The North West Pathfinder 'Sing First' Conference was dedicated to vocal music and that didn't just mean singing.
One of the highlights was a visit from human beatbox Shlomo, fresh from playing to a crowd of 10,000 at this year's Big Chill festival. One of the world's best, he worked with Björk on her all-vocal album Medulla.
Beatboxing is the art of making music and percussion sounds using using only the vocal cords, the tongue, the teeth and the mouth. It originated in the New York hip hop scene of the 80s when human beatboxers would lay down the beats for MCs to rap over, and the style saw a resurgence in the 90s when Rahzel from hip hop band the Roots developed a signature style of singing and making beats at the same time.
To the uninitiated, beatboxing might seem like an impossible trick , but in a workshop session, Shlomo stripped the art down to some essentials and got even the most sceptical participants spitting beats.
The basic function is to imitate a drum kit, so there are three key sounds: the bass, which you make with the letter 'b', taking off the 'ee' sound. Then there's the snare, a punchy 'k' or 'ksh' sound and the hi-hat, a sharp 'ts' made by pushing the tongue up behind your top front teeth. Easy as that. Add a microphone and you can get instant booming bass, explosive popping sounds and a huge range of subtleties. And once you've got the basics it just takes practice, lots of it.
After having a go everyone agreed that this was something the pupils they work with would love to do, or something many of them already do but don't necessarily think of as being 'music'. Shlomo turned the group into a beatbox choir, demonstrating the potential in a classroom situation, with students listening closely to each other, repeating rhythms, layering sounds, improvising and having plenty of fun.
For more information and some great video tutorials, check out www.humanbeatbox.com or Shlomo's website.
Now click below to hear a clip of the man himself for some inspiration.