Show HN: Beatboxing for Kids – Teach Your Child to Beatbox Using Everyday Words | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Beatboxing for Kids – Teach Your Child to Beatbox Using Everyday Words

beatboxingforkids.fun

102 pointsjawns15 comments

Looked like fun. Asked both kids (8,14). “Daaaaad! Nooo!” “I’m not doing that.”

Then they went back to reading paper books, rigging wooden ship models, building forts in the woods, etc. JK. Right back to Fortnite and Instagram.

FWIW you do build forts in the woods in Fortnite.

The trick is to make them think they've discovered it on their own. Learning how to beatbox is sort of like learning how to dance -- it's going to be awkward at first, and kids can feel self-conscious about doing those things in front of their parents. But if they just happen to find a tutorial lying around and can maybe practice in their bedrooms without any parents watching ... they just might connect with it.

too old

Looking at the site on a small-screen iPhone 5S, your SVG gets messed up at lower resolutions. I thought it was my eyes at first until I zoomed up:

https://imgur.com/a/j3Eqgwm

Also, the audio examples do not work on this phone.

Desktop Safari doesn't play them either. I guess it's because Apple still doesn't like Vorbis?

For iOS users who have a compatible player installed (I think VLC should do the trick), here's the direct links, in order of appearance:

https://beatboxingforkids.fun/boots_n_cats_words.ogg

https://beatboxingforkids.fun/boots_n_cats_beatbox.ogg

https://beatboxingforkids.fun/dog_dog_keys_words.ogg

https://beatboxingforkids.fun/dog_dog_keys_beatbox.ogg

https://beatboxingforkids.fun/bud_d_daughter_words.ogg

https://beatboxingforkids.fun/bud_d_daughter_beatbox.ogg

https://beatboxingforkids.fun/goose_kid_d_words.ogg

https://beatboxingforkids.fun/goose_kid_d_beatbox.ogg

https://beatboxingforkids.fun/buff_double_puff_words.ogg

https://beatboxingforkids.fun/buff_double_puff_beatbox.ogg

Once I was capable of doing an inward snare, softly beatboxing to myself became my version of Spotify. Music is so much better when I do it myself, same goes for cooking. I know I’m biased ;-)

Inward snare inhale is where the real fun begins. Though, I find over many loops I end up with TOO much air, so I have been working on the outward-inward-snare, which is an exhale snare that sounds like the inhale snare.

Do you have video of that?

Not of myself, but here's an example of the inward K snare (the most common, there are other inward hits such as a snare roll) https://youtu.be/DRk5QkDit2c

It's just a matter of practice to make a K sound the same inward as outward. Then you can manage your air seamlessly, like circular breathing.

One problem is that from reading the words there's no way to know what rhythm is intended, in fact the words are often written in a misleading way. So I start beatboxing the way I think the rhythm is, then I listen to the audio and it's very different.

For example:

    Bud   D   Daughter
    Kiss   D   Daughter
    Bad   Double   T
    Kiss   D   Daughter

Considering each line to be one measure, I thought bad would start at the beginning of the measure. But in the recording it starts partway into the measure. Demonstration: https://i.imgur.com/10lFVDm.png

    Goose   Kid   D
    Bubble   D   Cat   Cat

This example is even more confusing. I thought both lines would be 4 beats. But the recording has the first line as 3 beats and the second line as 5 beats. Demonstration: https://i.imgur.com/YWzHDED.png

If you say "Hey Siri, beatbox for me", it will respond: "Here's one I've been working on. Boots and cats and boots and cats and..." Today I refer to a common four-on-the-floor dance beat as "the standard boots-n-cats beat".

My 2 year old loves beatboxing. And cats. He will love boots and cats.

I like it, simple and fun! Going to try this with my niece tonight.

Or, the pg-13 version:

Bum bum tits ticklenipple bum tits

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