How to Make Hip Hop Beats

Ryan had a penchant for music and dance. In fact, he was born to be that way with his parents being in the same field. You could say he was born with a silver trumpet? Jokes apart, he got a brainwave to come up with his own hip beats as he was very fond of hip hop. He was just about to give up and then his girlfriend stepped in and she helped him do it. Needless to say they both had a rocking time making hip hop beats!

Has this happened to you? No? Cool! Who cares, even if it hasn't! All you want to know as a hip hop music aficionado is how are hip hop beats made, right? Great, then let's get to some work and come up with some fabulous hip hop beats! Ready? Here we embark on a musical trip!

Learn How to Make Hip Hop Beats

Rhythm 1
To kick start the process, you need to have a basis and a guideline. For that, the best way is to choose a style of the beat. It could be anything - rap, pop or any other. There is no dearth of options when it comes to style of beats.

Rhythm 2
Once you pick a beat, it would be a great idea to decide upon an artist whom you idolize or want to come up with the beat for. For instance, if you zero in on a style of rap, think what is the rap artist you want to create that beat for and who would suit the beat the best. Try and visualize that artist on the beat you are planning to work on. It will make things easier. For all this you need to listen to the rap artist over and over again and study him well.

Rhythm 3
Now comes the difficult part - formatting of the song. This is extremely crucial part of making hip hop beats. Formatting includes the introductory music,verse, chorus, verse, bridge and so on. Check out one of your favorite rap songs and see the presentation of the song- when do musical instruments come in, where they fade off, where does the beat start and the likes. The most primary format is 2 or 4 bar intro, 16 bar verse, 8 bar chorus, 16 bar verse, 8 bar chorus, 16 bar verse and 8 bars chorus to start off.

Rhythm 4
Begin with drums for laying down the beat. Kick, snare, hi-hat is an easy option for a good start. You could top these basic drumbeats with toms, cowbell and others. Do not let the strength of the drums fade off, then do whatever you want, as drums are of utmost importance when you are learning how to make hip hop beats or even otherwise. Thus ensure that the drums are kick ass and hard.

Rhythm 5
Layering the beat is another thing you need to do after laying out the beat. Layering is nothing but filling out the gaps, by following the same pattern you had with one instrument for another instrument. Doing this all through the beat will make your beat sound fatter than the original.

Rhythm 6
Panning is what has to be done after layering of the beat. Simply put, panning is checking out an instrument all the way to right, left and then center or anywhere in between in the stereo set up. It will help you give each track its separate place in the stereo field. There is rule as to how this should be done, but this is imperative.

Rhythm 7
Mixing the beat or mix down is another very very crucial step while making hip hop beats after panning. When you commence on mixing a beat start with individual tracks and make sure that it is sounding good. If the individual tracks are good, the beat as a whole is going to be worth listening! Avoid distorting, it is okay if it is not loud enough.

Kudos! You have just made the hottest hip hop beat ever! Now just upload it on the internet or take it on the CD in a .wav format. For the internet, use 320 kbps, the highest mp3 quality. If you want to know how to make hip hop beats on garageband, just set the tempo and time the key once you open the garageband. When you are ready press 'record' key and play your instruments. That's it! There are many live videos and tutorials as well on the internet which can teach you to make hip hop beats online.

That was all! Have a great time rapping and creating something of your own!