Devon vicar Gavin Tyte in YouTube beatbox Nativity
- Published
Before being ordained, the vicar was a professional beatboxer
A Devon vicar who uses beatbox rhythms in sermons has produced a version of the Nativity using the same technique.
The Reverend Gavin Tyte's beatbox Nativity video has had more than 12,000 views on YouTube.
Mr Tyte, 40, vicar of Uplyme Church, said he was prompted to create the video after requests from people who saw a live version in 2010.
Beatboxing involves producing drum beats, rhythm, and musical sounds using the mouth, lips, tongue and voice.
Beatboxing judge
Mr Tyte has been beatboxing since the age of eight and was a professional beatboxer before he was ordained seven years ago.
He still uses the technique in parts of his sermons and teaches it to children in schools.
Last year he produced a quick live version of a beatbox rendering of Luke's gospel on video.
He said: "It seemed to go down well.
"I had feedback that people wanted an HD version with subtitles so I set about creating a new video that could be played in churches and youth clubs."
Mr Tyte, who has been vicar of Uplyme for the past two years, describes how he produced the YouTube video on the Uplyme church website., external.
He has been a regular judge of the UK beatboxing championships and was editor of the website humanbeatbox.com.
He said that rapping was a challenge which he enjoyed.
He said: "I love writing and wondered if it was possible to write the bible in rap.
"I have hung out with rappers for a long time, but trying to turn each verse into a rhyming verse is really tricky.
"You are constrained by what is written and what sounds good so it does not flow as well as if you were rapping from scratch."