Beat-boxing to Bach and Corelli is awesome (and here's how you do it)

30 October 2017, 19:33 | Updated: 30 October 2017, 20:17

Voice-on-voice counterpoint, with a whole heft of vocal percussion - we found out how it's done...

The Swingle Singers have been doing amazing vocal arrangements of Baroque music since they formed in the early 1960s. 55 years later, with a new generation of members, they're still hammering out the contrapuntal hits.

Part of their distinctive sound is vocal percussion (a more technically correct term than beatboxing). It sounds incredible, so we wanted to learn more.

We caught up with the Swingles at the St Andrew's Voices festival, in the lovely surroundings of St Saviours Chapel at St Andrew's University. They sang some Corelli to show off their style of a cappella counterpoint and vocal percussion.

It pretty much sounds like drum and bass, right?! Here's the Swingles resident 'rhythm section' - bass Edward Randell and baritone Kevin Fox to reveal how they do it (it's all about the 'f' and the 't').

And here's a ballad arrangement of the famous 'Air' from Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 3.

Cool, huh? Follow the Swingle Singers on Facebook – and here are some upcoming performance dates if you fancy a bit of Baroque beatboxing live.