Hip Hop Beats Maker

I recently ran across a really well written article about making hip hop beats regarding what every musician should do if they really want to grow and are serious about making something real and exciting.

Check this out:

Listen to Different Kinds of Music: If you always listen to the same type of music, your minds ability to expand into new creative melodic ideas will be severely limited. Do not be afraid to venture out and listen to lots of different styles of music. Hate pop? Listen to it anyway. Can’t stand classical music? Que up that Chopin piece. In fact, I credit a great portion of my melody-making abilities and musical sense to a band that fits into the genre of “Progressive Metal.”

That’s some amazing advice coming from the often very narrow-minded hip hop and rap community. I mean, when was the last time you listened to come classical or death metal pieces? Here you go, just for example:

Sorry, had a Tim and Eric moment there – and why is my neck sore?

Anyway, More great advice from the article which fits perfectly with classical music and heavy metal guitar:

LEARN MUSIC SCALES: Ok normally someone would just advise you to learn “music theory.” But I find that people can get intimidated when it comes to tackling the entire subject of music theory. The aspect that can really help you when seeking to become better at writing melodies is musical note scales. Do some research online or buy a book about the different scales used in music. Apply these concepts to an instrument (piano, guitar, etc) and you will really begin to get the feel of how notes are associated with one another, which notes combine optimally together, and which moods are brought out by each scale. Learn the major, minor, blues, pentatonic, harmonic minor scales….and so on.

Do you get the point here? Good music is good music, whether it’s hip hop, rap, a great country song (I love Hank Sr. and Johhny Cash!), some 60’s african hi-life boogie, or a hawaiian ukele ditty.

Expanding your musical tastes and educating yourself will pay off with you a becoming more experienced and knowledgeable hip hop beat maker and musician, which should be your end goal anyway.