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S1E06 – Different Approaches to Making a Beat

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This episode asks you an interesting question:

When making your beats, what do you first start with? The Instruments, the Drum Loop, or do you create both at the same time?

It’s an interesting topic for discussion, upon which GratuiTous gives his opinion. It may spark some creativity for your own productions!

In addition, we cover some popular courses within GratuiTous’ music production membership, and how to overcome beat block/producer’s block.

Beatmaking Original Compositions Sampling

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Transcript

S1E06 – Different Approaches to Making a Beat

  1. Hey, this is Gratuitous. Welcome to Music Production Made Simple, the show that
  2. focuses on best practices about music production, which is based on FL Studio.
  3. If you're wanting to become the best producer you can be, subscribe and listen
  4. weekly. You can also check out my courses which teach you the principles and basics
  5. of music production. They'll get you up and running quickly.
  6. In addition, I also have books on Amazon and tons of music on Spotify.
  7. Always feel free to hit me up at Hi at it'sgratuitous.com.
  8. So let's get into the episode.
  9. Alright, hey, what's everybody?
  10. Welcome to episode number six.
  11. In this episode, we're gonna be talking about the different approaches to making a
  12. beat. Now I'm not talking about sampling versus original compositions, I'm talking
  13. more about the order of your sequence of events.
  14. So, for example, do you create like your instruments first or do you create like
  15. your drum loop first, or do you do both at the same time?
  16. Don't forget you guys can support this podcast for five dollars a month.
  17. Just come to it's gratuitous.com forward slash podcast.
  18. You guys will see a subscribe button there, and as well as I just want to talk about
  19. a few of the courses which we will be talking about within this episode.
  20. The first one is you know, sample your own music, and the whole benefit of sampling
  21. your own music is you're not having to worry about copyright, right?
  22. So copyright is something that you do want to avoid, especially when you're you know
  23. working with other people's music.
  24. You know, when you could really get the same benefit of sampling your own music, get
  25. that same sampled sound, but you don't have to worry about copyright.
  26. Okay, so that's just one thing that you want to think about.
  27. And again, you guys can check out sample your own music.
  28. Again, all these courses are within my membership.
  29. It's just $10 a month, and you get access to all of the courses, okay?
  30. The next course I want to talk to you about is called Music Theory and Chords for
  31. Beatmakers. Now, I actually play the piano, so I actually walk the talk.
  32. You know, I'm not just this person who's just read a book and now I'm trying to
  33. teach you a course on what I just read.
  34. No, like I actually know how to play the piano, I can improvise, and you know, the
  35. whole goal behind learning the piano from a beatmaker's perspective is we're trying
  36. to learn about how to create catchy loops.
  37. That's the whole goal, okay? Because if you're trying to learn the piano like a
  38. classical piano player, in my, opinion, from a beatmaker's perspective, you're
  39. learning the piano wrong. Okay.
  40. Yes, you know, you're gonna be wanting to learn about these notes and these chords
  41. and music theory to a certain extent, but your whole goal is learning how to create
  42. catchy loops because at the end of the day, that's what people are listening to.
  43. They're listening to your loop over and over again, and that's what I teach you
  44. behind music theory and chords for beatmakers.
  45. I also have another course that's called piano for beat makers and producers, and I
  46. walk you through step by step, you know, how a piano works, you know, your scales,
  47. chords, how you can use these different notes together, and they're gonna get you up
  48. and running. You know, it's gonna speed you up tremendously so that you, when you
  49. sit down to make your beat, you know the chords that you can play, you know the
  50. notes that all go together, and then it's just really up to you to create these
  51. catchy loops, okay. The next course I want to talk to you about is called
  52. Foundational Drum Loop Basics.
  53. Now, this is a bit of an older course.
  54. I am actually going to be creating a new course here.
  55. So, right now it's June 2019. I want to release this course by the end of July
  56. 2019. And so, over the years, I've always talked about this concept of safe spots.
  57. I'm gonna be creating an episode specific to safe spots just to really break it
  58. down. But the whole idea behind safe spots is first of all, within your drum loops,
  59. you have areas within your drum loop where you can place sounds for them to sound
  60. good no matter what. Okay, that's why I call them safe spots.
  61. But in addition to your drum loops, it's really important to know about your organic
  62. tools available to you. The reason why I call them organic is because they're free
  63. inside of any music program. Again, these are things like layering, velocity, note
  64. nudging, and you might think, like, oh, you know, whatever.
  65. But the thing is, when you're first starting up, you may not be aware of them, and
  66. as you progress, you may not know how to use them to your advantage at like a
  67. professional level, because these are the types of tools tool.s, these organic,
  68. which will really help make your drum loop stand out, and again, they're totally
  69. free within your music program
  70. Okay, so let's get into the episodes.
  71. So, I just first want to say that you know, I don't have tons to say on this topic.
  72. However, I felt that this point deserved like its own episode.
  73. So, again, let me repeat that question for you guys.
  74. So, do you first start creating your instruments or do you create your drum loop
  75. first, or do you do both at the same time?
  76. Okay. So, if you're experiencing beat block, now for those of you who don't know,
  77. beat block is just like writer's block, but for producers, okay.
  78. So, you know, you might hear it being told as like beat block or producer's block.
  79. And when you think this way, it could be a great approach to try something new and
  80. kind of you know spark some creativity and get out of that beat block, okay.
  81. You know, if you're always creating your beats a certain way, at least now maybe you
  82. can try it a different way, and you know, maybe break free from producer's block.
  83. Because my goal through my courses and you know, hopefully these podcasts is to
  84. teach you different tools that you can apply within your producer toolbox, okay.
  85. You know, just like in trades, you know, if someone has like their tool bag, they
  86. have all these different tools.
  87. You as a producer, you do have a toolbox as well.
  88. but many times, like yes, it is like these VSTs and like the types of tools that are
  89. available in your DAW, but many times it's also mentally, you know, like the skills
  90. that you've acquired, the tricks that you know to do, you know, for example, like do
  91. you know how to do like that reverse reverb effect or whatever, you know, stuff like
  92. that. It's just when you acquire this knowledge, these tricks, you know, are
  93. essentially like the tools that you have available, and then it's just a matter of
  94. mixing and matching these different tools and using the right tool at the right time
  95. to really help you break free from producer's block.
  96. So, first of all, it's nice to have an idea of the track that you're wanting to
  97. create. And I'm talking more of like the genre.
  98. So are, you creating like a dance track, a hip hop track, or like an RB track?
  99. Now, when it comes to creating your drum loop, this is really important, especially
  100. around like your kick drum. For example, if we're gonna be creating like a dance
  101. track, typically on a dance track, your kick drum plays on every beat: one, two,
  102. three, four, right? That keeps that melody, that groove, that rhythm going within a
  103. dance track. But if we're talking about like a hip hop track, for example, you know,
  104. it's pretty rare in a hip hop track to have your kick drum playing on every single
  105. beat. Sometimes you might have it on like the one and the three, many times in hip
  106. hop, you even just play on like the one.
  107. So that's just one thing you want to think about is the type of genre that you're
  108. wanting to create. Okay. The next point is your tempo and rhythm.
  109. So you want to get an idea of your tempo/slash rhythm for this track.
  110. So is it going to be a faster or slower song?
  111. And the reason why you want to think this way is because your tempo adds to that
  112. emotion of the overall sound of your song, okay.
  113. The next thing is how to combine the actual two together, okay.
  114. So let's say you have started with your drum loop first, okay?
  115. So you built your drum loop, now you have your instruments.
  116. Now, many times new producers they really don't know how to just kind of combine
  117. these together. So the simplest advice I can give you at this point is just to try
  118. stuff, okay. Now it might it might be like, oh, you know, that's not great advice,
  119. but you know, the thing with music production is it really is just trial and error,
  120. trial and error until you get something to work, okay.
  121. So just to give you some ideas.
  122. So if I were to build my drum loop first, so you know, I might actually build like a
  123. whole drum loop, okay? So I have like my kick drum, my claps, percussion, hi-hats,
  124. and then you even if I'm adding like symbols in and stuff like that, I might create
  125. like a whole drum loop, and then sometimes I might actually create my instruments
  126. separate, you know, without the drum loop.
  127. So you know, I have my drum loop created, but then I go to a new pattern and I start
  128. with my instruments, and they're two totally separate processes.
  129. And then what I do is sometimes I can just add those all together and see how it
  130. sounds. That's one approach, or you can also take the approach of you know, my drum
  131. loop is created, then you can kind of start creating your melodies over top of that
  132. drum loop. I've done it both ways over the years, and they've both given me good
  133. results. Okay, I'm just gonna walk you through how I would approach making a beat.
  134. Now, for myself, I really don't have a set way to make a beat, and that's the reason
  135. why I wanted to make this episode because sometimes I start with my drum loop,
  136. sometimes I start with my instruments, sometimes I kind of do them both together.
  137. It totally just depends on how I feel that day, on how the sounds are kind of going
  138. together, and just like just the flow of that day, really.
  139. So many times though, I will start with like a kick drum and a clap.
  140. I'll put my clap on the two and the four, I'll adjust like my tempo, and you know,
  141. because I generally have an idea, it's like, okay, I'm kind of wanting this style of
  142. track, and for myself, because I create beat tapes, I typically like to have a
  143. variety on that beat tape. So, for example, I might want to have like four kind of
  144. dance tracks, four kind of hip hopish tracks, and like four kind of like you know,
  145. just like emotional kind of tracks, or you know, I just kind of have an idea like
  146. that. And when I'm building these beats, you know, I'll kind of look to my catalog
  147. that I have at the moment, and I'll be like, Okay, well, I already have you know, so
  148. at the moment, let's say I have like three dance tracks and I have like let's say
  149. four hip-hop tracks. It's like okay, well, do you know what I need one more dance
  150. track? So when I load up a music program, which is FL Studio.
  151. Now I have a general idea. It's like, okay, well, now I'm gonna be creating a dance
  152. track. So I'm gonna put that kick drum on every single beat, I'm gonna put the clap
  153. on the two and the four, and now maybe I'm gonna get into some instruments, okay?
  154. So I might kind of like play some kind of chords, I might get into like the b theass
  155. bass line line, kind of get the kick drum and to groove..
  156. And then you know, I kind of see where I'm at from there
  157. Maybe it's like, okay, well, now maybe I want to add some hi hats in and my
  158. instruments. Typically, I'll build all in one pattern, and then my drum loop, I'll
  159. build in like a separate pattern.
  160. So really I have like two patterns as I'm building the beat.
  161. And once I feel that my track is like coming to that point where now I want to
  162. arrange it, I will then break apart my drum loop and my instruments.
  163. Okay. So for my instruments, I actually create a pattern for each instrument.
  164. That way I can totally arrange the song and have full control.
  165. And then when it comes to my drum loop, I think about what sounds are together.
  166. So typically when it comes to my kick drums, it's like okay, well, that's one
  167. pattern. And if I have my claps, let's say I have four claps, you know, and I'm
  168. doing lots of layering and stuff like that.
  169. Those four claps, that's one pattern.
  170. Okay. And then again, if you've watched my courses, I show you guys always how to
  171. color code and label properly to make it really, really simple because as your
  172. project starts to grow, it makes it really easy to know where everything is.
  173. Okay. So again, I color on the step sequencer on the playlist and mixer.
  174. And if you color first in the step sequencer, the color and the label follow you to
  175. the mixer. That's why it's really important to organize yourself first in FL Studio
  176. before you bring it into the mixer.
  177. And it just makes it super super easy.
  178. Come arrangement time and stuff like that.
  179. Okay. So again, that's pretty much it for this episode.
  180. I just wanted to talk about when you go to make your beat, how do you approach it?
  181. Do you start with your drum loop first?
  182. Do you start with your instruments first, or do you kind of do it together?
  183. Again, even when it comes to sampling, I would say that sampling is your instrument.
  184. Okay. So do you start with your actual sample first or do you start with your drum
  185. loop first? and you know, it's just something to think about.
  186. As soon as you get stuck making your beats, these are just different ways, again,
  187. these different tools that you have in your toolbox that you can try to essentially
  188. force your track to work.. Okay
  189. And again, all the links I've talked about in this episode are going to be on this
  190. actual episodes page on my website.
  191. Again, this is episode number six.
  192. So again, I talked about my book that Safe Spots.
  193. That's a really, really cool book for you guys just to learn about your drum loops
  194. and the different organic tools you have available to you.
  195. I talked to you about three different courses, actually, four different courses.
  196. I talked to you about sample your own music.
  197. You know, that's going to help you avoid copyright while at the same time getting
  198. that same sampled sound. That way you can sell your music and not have to worry
  199. about someone else's copyright.
  200. You know, music theory and chores for beat makers, as well as piano for beatmakers
  201. and producers. That is two separate courses.
  202. One teaches you more about the music theory, the other one actually teaches you how
  203. to improvise on the piano as a beatmaker.
  204. You know, super super cool course.
  205. That has probably been my best seller.
  206. and I talked to you about foundational drum loop basics, and you know, that's really
  207. where safe spots has stemmed from.
  208. That's where I created that book, and then I will be creating a new course.
  209. Again, the course will be called Safe Spots, and it's just gonna be an extension off
  210. of that book, just kind of clarifying a step-by-step video course.
  211. And I'm hoping to release that by the end of July 2019.
  212. Okay, so thanks for tuning in, and I'll talk to you guys in the next episode.
  213. Thanks for checking out the episode.
  214. If you had any questions, visit it'sgratuitous.com/slash podcast, select an episode
  215. and submit your question at the bottom of the page to the contact form.
  216. If you'd like to take my FL Studio courses, see my current studio and podcasting
  217. gear, read my books, or are interested in lessons, visit the link it's
  218. gratuitous.com slash learning.
  219. That page will redirect you to more info and resources.
  220. I hope the best with your productions.
  221. I'm gratuitous, and I'll see you in the next
  222. episode.
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