Lesson 6 – Part 1

Making a Clave Sound

In this session you will learn to make a Clave Sound using a Sublingual Percussive.

Percussive Sounds

Percussive Sounds are made by banging two parts of the mouth anatomy together.

When you bite or gnash your teeth together you are making a Bidental Percussive.

Percussives have a circle overlapping the two mouth part icons.

So, for example, your (rear) teeth when you bite or gnash will have an iconophonic that looks like this:

(yes, we know it looks like a Star Wars TIE Fighter)

The Sublingual Percussive

Bidental Percussives are rarely used in beatboxing, however, one percussive that is very common is the Sublingual Percussive.

Sub means under, and lingual means tongue, so a Sublingual sound is one made under the tongue.

The Sublingual Percussive is made by banging the tongue downwards onto the floor of the mouth.

The Sublingual Percussive looks like this:

And this diagram shows where it is made:

Watch this video to learn how to make the Sublingual Percussive:

The Clave Sound

Claves are two wooden sticks which are banged together and to make the Clave Sound, we use a Sublingual Percussive.

It sounds like this:

Watch this video to see a beatboxer making the Clave Sound:

When you are ready, click on the button to go to the next part of this Lesson.