Inspiration – Things that move me
Reeps One ‘Rattling My Chain’
WOW. This project is so hot right now. Reeps One, dope beatboxer, and, for my second time writing on this dude, filmmaker BD. He seems to specialize in music videos of all kinds. His youtube channel is here. Check out the colors maaaaaaaaaaaaan.
The Language of Beatboxing
Wired Magazine’s recent article entitled “What Beatboxing Looks Like Through an MRI Scanner” describes some surprising results from the University of Southern California’s Signal Analysis and Interpretation Laboratory’s study on the “paralinguistic mechanisms” used by beatboxers in the formation of their musical sounds. The gist of their findings is embodied in this statement by the [...]
Teach Me How to Wheelie…
The NY Times’ recent piece on the 12 o’clock boys is pretty awesome. Check it out!
EMBODY Lab: A Catalyst of the Vocal Arts
Shodekeh is one of my fellow Baltimore based beatboxers. One of the many sub-projects related to his EMBODY master plan (you’ll have to talk to him directly for more on this!) is the EMBODY Lab series, taking place at the Metro Gallery in beautiful Station North, Bmore. Last night was the second gathering for the [...]
Blowing the ‘Ole Jug
If you’ve been following this blog a bit, you’ll know I’m completely in love with music powered by the breath. Beatboxing, overtone singing, and now…the Jug. My good friend Salty Dog Martin, whom I play music with in Rock Creek Steel Drum’s Birth of the Steel Drum program, told me that I should get into [...]
Buckets!!!
Bucket drumming is awesome. You basically take some buckets, pots, pans, and other miscellaneous items, lay them out on the street and find two sticks for banging out the beats. But I got to thinking and I started wondering how much variation exists amongst bucket drummers from different regions around the U.S. After all, other [...]
Tenores di Bitti
The Mediterranean Sea meets the Tyrrhenian Sea and there you will find the ruggedly beautiful island of Sardinia. To this day the Sardinian people practice an indigenous style of choral quartet called Cantu A Tenore. Sardinia is a rather large island, and the island’s ancient tradition of polyphonic overtone singing varies by region. Historians believe [...]
Lyrical God the Pen Tapper Rapper
Beatboxing was and, to a diminishing extent, still is, the art of making music when you have no other instruments at hand. It is, of course, not an only child in the universal musical family. Recently I have found myself searching out and studying all those musical cultures and techniques which fall in that category of [...]
Throw Down Your Heart
In this banjo-driven documentary featuring virtuoso Bela Fleck, a Tanzanian man explains the strange name of the town “Throw Down Your Heart.” When captured Africans were brought to this town on the East coast of the East African nation, seeing the ocean for the first time made them realize they would never see their home [...]
