Re: Odd side question: anyone had braces while vocal beatboxing / looping?

[Akraf Emaho <akrafemaho@gmail.com>]

Rob, 

I've not done beat boxing with braces, but plenty of singing, so I have some insight.

Mainly it will depend on what kind of braces you have: fixed (train track), one or more removable braces, or a combination of the two.  Depending on the work you're having done, and the skill of your orthodontist, the number of braces needed and types used may change several times in the course of treatment.

Removable braces interfere with all types of singing to some extent, but the advantage is you can take them out.  Removables with an open palate so the tongue can touch the top of the mouth interfere less and at least make singing possible while wearing them.

Fixed braces interfere much less than Removables because the tongue can reach all of the normal positions and there's not a bunch of plastic changing the shape of your mouth.  I'm not too sure about beat boxing as I didn't do any lip-intensive work when I had fixed installed.  They certainly change the shapes that your lips are able to take up because they take up space in front of the teeth, so some adaptation would be required.  They'll also change the air flow somewhat so again this will change things.  Whether it will be a deal-breaker I don't know, but I expect you'd be able to work around it with practice.  It also depends on the holders being used for the train tracks and how neatly it's done at the back.  I've had braces that didn't allow me to rapidly and repeatedly go from "smile" to "ooo" and back without lacerating the insides of my cheeks, which would mess with your bass and snare recording I think!

What work are you having done exactly?  Expanding the palate while straightening the teeth?  That's generally pretty safe but takes time.

I'm on my second round of orthodontics after work I had done in my teens destroyed my health for the next 20 years.  What I've learned is: don't trust any dentist who regards removing teeth as anything other than an absolute last resort.  The extraction school of dentistry is responsible for our health epidemics in the forms of ME, CFS, MS, IBS, IBD, chronic headaches etc because they make more money from surgeries than looking after teeth.

Akraf

On 31 Jul 2012, at 00:25, Rob Jellinghaus <rjellinghaus@gmail.com> wrote:

I hope this isn't tooooo off-topic for this list, but this is one of the relatively few lists that can understand my specific concern!

 

First, my looper cred:  I've been working on a Kinect-based live-looping project named Holofunk (http://robjsoftware.org/2011/09/21/holofunk-lives/).  After demoing it a fair bit this summer I've concluded that I have a few key features to finish if I'm going to make it really performance-worthy.  I corresponded with Rick about this year's looper festival in Santa Cruz, but concluded I'm not ready to do a half-hour show yet, and won't be by October; so I decided to pass on it this year.

 

Which is all fine -- I'm definitely making progress on those features -- but: I also have been diagnosed as needing braces.  I'll have to have them for about two years.  Teenager at age 43, that's me.

 

I would like to come play at next year's looper festival, because I'll definitely be ready by then :-)  But now I'm nervous that braces will make beatboxing -- something I want to learn to do much better -- either uncomfortable, or bad-sounding (due to weird tooth-to-lip interference), or both.

 

Am I just making this concern up?  Or do braces actually genuinely affect the ability to beatbox and do other lip-intensive kinds of singing?  I am pretty sure I will get them this year either way (got to get it over with...), but I just want to know what to mentally prepare myself for.

 

Anyone been in this situation?  What was your experience? 

 

Net surfing anecdotes vary, which is why I'm looking for more first-hand input.

 

Thanks for your patience with my left-field issue :-)
Cheers,
Rob

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