This video has nothing to do with learning to beatbox. It’s just fun — gotta love Futurama.

Somebody apparently stumbled upon BeatOutsidetheBox.com the other day and really liked it. The subsequent traffic and visitor response has been a sight to see. Thanks for all of your suggestions and comments.

One visitor, Yonatan, suggested that I highlight Take 6, one of America’s premier a cappella groups. Take 6 has been nominated for 18 Grammys and won 10. Here they are picking one of their songs apart and putting it back together live. This is a classic example of vocal percussion being used in an a cappella setting.

Dave Baumgartner strikes me as a vocal percussionist more in my stream of experience. This solo doesn’t have a lot of popular sounds like nose growls and vocal scratching that so many hip hop beatboxers boast in their repertoires these days, but it does have some impressive sounds and tricks combined with obvious skill and dexterity. I may be wrong on this one, but he strikes me as an a cappella vocal percussionist that has learned to be a soloist as opposed to simply a solo artist. Dave, my hat’s off to you. This solo is great.

This is a short narration about one of the biggest names in beatbox history.

Because this video has professional sound and not too much EQ post-production, you can discern each percussion sound fairly easily. Watch it a couple times and see if you can figure out how to make some of these sounds. If you’re a beginner, don’t worry too much about speed or advanced sounds — just start with some of the basics. Beatboxers of all skill levels will undoubtedly appreciate Zenger’s unbelievable scratching.

Before the hit show Punk’d ever aired, MTV had another prank show called Stung.  In this video, Method Man and Redman pull a prank on some professional beatboxers.  The series never took off, but the prank is funny.

Method Man, Redman, & Matt Besser: Beat Box Prank