2 Secrets for More Creative Drums

In this post I am going to share with you three very important secrets (more like hints) to help you become much more creative with you drum sounds and beat making...

Some of these may seem obvious, and not really like secrets at all, but I urge you to really think about them and try to apply these concepts to your own beat and drum programming!

First, you should always conceptualize your beat pattern using your mind first, and the computer second. What this means is that the computer is your tool for setting down your pattern, and not the other way around. Don't let the computer dictate your creativity. This actually goes back to an idea that I read from Johanne Sebastienne Bach (a classical music master) who forbade his students from creating what he called "pen and paper music" or "keyboard music".

Anyone who is serious about music should seriously consider studying music full-time (berkley school of music) and taking their whole conception of this art to a new level.

So back to the idea at hand, the idea is essentially that you conceive of the pattern in your mind first, before setting it down. You don't create your beat with the computer, but rather with your mind first and then the computer as a tool. Here is an example of how you might implement this: Sit quietly in front of your computer or beat making software, and begin to imagine a beat (hear it in your head) then start beat boxing the beat that you hear in your head. You have just created a beat! Without using the computer. And chances are that this beat will actually be MUCH more creative and looser and freer than if you had tried to just go straight to the beat making software. So now maybe you could record this using your iphone (your voice), and then, once you have the creative pattern down, then and only then, start actually making the beats using your production software or tools.

Second, you should take time to do what I call "concentrated listening" of other peoples beat patterns. People like Dr Dre, Eminem, Kanye West, Jay Z, etc... These are some of the most creative people in the world, and their beats are something to be looked up to and admired, and most importantly, STUDIED! So study the beats of these hip hop production masters, listen to them carefully, and even try to copy or replicate what they are doing. If you do this enough, and you succeed, you will learn all the skills and nuances of creativity that go into making beats like these guys do. And before you know it you will be transferring the skills you've picked up into your own sick sounding totally original beats that are just as creative as these guys.

Here's a great video which explains why you should listen to as much music as possible to expand your beat making, music production, and creative potential...

So here's how you might implement this second hint. Take a track that you really like, I'm going to pretend that we've chosen Eminem & 50cent "Psycho" because I love that track. Now listen to the beat for 5 or 10 seconds. Now stop the track. Try to hear the beat in your head. Now listen to it again if you have to and then start trying to create the same beat on your own by finding similar sounds in your sound back and constructing a similar beat pattern. Try to make it sound as close to the original as possible. You are basically copying it! But don't worry this is for practice only, just like how painters will often practice by copying the great master pieces in order to hone their skills.

So there you have it, those 2 exercises alone can seriously improve your beat making and production skills BIG TIME - so don't brush them off, take them seriously and apply them to your own efforts and you will see huge payoffs in the future.

Until next time... PEACE!

How to Make Hip Hop Beats

Hi! Welcome to my site :)

The main subject of this blog is going to be tips and tricks for making beats of all kinds, but especially hip hop beats! Whether you are old school and use samplers, turntables, and keyboards - or you're more new school and use computers, synths, and sampling cd's - this website will hopefully give you some decent information about how to make your  beats better, how to write better music, and how to improve your production quality!

^ This is my current studio setup!

First, a little bit about myself. My name is Ty but I go by beatmaker4life because I've been producing hip hop, techno, rap, dubstep, jungle (you name it!) for going on 14 years now, and I don't plan on stopping anytime soon! Making beats is a life time hobby for me and I aim to get better and better as time goes on, that's why I thought it would be a good idea to start this blog. I've learned so much on my music production journey that I thought if I could help others out too, then they could accelerate their learning process and get to where I am in a much shorter frame of time!

So again, welcome to the site, and I hope this place is really going to help out your production skills. So let's jump right into it. This article is going to be geared towards new beat makers who don't really have any idea on where to get started, or even how to make hip hop beats. Whether you want to be making hip hop beats or techno or pop music, the starting point is pretty much the same. You need some decent software and a decent computer.

A good video to watch for new hip hop beat makers

But don't worry, you don't need anything crazy expensive, especially these days when technology has come so far and is so cheap. Chances are you can use the computer you are on right now and spend maybe 30 bucks on some beat making software, or even find a free beat maker! This should be more than enough to get you started.

But before you download some software, there are a couple of fundamental terms you should know when it comes to beat making. The first is Samples: these are the individual sound pieces that you use to construct beats, they are the individual building blocks that you snap together to make musical patterns, drum patterns, etc... The second is Sequencing: this is what allows you to fit the samples together into more complicated patterns. A sequencer is typically a grid like layout that allows you to drag and drop sample files around using your mouse and keyboard!

So there you have it, that really is the basis for beat making. Once you have your own production software installed then all of this will become much more clear to you and you will be able to grasp exactly how this works quite easily. If this all sounds complicated to you right now, just know that it's not! And if you have any questions about all of this I would be more than happy to help you out so please drop me a line!

Thanks guys, I hope you enjoyed my first post!