Anyone have any tips on hip hop melodies.

$150 are you sure it looks decent. I've been looking at radioshack for a cheap one that's good for learning and the cheapest they got is $200 for a weak casio.

Also I found a little place in a near by mall that gives lessons. They charge $39 per month for four 1 hour lessons. Is that reasonable? What should I look for when scoping out lessons?

I'm sorry I've never taken music lessons before either. I feel like I'm 9!

Honestly, I don't mean to push the buttons of the real musicians that are on here.

yeah, the board was pretty thrashed for $150 : that's why i say watch em.

it really is a good board, a friend of mine still plays his out almost every weekend and has only had it in the shop once for spilling a beer on it!

i had one, went with the 01WFD cause i wanted more of a workstation but i'm looking at buying some keys for my nephew and this is what i'm thinking about if it helps ya!

other than that man, go with the cheap thing that has nice response when you play with the keys. make sure it has MIDI : and you've got yourself a controller that you can work with.

fatar sells a nice package for the beginner...lemme see :

ok, did a search and this is a killer deal with the software packaged : you can plug in soft synths and there's all kinds of CPU learning available.

http://www.americanmusical.com/item--i- ... 37PAK.html

hope that helps ya!

oh : and don't worry bout it man, i think i took like 2 lessons years a go.

the cat said "yeah, that's how you read tablature" and i went from there.

i'm on a waiting list with a bunch of middle school students around here to get some bass clarinet lessons : never too old to listen is my opinion!

the whole hip hop thing...
hip hop is more like influenced from jazz, and funk, r&b, but being influenced is not a bad thing. sampling came from turntables, and then people took turntables to the next level. adding their own beats cutting out samples adding them on and mixing it together and tweaking the samples a bit, and eventually making their own beat. It does take creativity, and mostly ear. With drums you gotta know how to keep the beat, with alot djs/and producers you gotta have a good ear and imagination. It takes creativity. Even Kanyes stuff. He is a genious, just for knowing what to sample and what not. Its all about the ear when sampling.

Um, I don't believe there actually IS something called a
"Hip-Hop melody". You could sample a trance record, slow it down a little,
and boom, you got a sick melody. Be creative. Be original.
Some philosophers have said that there are no more original ideas.
That may very well be true. But, there are, most CERTAINLY,
original combinations of classic ideas. And that is what hip-hop production has been built on. Pushing the envelope; turning nothing into something.
The more music you listen to, the more techniques you can get under your belt, and the more you know:
hey, THAT type of progression is THAT band/producers
SOUND; i.e.: I DIDN'T INVENT THAT.
Then you are ready to
approach originality.

Hey that place near the mall you talked about sounds like a good deal.
That's $9.33 per hour long lesson. Super cheap!!

learn some keys, mang.

I havent seen my piano teacher in a few months... I really need to holla at em

You can pick up Music Theory for Dummies, its a pretty good read with exercises in it

trupro wrote:Um, I don't believe there actually IS something called a
"Hip-Hop melody". You could sample a trance record, slow it down a little,
and boom, you got a sick melody. Be creative. Be original.
Some philosophers have said that there are no more original ideas.
That may very well be true. But, there are, most CERTAINLY,
original combinations of classic ideas. And that is what hip-hop production has been built on. Pushing the envelope; turning nothing into something.
The more music you listen to, the more techniques you can get under your belt, and the more you know:
hey, THAT type of progression is THAT band/producers
SOUND; i.e.: I DIDN'T INVENT THAT.
Then you are ready to
approach originality.

Hey that place near the mall you talked about sounds like a good deal.
That's $9.33 per hour long lesson. Super cheap!!

learn some keys, mang.

So true.....

I sometimes try this for melodies.....sample a small phrase, then build off of it or accent it. Like a string build up, accented by a guitar guit, or something.

peace

Yeah...um...what he just said. If you train your ear to tune your synth(s)
to the samples you use, you will be doing some sick work.
Another technique, I'm sure many of y'all use, is making a track with all original music (synths, etc) THEN at the end, finding a sample or two that magically works. This is usually hit or miss for me. I just Pick something I had heard before, or an album with instruments I know will compliment, but it's either gonna work or not. Often if I have to even retune these samples drastically, I already know shit won't work. But when it clicks? Those are some of the best tracks I've made. Shit is extra fun too.