How to Make Hip Hop Beats - 10 Easy Steps

[Arianna Chenoweth]

When you're just starting out how to make beats it can be fun and
frustrating at the same time. Trust me I was there. But it really is
easier then you think. If you're making a beat here are 10 tips that
will get yo stated.
1. Pick a style- Know the style of beat you want to make before you
start making it. Like rnb,rap,pop, etc. There have been plenty of
beats that I made and could not figure out what style it was.
2. Pick A Major Artist- Think of a known artist that you would want to
make the beat for. Like if you chose a style a rap, think now what rap
artist do you want to make the beat for. Try to imagine that artist on
your beat. This will make your hip hop beat-making experience a whole
lot easier.
3. Listen To Their Song- Take a listen to the rap artist you are
making the beat for songs. See the style. Get a feel for the kind of
hip hop beats the artist raps over.
4. Formatting The Song- Very important. formatting is, the intro,
verse, chorus, verse, bridge, etc. That's all it is but basically you
just change the order around however you feel like it. Turn on the
radio and see how your favorite artist formats there song. When
instruments come in, when they drop out. The most basic form to start
with is, 2 or 4 bar intro, 16 bar verse, 8 bar chorus, 16 bar verse,
8bar chorus, 16 bar verse, 8 bars chorus. This is the most basic beat-
making song format. This is very common in rap. If you want an even
simpler way, you can create an 8 bar loop and keep it the same
throughout the whole song. I have seen this done a lot.
5. Laying down the beat- I have learned that for starters, it's easier
to start with the drums. Kick, Snare, Hi hat, are always a good start.
Record a pattern for four bars with those first. Then layer that with
maybe some toms, cow-bell, symbols, etc. Whatever you want to use. THE
DRUMS ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT IN MAKING HIP HOP BEATS! Your drums must
hit and hit HARD. The best way to get your drums hitting hard is by
not using "pitty pat" free kits you downloaded from the internet for
free. If your drums are weak, then your beat is going to be weak.
6. Laying Down A Melody- This is where most hip hop beat-makers have
the most trouble. Because most eat makers can't play the keys. For
starters, you might want to learn basic keyboard skills. The major
thing you need to learn are, major and minor scales. After you learn
that, try and do different combinations and patterns with the drum
beat you have made. Use an instrument like, a lead guitar, horns,
clav, something that will stand out. Your melody can be however you
want it, but for starters, you could do a 4 bar melody, or an 8 bar
melody.
7. Layering The Beat- What is done a lot in beat making is layering.
If you have your whole beat finished. You can go and make it sound
bigger by layering. All you do is fill in some gaps, do the same
pattern you did with one instrument with another instrument. Do this
throughout your beat. This will make you beat sound a lot fatter.
8. Pan- Panning is basically having an instrument all the way to the
right, all the way to the left, and anywhere in between. You pan for
all kinds of different reasons. It gives each track its own little
space in the stereo field. There are no rules for panning, put you
have to do it. So just try it out and see what you like best.
9. The Mixdown- Very important! Very Important! Very Important! If you
have a poor mix on your beat, then you have pretty much wasted your
time. When mixing a beat, start with each track individually. Solo
each track and make sure it sounds good by itself. EQ it if you have
to, but if each track sounds good by itself, the whole beat will sound
that much better. DO NOT DISTORT! If your master levels are in the red
before you bounce to disc or .mp3, your distorting. Don't worry about
if its not loud enough. You never ever ever want to distort. If you
are distorting, check any instrument that has boom or low end, Like a
kick, bass, sub, etc. these tend to distort more often.
10. The Bounce- Now that you made you're beat, Its the hottest hip hop
beat ever, you want to put it on cd or upload it to the internet. When
you're exporting a beat for cd, Use .wav file. 44.1 16bit. If you want
to upload to the internet use, 320kbps (the highest .mp3 quality) or
128kbps. Most websites wont accept 320kbps because the file size is
too big. So go with 128kbps.
These are all just guidelines to help you get started. There are
millions of ways to make a beat, But this is just to help you get your
feet wet if you don't know where to start.

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