If you ask the question: “How to make beats as a beginner?” and ask for an “online” solution, it is probably because as every artist; you’re writing songs and want to express some music creativity inside you or even better; you want to start a career to eventually make money.
For a beginner to learn how to make beats online, things can get pretty complicated because it requires music knowledge, time, patience and money. Hopefully, we will show you our online music maker that makes beatmaking less tedious.
Let’s make a quick overview of what it represents to make beats for beginners before we jump on La Scratcheuse’s method to produce your first beats easily and quickly. Indeed, it’s important to come back to the basics and to talk about how music is structured.
I- How to write beats songs as a beginner ?
Breakdown a beat into bars of music
A beat song is no more than a timeline separated into a specific number of bars. A bar of music constitutes a unit of time that contains a specific number of beats played at a particular tempo.
Hence, you can tell about a music that it is made of a number of bars which each contains a number of beats. You can also tell about the beat’s tempo referring to what we call the BPM. It stands for the number of beats per minute. A BPM of 80 signifies that in one minute the song will play 80 beats.
A way to understand what is a bar is to orally count 1 2 3 4 at a particular tempo and to tap on your body every time you say the number 1. Every time you tap on your body, you count a new bar. By the way, using the same counting technique, note how many beats you count in one minute to fall back on the BPM of your beat.
Breakdown your beat song into different parts
A beat song contains different parts : an introduction, a chorus, a verse, an outro…You are free to decide on this level of structure. It’s up to you and your creativity. Just make sure that in each of your parts, you’ve planned how many bars you want in.
At the end you should write down on a paper something like below :
- Intro (8 bars)
- Verse 1 (16 bars)
- Pre-chorus (4 bars)
- Chorus (16 bars)
- Bridge (4 bars)
- Verse 2 (16 bars)
- Pre-Chorus (4 bars)
- Chorus (16 bars)
- Outro (4 bars)
If you want to make beats for rappers or your own rap, then you should structure a beat with verses and chorus parts. Making bridges, intro and outro is also cool to add different kinds of vocals or lyrics.
Read article : How to make beats for rappers?
Assemble music loops on bars
A beat song also involves different instrument’s patterns. In a beat, you usually find chords progressions, drums, bass lines, melodies, vocals that loop every 4, 8, 16 bars. For each part of your beat you should decide on the instruments loops you want to include in.
A way to start a beat would be for instance :
- To start your beat with a chord progression loop
- To continue with your drum pattern (hi-hats or snare)
- Add your bass line and your kick together at the same time
- Put a melody with the instrument of your choice
- Launch some vocals and snares
One way to understand what is a music pattern is to listen to you best rap songs and to identify the instrument that loops every 1 to 8 bars. From the bass to the chords, you will listen to instruments loops that are repeating after a specific number of bars.
Now that you have some basics on how to write music on your paper. It’s time you apply it on a music maker.
II – Make your first beats as a beginner with La Scratcheuse
A simple process to start creating awesome beats
As we’ve seen above, it is mandatory for a beat maker to learn how to use music loops in order to build a beat. This online music maker lets you make beats with a various and diversified royalty-free library of music loops. No need for particular equipment except for a computer or a phone and an internet connection.
First step : Go to the website & Choose a pack of loops
Select a mood to find a pack of music loops for your beat. Make beats with pack of music loops in different music styles styles from rap to electro.
Packs are made so that all music loops that they contain fit perfectly together and loop at the same time.
By selecting pre-arranged pack of loops, making beats online as a beginner on La Scratcheuse is smoother and nicer than playing on classic software.
Second step : Play live and Assemble music loops together on the vinyl pad
On this original vinyl pad, all you need to do is to click on the instruments and let the magic operates.
All music loops start and repeat at the same time so that rhythm is not a problem. Besides, because all sounds are in harmony, any combination of them will sound good to your ear.
After finding the combinations of sounds that you like the most, you can assemble them and record your beat.
Third step : Assemble Music loops on a timeline and record your beat
Click on the record button, each combination of music loops played on the vinyl pad are recorded in new separate loops on the timeline.
Thanks to this simple timeline, you can easily record your intro, then your verse, then your chorus and so on.
Eventually, when you finish composing each part of your beat, you can export the final beat and download it
III- (OR) Compose a beat on a software
Pick and Download a music making software (Find your DAW)
A DAW is the acronym for Digital Audio Workstation. In other words, it is a software that allows you to produce music from a computer. The most known DAWs are Ableton, Cubase or FLStudio. In a nutshell, Digital Audio Workstations (DAW’s) let you use a wide range of features to make and arrange your beat. For instance, you can manipulate virtual instruments, create sounds patterns, mix sounds in your beat, apply effects…
Ableton
Cubase
FL Studio
To make beats as a beginner in beatmaking, the software learning experience is mandatory and can be tedious. To start beat making with these software, you will need to watch tutorials, eat in front of your computer until you really start composing and eventually make your first beat or not. It’s part of the journey 🙂
Compose music loops on the software
In this video, the beatmaker shows you how he composes a beat from his Ableton Live Software using an external Piano Keyboard. He especially explains how the different instruments should occupy the sound space.
Chuki beatmaker emphasizes on how to create music patterns and gives you examples so that you fully understand what is a music pattern.
Roughly, in order to create music patterns, you can select a virtual instrument on your software. you’ll be able to play the instrument directly from your computer or from an external Piano keyboard and to record a pattern. After recording your pattern, you can apply effects to arrange it the way you want it.
Even though you can play any instrument from your computer using your mouse or your keyboard, the best way to compose is to do it with a Piano keyboard. Once your setup is done, train and improve your skills to create great music patterns.
Find music loops to make beats and Assemble them on the software
Event though these loops come in kits, they are often composed of music loops that come in different sizes and sometimes different pitches and BPM. Hence, some adjustments on the music loops might be necessary before you start assembling your music loops on your music timeline. It’s part of the job 🙂
On one hand, making beats online as a beginner (who wants to have for fun, make a track for his voice or make beats for rappers and singers), the process required to learn how to make beats on advanced music softwares can be pretty difficult at first sight. Nevertheless, it stays the right way to pretend to a beatmaking career. On the other hand, because learning should not be a source of stress, La Scratcheuse gives a place for beginners to make their first beats and to have a better understanding of beatmaking’s core concepts. It is a great introduction into learning how to make beats.
Long Story Short
Another method is to use music patterns that are already created. For this, go to the library of loops from your software. Usually, they come in kits which are complete to build a beat. In general software give you free packs of loops. For more pack of loops, you should either buy them or subscribe depending on the software you’re using. Besides, there are websites that sell sounds kits online. Finally, it is entirely possible to find and download free pack of loops online even if It can be tedious to do it.
