One of the fun things you can do with Siri, Apple’s virtual assistant, is that you can make Siri beatbox. Since Siri is often promoted in a serious manner (helping with schedules, checking the weather), it came as a surprise to many people when they discovered their assistant could beatbox and rap. Although Siri has had this ability since late 2015, many people didn’t discover the skill until over a year later when the media picked up the news. The fact that Siri is virtual and therefore has a repetitive and automatic sounding voice makes Siri’s beats fun to listen to and can even serve as a backdrop for your own beats. Making Siri beatbox is easy and creating your own beats with Siri is both easy and fun.
Beatboxing Beginner
Beatboxing is a trick that only a few skilled people can pull off. It involves using your mouth and sometimes hands and nose to make sounds that mimic percussion instruments. Novice beatboxers are often taught to make simple sounds by putting a couple of words together and repeating the sound. Siri is clearly a novice at beatboxing, since this is what she does as well. On your smart device, when you hold down the home button and say “Siri beatbox” or just “beatbox”, Siri responds by saying, “Here’s what I’ve been practicing.” She then repeats the phrase “boots and cats” four or five times (boots and cats and boots and cats and boots and cats). She then says “I could do this all day”, and then switches to “cats and boots and cats and boots” for a few seconds. “Boots and cats” is a common phrase for intro beatboxers to try out. It mimics very simple beatboxing sounds and is easy to say quickly.
Since Siri is now available in multiple languages, users will find that Siri will beatbox in all available languages. Her response is simple in each one, following from the boots and cats repeat. For English speaking users, her “boots and cats” repeats seem slow, and not all that advanced. However, in Japanese and Korean, the beatboxing sounds much better. One video online shows Siri beatboxing in a few languages. By far, the funniest one is Putonghua (a modern variation of Mandarin). Siri sounds like she is malfunctioning. Although the sounds are likely an error, they are very entertaining but likely hard to beatbox to.
Collaborate With Siri
Siri’s voice can also be used for a backdrop for other beats. Musician and Vine star Marcus Perez uploaded a video of him beatboxing with Siri. When he asked Siri what was one trillion to the tenth power, Siri responded with “one” followed by a lot of zero’s. While Perez was the true beatboxer, having Siri repeat herself with a one or two syllable word (zero, for example) created a great backdrop for his beats. If you want Siri to beatbox without her knowing, ask Siri math questions with long answers. You don’t have to use complicated math to get a beat from Siri. You can customize your beats by giving Siri the exact number you want her to say and dividing or multiplying by 1. For example, ask Siri, “What is 1010010100101001 times 1?” Obviously saying, “What is one trillion to the tenth power?” is a much easier way to get beats, but customization is always fun too.
The Future of Siri Beatbox?
Unfortunately, the only beat Siri knows how to throw down is a short repetition of “boots and cats”. Considering she is a virtual entity likely capable of limitless sounds, this is fairly disappointing. Apple should consider expanding her responses, possibly creating a game type format by allowing users to copycat her sounds. For now, regular users can get a small laugh out of her response. The more serious beatboxers may want to ask Siri to open up a beatboxing app like My BeatBox or Beatbox Maker.