At the Lavelle School for the Blind in the north Bronx, students are learning to beatbox — and from someone with percussive pedigree. Taylor McFerrin, son of ten-time Grammy winner Bobby, shows up twice a week with tips about how to sound like a bass drum or a high-hat. “I had never seen blind kids react to music before,” hip-hop event marketer James Kim tells the Daily News. Kim’s Beat Rockers program started the class. “It blew my mind. They had no reservations. The way they moved was pure bliss.” Lavelle students range in age from 3 to 21, and all are visually handicapped and mentally or physically disabled. McFerrin records the beats they create and gives them back to the students as MP3s. “This stuff is very normalizing,” says Lavelle superintendent Frank Simpson. “They don’t just learn how to sound like a drum. They gain self-confidence.”
Bobby’s son Taylor McFerrin teaches beatboxing in Beat Rockers program at local school for the blind [NYDN]
