better at making a nice violin sound.

[mimicking violin]

Emulating real instruments are probably the hardest

because this is what people are most familiar with.

When you're trying to make the same sound,

you've gotta have it pretty spot on.

Before I move on to level 11, here's the first 10 levels

all together.

[beatboxing]

♪ Beatbox ♪

♪ Beatbox ♪

For this next level, we're gonna

go just back to the beat but this time,

it's all about new school.

Level 11, intricate beats.

So I'm starting with a drum and bass beat.

[beatboxing]

You can hear all the things that I'm doing

which sound simple but as I go faster,

it sounds a bit more complex.

This level's more complex because your brain

has to catch up with what your mouth is doing

or your mouth has to catch up with what your brain

is trying to do

but everything starts with a very simple beginning

and you can just like work it up and go as fast as you can.

You can take it to the exponential level

with how fast you can go, with how many sounds you

can do within a certain beat.

It's incredibly technical.

So complexity isn't just about going for speed.

For me, it's about being multi-dimensional.

For level 12, I'm doing a classic song,

Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, and I'm singing,

beatboxing, and playing the guitar at the same time.

So it's complex because my brain is having

to operate at a different level trying to do the beat

and play and sing.

♪ Swing low, sweet chariot ♪

So I add a trumpet at the beginning

to give it kind of a jazzy flair

that just sets up the song in a nice way.

So it could be other instruments

but I love playing guitar, I love taking classics

and just flipping them and making them sound more new.

♪ Swing low, sweet chariot ♪

♪ Coming for to carry me home ♪

♪ Swing low, sweet chariot ♪

♪ Coming for to carry me home ♪

In this last performance, I'm gonna be live looping

which is overdubbing all the instruments that you see.

I have my keyboard, my guitar, my loop station.

Beatbox, vocals, different sound effects

and the classic trumpet sound.

[mimicking trumpet]

So I sing, beatbox, or play into the loop station

and it creates different layers that overdub.

It's complex because I'm

combining so many different elements,

different instruments.

There's no room for error because every sound

has to be on the beat because it's looped.

[beatboxing]

[piano music]

[humming]

[guitar playing]

♪ Swing low, sweet chariot ♪

♪ Coming for to carry me home ♪

♪ Swing low, sweet chariot ♪

♪ Coming for to carry me home ♪

♪ Swing low ♪

I love beatboxing because it's completely unique.

You're able to do so much just with your own body.

There's all sorts of levels and intricacies

of what makes beatboxing multi-dimensional.

It's portable, it's fun, and it's pretty damn special.

So I hope you enjoyed it and thanks, Wired.

♪ Swing low ♪

[clapping]