There are no rules when it comes to creating beats for rap and hip hop music. Create rap beats with the best of them with tips and information from an experienced and accredited rap producer in this free video. Expert: Frederick Burchell Bio: Frederi…

One question that I see all over the place is related to the rules of making hip hop beats. In this video, the speaker talks about the fact that in his opinion there are no rules. He says music comes from the heart. In many ways he is correct, but I wonder if the combination of some rules along with that will improve ones musicianship.
What do you think??? Please leave a comment!

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The first thing you should do is to try and decide exactly which style you would like to emulate. Sometimes this can be difficult, but the more focused you are the better chance you will have of not getting into a point of not knowing what you want to do. There are several choices for this including hip hop, rap and rnb.

Sometimes what can help is to think of an artist that you enjoy listening to within that style and study what they are doing. Never plagiarize though. Come up with your own stuff. Listen, learn, get a feel for the style.

Now we start to get into some musical points, which is probably the most important part of all of this. Every decent piece of music has to have a form. It doesn’t matter if it is a Beethoven symphony, a country western song, hip hop or rnb, they all have structure. There is usually an intro followed by a verse, a chorus, then a verse again, bridge and by the way, these can be changed around. Again, listen to your favorite musicians songs and see what they do paying attention to form and instrumentation.

The absolute simplest way to make a beat is to make an 8 bar loop and repeat it for the whole song. A more common thing to do is a four bar introduction, a sixteen bar verse, eight bar chorus, then another sixteen bar verse and finally another eight bar chorus. That’s it!

Now it is time to have a bit of fun. The basis for all your hip hop and rap beats should be the drums. They need to be very strong and present. Lay down one at a time the kick, snare and hi hat. After that, you can add some things such as symbols, tom toms and cow-bells. Make a strong beat.

The next part can be tricky because you need some keyboard skills. A melody is needed. You don’t have to be a conservatory trained musician, but learning some basic scales will be of great help. You can get some very basic online piano lessons that will help with this. Use a lead guitar sound, horns or some other instrument which will stand out. Make a four or eight bar melody.

One trick you can use to make your beat have a bit more size and personality is what is known as “layering the beat.” What this means is to take a part or pattern and add it in with another instrumental sound in various parts of your song. You can also help make the sound of the soung bigger by placing some of the instruments on the right, some on the left and some in the middle. This is called panning and can really add a three dimensional feel to the piece. Do not overlook this critical artistic tool.