"skills to build" and "what to/how to practice"

[balla_balla]

whattup fam,

I'm new to producing and don't really have anyone to show me how to do this. I want to become good at making beats so that I can music for fun. I'm not really in it for the $$$

My question for the producers on here is;

1. what skills should I try to build?

I come form a basketball background, and if a young cat came to me like "help me be a balla, what skills do I need to develop", I'd be like "listen here shorty, you need to focus on developing the fundamentals (i) dribbling (ii) ball handling (iii) defence (iv) shooting (v) passing etc."

I'm that young cat coming to y'all for adive with this production thing... I'd appreciate some good advice regarding waht skills I need to focus on 4 real....

2. what to/how to practice?

again if shorty wanted to be a balla, after I told him what skills he needs to build, I'd be like "aight lil man, now that you know what skills you need, you now need to know the best way to get them. I want you to do a 45 minute workout every day doing these drills (i) mikan drill 3 X 20 (ii) layups 2 X 20 (iii) free throws 25 etc etc."

again I'm that shorty asking y'all for advice on the best way to practice so that I develop and learn the basic skills in the best way possible.

thanks in advance Illmuzik family

 

[DJ Hoppa]

start with the drums....

basically, like anything else, production takes grips of practice ....experiment w/shareware versions of all types of programs, play around with them, and pick the one that you move quickest in, and the one you are most familiar with ...

start listening to your cds carefully ...find which kicks ou really klike, which snares you like, styles and so forth ...

for a beginner, sometimes its a good start to try and emkulate your favorite songs...making beats that sound like tracks you like ...dont do this too long tho, no room for biters...but doing this will help you learn drum patterns, song structure anbd shit, and you can use those tools to develop your own style...

hope that helps,
hit me up if you need any other advice

-hopps

 

[erkl]

finding samples is more than half the battle in most cases IMO
finding good sample material can take lots of homework, and or time spent listening to alot of names

 

[9zeros]

what up man,

everything those guys above said was good stuff

Im new to this site too.....but ive been learning a lot of stuff about making beats over the past 4-5 months, what i did and still doing is really listening to songs.....listen to the structure of the song you ll find that a lot of songs arent too much different in that aspect notice the patterns
i also try to listen to all types of music , in my mind Im trying to see if theres something I can flip and sample and make it my own , but I also like all types of music too

fundamentals would be the stuff you learn in 4th 5th grade music when you first start playing an instrument
notes, measures bars, clefs chords harmonies, that sort of stuff , its all built on top of that

also read any article you can find.....wings posted tons tons tons of great articles here
https://www.illmuzik.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6490

hope the crap i said can help

 

[Loose Cannon]

start with the drums....

its a good start to try and emkulate your favorite songs...making beats that sound like tracks you like ...dont do this too long tho, no room for biters...but doing this will help you learn drum patterns, song structure anbd shit, and you can use those tools to develop your own style...

Those are both real suggestions.


One thing you should decide is whether you want to go with synth-beats or sampled-beats or incorporating both into your beats. If your doin west-coast or south-side, youll probly be usin synth shit. If your east coast, your gonna probly be sample-based. This will help you decide what kind of equipment your gonna need. You dont need a sampler if your only doin synth shit (it might help you out some day, but its not needed). Same with some synth hardware, if your only doin sample based music. It might help you out some day but its not needed.

 

[Equality 7-2521]

first id decide what kind of producer you want to be. the fact of the matter is that every single producer is influenced by music they have heard in the past. so think about what kind of beat you most enjoy listening to etc. maybe you will find that sampling suits you best or maybe you will prefer playing keys or maybe you will like both equaly. thats just an example. when you work out what your preferences and strengths are, id try to work on them to start with and then when you have a bit more experiance you can fix up your weaknesses.

also, i wouldnt worry about "practice." just try to make the best music you can each time you step to the boards. experiment and have fun with it and see what you can come up with.

hope that helps

 

[balla_balla]

I appreciate the replies - that's love fam

as a beginner, the whole music making process is kinda overwhelming. I wanna play keys and sample and not limit myself. If I was to break down some of the key skills of a hip-hop producer does this sound right

- play keys (undertsand notes and get fingers used to doing their thing)
- sample (chop and arrange them)
- drum patterns
- basslines

um, anything else?

 

[Equality 7-2521]

those 4 things are core for sure

couple of things....

you dont neccessarily need to learn to play keys with your fingers as you can draw them in via pencil in a software program such as reason. being able to play with fingers is an advantage for sure though. one thing regarding keys which you might want to learn abot is chord progression n shit.

re: sampling....chopping and arranging is half of sampling. the other half comes before the chopping and is called "digging". this is where you go to your local second hand record shop and go through the floor crates to find dope samples on old forgotten vynil. (thats how i do it anyway)

anothing thing you will eventually want to learn is how to eq and master your tracks. its one thing to make a dope track but its another to make a dope track which is audible on systems which people will hear your music on.

also, id start simple as far as equaipment is concerned. if your thinking hardware, an mpc is a good choice. if your thinking software, try to get a burned copy of Reason or something. it will do all you need and wont cost you anything. once you aquire your equipment, dont want more equipment straight away. some poeple think more equipment will make them doper but it wont. stick to something simple for a while and learn as much about your chosen equipment as possible and then you can invest in more equipment when you find your skills have improved to the point where you are limited.

 

[Loose Cannon]

Re: Digging.

Check your Granmothers house or somethin for records. Look in the attic and shit. The records dont need to be from a certain plaace, any records will do. But one rule you should know is, "Dont sample hip-hop unless your re-makin a classic." Its an unwritten rule.

There isnt a certain genre you hafto or should sample, but most people feel comfortable with 60's & 70's Soul.

 

[classic]

Make sure you have fun

I know it sounds corney but i think thats one of the most important things to become a good musican. YOu have to LOVE what u do


class...

 

[fade502]

Good advice from everyone...

RECORD EVERYTHING... never hit delete. Disk space is cheap, you never know when you are going to want to dig into your old work. You will learn volume from reworking your old tracks.

 

[RigorMortis]

To keep your inspiration fresh, make sure you never sleep on musical resources to sample from. Get a whole lot of music and get different things so you dont get stuck with one sound. Besides sampling from the music you got, listen to it, it might inspire you composition wise, drum wise or any other way. Also a whole lot of drums wouldnt hurt you, and keep your eyes open in your music, there are a whole lot open breaks, bass and other moments to be sampled.

 

[orpheus]

yo i personally think the best thing to do is just get in it up to your neck. just start makin shit all the time. don't spend too much time perfecting or mastering one single beat, but just make shitloads of em. the more you make the more likely it is you'll stumble across some technique through experimentation you really like. these techniques buildup the more beats you make. then one day, after making 10 wack beats to one aright one, you'll make a nice beat. just take that with you on to the next one. the more you practice and try shit out for yourself, the more pieces of knowledge you'll pick up along the way. thats how i think you get a style, by just tryin shit out until all of a sudden it clicks just like math used to back in grade school or some shit, then you'll be on the next level and kinda got to start all over again to reach the next...and the next....

 

[MGTheFuture]

I dont know how to explain it

since no one SHOWED me anything.

I started with Ejay..got tired of using loops

Got FL..made my own drum patterns. once i got that down...i move on to some dope melodies..via VST and midi....but i usually did nothing more then 4 notes...like a rhythm..nothing Bachish

Now iafter almost 2 years...

i got down my drum skills..i got down my sampling skills

no im wokring on mixing ..

so i copped Reason and CUbase

time to do the damn thing

best advice....


If you like defense..stick to defense...

if you like the 3s..dont worry about dunking

if you got FL...and u got it DOWN...dont think u need a mpc

and if u got a MPC and got that down..dont think u need cubase


DO YOU

 

[dahkter]

tap beats on things

Feel your beats, tap em out on a desk, tap em on the dashboard while you're driving.
Feel those hats, that shit sounds good even on an AM radio.

A couple of real world choices to make some of your own tracks:

- grab a free copy of the fruity loops demo, start pointing and clicking and shifting notes back and forth. This is a good start to the visuals.

- get a cheap ass drum machine, and start playing around with different patterns. Connect a little sampler to it and you're on. As long as the gear has midi, you can always replace the internal drum machine sounds with some other doper sounds down the line.

My two
easy
Dahkter

 

[balla_balla]

thanks for the replies y'all!