Anyone have any tips on hip hop melodies.

yeah it will help, especially in the long run, if you ever wanna lock down a desk job in a studio, the more you know the better...but i agree with Paul, just do what sounds good, you dont need to be Mozart to make a hip hop beat, you just need an ear for it

yeah the thing is cos hip hop is reliant on sampling old tunes there is no hip hop melody cos they take melodies from soul, funk, pop, rnb, rock, soundtrack etc etc....

you need to look into the whole world of music theory like these cats have said....

me? im a big fan of counterpoint...alot of my tunes seem to work that way even without consciously thinking about writing in counterpoint...

greg

Why does Hip hop have to be reliant on sampling old tunes? i do agree that getting a nice snare or kick from an old record is a good thing, but to steal a whole melody does not make you a super producer. Oh excuse me I'm sorry I guess I am forgeting about PDitty and Kanye West. Yes they Have made it. So I am not hating on them for that, because it is obvious that they are doing something right. And PDitty is one hell of a bussiness man. But look at their music. Although very well put together. There is nothing original about it. The melody is almost always there for them. They do nothing more than any kid with Sonic Foundry Acid could do. We sould call them great remixers I guess. I do not dispute that alot of great songs have been made from sampling, but I have only sampled from one song. It sounds great. Everyone likes it, but I felt like I was robbing a bank. Like It was really not my song. I guess it is all a matter of if you really think you have accomplished something great by stealing, or would you feel better if you made something that others wanted to steal from you. How many of you would love to sample something from DRE or Timbaland? If you said yes you get my point. In ten years i bet recylcing a Kanye song will not be one of your first thoughts. it would be more like Kanye Who?

Lou, take some classes if you wish It will help you in the long run, but it will still not magically make you a dope producer. Classes will teach you the fundamentals of chord structures and will help you become a better all around musician. It is all about your ears. You either have it or you don't. If you are creating what you love that is all that matters. Sit down at you MP and practice. Sit down at your Triton, Reason, Frootyloops. Man what ever it is that you feel like working with and create. I know many people who can play guitar and piano. They can play cover music all day long, but could not make up there own good sounding music if they had to. The point is. Do what you feel you need to do to get where you want to be. But Create. Don't stop making music. Make what you hear in your head. Music theory can not teach you that.

dubmunkey wrote:yeah the thing is cos hip hop is reliant on sampling old tunes there is no hip hop melody cos they take melodies from soul, funk, pop, rnb, rock, soundtrack etc etc....greg

You failed the Shaolin hiphop school of hardknocks didn't you? Hiphop is what you make it. It takes on MANY forms just like any other music genre. Because some people like to sample old tunes doesn't make it reliant on anything. It's your creation, Hiphop is reliant on 1 thing, it relies on YOU to make it.

stop watching TV.

12 years and i have no idea what the hell is playing out, feels great.

me and music > keeps you at it.

dudum wrote:stop watching TV.

12 years and i have no idea what the hell is playing out, feels great.

me and music > keeps you at it.

nah lampdog...hip hop aint my main thing- i love it but there are soooo many more styles out there....and we're talking music theory here not about the whole lifestyle...

my point is that you need to look at the whole of music if you wanna be able to understand the musical side of hip hop as hip hop has been influenced by loads of past styles...all of which are grounded in the western chromatic scale....so i wasn't saying that it is reliant on any one thing but if he wants to understand the music theory behind hip hop he needs to look at where their sampling or drawing influence from and that is: soul, funk, pop, rnb, rock, soundtrack etc amongst other things.....

so lets not pretend that hip hop is this esoteric phenomenae and in this context look at what its musical foundation is....i can't see what harm it could do to get some classes....my music is better due to me understanding chordal and modal theory (which i taught myself) and listening to many different styles...........

it like that thread last week: 'what does your music sound like' where the guy gives you four options 3 types of hip hop and one to encompass the whole of dance....its like 'dude, there is other music out there'.....

greg

Listen to some songs you really like, and try to recreate them with different instruments. Try this method and let me know.

dudum wrote:stop watching TV.

12 years and i have no idea what the hell is playing out, feels great.

me and music > keeps you at it.

Yeah I bought a big screen TV about a year before I bought my MPC and ever since then all I ever watch on it is my Sopranos DVDs and thats becuase I pull my MPC out and put it on the coffee table so I can make a beat while I watch

Agent725 wrote:so I can make a beat while I watch

Aint nothin like making beats while watching The Sopranos LOL

about that hummin thing. thats real cuz. If you can hum out a tune and put it down, you good 4 life.

My number 1 technique

Lou-One wrote:Rem is that book Contemporary Music Theory: Level One by Mark Harrison, and Tonal Harmony by Stefan Kostka, Dorothy Payne? My Library doesn't have them in, but this is what I found on Amazon.ca with those titles.

Yup. If you know of anybody who goes to a university out your way they can probably get the Tonal Harmony book from their school (since a lot of schools use it in their curriculum).

Regardless of your views on if people should learn some theory or not

Have you ever been totally stuck/froze with a piece of music you have no idea what to do with? If you had the theory behind you, you shouldnt be stuck very long, as you will know some progressions to try, maybe add some counterpoint over the top, etc etc, not to say someone who doesn't know theory won't be able to do these things, they just arent going to be as efficent as someone who understands the language of music

yeah i know of peeps who have dictaphones purely so they can hum riffs and beats into it


greg