Spontaneous Hip Hop

By Ms.Tris • July 17, 2008

Spontaneous:
Coming or resulting from a natural impulse or tendency; without effort or premeditation; natural and unconstrained; unplanned…

Improvise:
to compose, play, recite, or sing (verse, music, etc.) on the spur of the moment.

There are many times I sit down to the keyboard, fire up my DAW and just play a tune. I want to remind you of the importance of this in Hip Hop. It’s cool to follow tutorials as guidelines, or to get new ideas. Once you are on your way, it’s time to set free the song that’s inside your mind. This is how major producers like Timbaland, The Neptunes, Mannie,and Dr.Dre, have each created their respective signature sounds.

Today is one of those days for me. I am working on two projects this week. One is Hip Hop and one is R&B. Both artist requested specific types of beats, and yesterday I found myself over thinking the Hip Hop track. I made something fairly decent, and then my pc froze lol. When I rebooted, I just started ” doing me” as they say, and I was very pleased with my results. I began to improvise a melody.I had a hot drum pattern, and just played with a guitar melody until I thought ” this beat is hot!” This morning I’ll finished up the track with a bassline,and added effects, this afternoon I will mix it, and email the mp3.

Don’t be afraid to express yourself. There is so much variety in the art of music, as well as similarity. You’ll want to be “similar”, but you will need be different to add to the variety. Incorporating scales, and chord progression is the similarity. How you use the scales, and chords with unique melodies brings the variety. It’s o.k. if you don’t actually read music when starting to produce, but to advance you will have to learn the basic principles in some way or form. Even some major producers may not know the chords and scales by name, but they are definitely using them.

On a personal level, I found that knowing a little about scales, and progressions, makes it easier for me to be spontaneous. Let’s say I am using the notes of a c major scale for my melody. I play with only the notes of the c major scale until I make something I like. Next I might add c major chord progressions, and some drums. Now not only am I being spontaneous, I am playing in the right keys.

This style of production, relies a lot on your intuition. I don’t want to confuse you about being spontaneous because I mentioned scales and chords. You can compare the scales, notes, and progressions to the alphabet. They are the “letters and words” that make a complete composition. When you write, you just write using the alphabet freely. This is sort of what you’ll be doing when you play your spontaneous tune. You begin using music notes to improvise phrases freely.

If you know what a great beat sounds like, you will know when “you” make a great beat. If you come up with a beat that you keep playing over and over because you like it so much, most likely your audience will like it too. Just remember to go with the feeling sometime, keep expressing your ideas from the soul…

One producer who I know is super spontaneous is Ryan Leslie. I was watching him in action yesterday, and he helped me make the decision to post on this subject Check him out just going from instrument to instrument creating away ….he gets all into it dancing and everything. I’m sure this beat was completed before the clip and this isn’t new but it looks totally spontaneous..lol