Re: Amateur beat maker (Hip Hop)
Hey man, here's a lot of info, so just take it for what it's worth.
I saw earlier that you said your beats were missing something, and that maybe they needed more. Not so. Usually when a beat is missing something, it's structural. Different pieces of music require different amounts of layers. If you have a beat of a certain strength, then maybe it can carry the load. Same thing for a catchy little melody. Song writing is all about building around that idea, and completing the "story", even before the lyrics are in.
When I say build around an idea, I'm talking about push and pull, or dynamics. When do you push the main idea to the forefront and when do you pull it away from the listener to make them crave that idea, or in some cases use slight of hand to increase the impact of said idea.
That's the entire point of structure. If a song is a story, the "hot part" is the action scene or the love scene. Now you can't just have action scenes from beginning to end, right? You have to get the audience to be interested, so when you DO drop that scene, it's as powerful as possible.
So the most important part of songwriting is identifying what you really truly think is the hot part, and building around that.
Now on a more technical note:
-Drink a beer and just play with beats for hours on end. It's important for you to build an inner groove, and get comfortable with rhythm. This is where your "hit" will come from.
-hi hat determines tempo. Bass drum determines head bob. Snare determines accent, or "pop". Look at your favorite hit songs and watch people dance to it, and look at how the beat is dictating them. What's the role of the snare? etc etc
-Bass guitar is most effective following the kick drum in most cases. You can also use the base to "float" the melody as a contrast. Look at the effect of walking bass lines in jazz, and driving bass lines in rock.
-If your beat isn't hot without any instruments besides the bass, it's usually wack.
-FINISH YOUR SONGS. Even if you can't rap or sing, finish on top of them anyway. Both as a salesman, a collaborator and just as a songwriter, this is invaluable experience. In all forms of art, FINISH is the greatest teacher, and "beats" are just unfinished songs. Your progress will be much faster if you write songs, rather than beats.
Last thing: You can never experiment too much with call and response.
Hey man, here's a lot of info, so just take it for what it's worth.
I saw earlier that you said your beats were missing something, and that maybe they needed more. Not so. Usually when a beat is missing something, it's structural. Different pieces of music require different amounts of layers. If you have a beat of a certain strength, then maybe it can carry the load. Same thing for a catchy little melody. Song writing is all about building around that idea, and completing the "story", even before the lyrics are in.
When I say build around an idea, I'm talking about push and pull, or dynamics. When do you push the main idea to the forefront and when do you pull it away from the listener to make them crave that idea, or in some cases use slight of hand to increase the impact of said idea.
That's the entire point of structure. If a song is a story, the "hot part" is the action scene or the love scene. Now you can't just have action scenes from beginning to end, right? You have to get the audience to be interested, so when you DO drop that scene, it's as powerful as possible.
So the most important part of songwriting is identifying what you really truly think is the hot part, and building around that.
Now on a more technical note:
-Drink a beer and just play with beats for hours on end. It's important for you to build an inner groove, and get comfortable with rhythm. This is where your "hit" will come from.
-hi hat determines tempo. Bass drum determines head bob. Snare determines accent, or "pop". Look at your favorite hit songs and watch people dance to it, and look at how the beat is dictating them. What's the role of the snare? etc etc
-Bass guitar is most effective following the kick drum in most cases. You can also use the base to "float" the melody as a contrast. Look at the effect of walking bass lines in jazz, and driving bass lines in rock.
-If your beat isn't hot without any instruments besides the bass, it's usually wack.
-FINISH YOUR SONGS. Even if you can't rap or sing, finish on top of them anyway. Both as a salesman, a collaborator and just as a songwriter, this is invaluable experience. In all forms of art, FINISH is the greatest teacher, and "beats" are just unfinished songs. Your progress will be much faster if you write songs, rather than beats.
Last thing: You can never experiment too much with call and response.
Comment