Each Form 4 class was fortunate to have an hour and a half long workshop with actor, composer, writer and beatboxing violinist Faz Shah on 3 March. Form 4 gained a new insight into creating music, one that was instant and absolutely unique. The beatboxing violinist led each class through an engaging session exploring vocal percussion and beatboxing and how to layer sections, develop basic core rhythms in various musical genres and explore techniques to nurture musical creativity.
After watching Faz perform his electric violin along to pop songs, the year group were able to learn exactly how it is done from a seasoned professional and even had the chance to take to the mic on their own. Faz explained that the skill of beatboxing itself, “Like playing the violin, is a skill like anything. If you practise a certain number of hours a day, you get to a certain level. The challenge is what you do with it. That’s really where the talent is.”
Beatboxing is the art of vocal percussion. The term beatbox comes from electronic drum machines from the early 80’s. The drum machines would have buttons, which when pressed, would create their assigned sound (such as kick drum, snare etc). Musicians soon started replicating the sounds of these drum machines with their mouths. This is where the term ‘Human-Beatbox’ comes from. Nowadays beatboxers like Faz not only produce sounds of music and instruments but also a whole array of other incredible sounds just by using the voice.
Faz Shah has performed around the world, on the BBC, YouTube, and has released songs on iTunes and Spotify. He has toured his original piece of Musical Mime theatre 'The Awakening' in 2019 to UK audiences and has delivered training courses to teachers internationally and across the UK, as well as leading projects in schools. He became the first person in the North West to achieve the Gold Arts Award.
