* This is part 4 of an 8-part series of articles on how to make beats. Mostly aimed at beginners, even experience beat makers can benefit from these articles.
Part 4: Bars & Loops
Bar Range
With Hip Hop tracks, the usual bar range is anywhere from 1-8 bars. Some are more but that's rare.
When you listen to older Rap music, a lot of times you will hear that the beats are either 1 or 2 bar loops. That's it! But it worked, and the producers at the time were really good at what they did, knowing how to get a really dope 1 or 2 bars together that can be rocked for an entire song.
If you're new to beat making, you may not realize it but most songs are composed of short loops strung together. It may not sound like it, but that's all it is.
Here's how it works:
First you create a beat with, for example, a 4-bar loop. You might just keep it at that, loop it for a few minutes and call it a beat.
But usually that's boring. So what do you do?
You create other bars and loops, then you piece them together.
So let's say you have this:
So when you hear a song where after a minute, another instrument comes in and the drum pattern changes, then there's a build up - that's just different patterns that come into the mix here and there.
This is called "mixing". When you mix your beat, that's when you will piece all the different patterns together.
Further Reading About Beat Making
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