Apple GarageBand Jam Pack: Voices - Manual (Page 6)

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Percussion
The human body is capable of producing a nearly unlimited number of sounds, and
has been used by ancient cultures and contemporary performing artists as a musical
instrument. Using the body and mouth to simulate the sounds of percussion and other
musical instruments has been widely used in the past century, from jazz scat singing to
the multilayered creations of Bobby McFerrin and the group Voicestra. Now you can
add these human percussion and rhythm sounds to your projects using Voices
instruments.
Human Beat Box
Human beat box uses the human lips, tongue, throat, and voice to create beats,
grooves, and rhythms, and to imitate other sounds, such as turntable scratching. It is
used in contemporary urban music styles, particularly in hip-hop music. The name
derives from “beat boxes”, electronic drum machines used to create repetitive
percussion patterns (“beats”) over which rappers and others would improvise.
Beatboxing is also sometimes called “vocal percussion” or “multivocalism.” It originally
developed in urban areas including Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles, and may be
related to scat singing and other vocal simulations of instrumental music. The stars of
“classic” beatboxing in the 1980s included Darren “Buffy” Robinson, Doug E. Fresh, and
Biz Markie.
Human Bass
In classical choral music, the lowest instruments (including contrabass and bassoon)
often double the lowest part sung by the bass voice. In several styles of a capella music
(that is, music for voices only, with no instruments), including barbershop, doo-wop,
and more recently beatboxing, the bass voices often imitate the sound of a string bass
or electric bass guitar.