Simple Hip Hop Beats

Here I'm going to give a simple example of a Hip Hop beat.


Where dance music uses a simple 4/4 pattern for the kicks, in hip hop, the beats are usually around the 1/3 mark.
Snares are also usually around the 2/4 mark.
The reason I say "usually" is that this is a good place to start, however its minor variations that give it its groove.


The first example I am going to show is a simple 1/3, 2/4 pattern.
You'll notice that the highhats are not quite rythmic, just to give it a bit of a shuffle feel.

Now we are going to use that exact same template, just give it a minor variation.

Make another clone, and some more minor changes....

You now have 3 variations of the same beat, which is a good enough start.

The next step is the bassline, here I am just going to use a generic bassline, note though that the bassline is 4 bars long, while the beat itself is only 1 bar long.

Also note that I havent laid the bassline down in the step sequencer, I have used the top part usually resererved for samples. The only reason for this is that it now shows the actual notes in the step sequencer, so it gives kind of a visual clue as too what is happening.


Next up we give it a simple piano riff. What I have done here is just create a simple pattern, using a chord on every beat, the first bar is in C, and in the second bar i've moved the pattern up so its root note is D.

Also the scale I've used is the melodic minor, and the chords are made up of the 1,3,5 notes.
A regular I, III, V chord. Simple but effective.

Now just to show how using the chord helper can make your melodies sound better, if you listen to that 2bar sequence as it is now, it will sound ok. However in the second bar, the top note of the chord is not correct anymore, resulting in a sound that is a bit "off"

In the example below, I have used the chord helper to show the complete scale for a harmonic minor in C(first bar) and in D(second bar). Using the scale as a guide, you will notice that in the 2nd bar, the top notes of the chord are not actually falling on the roots fifth, and need to be moved up by one half step, as I have done here.

With the chord progression now fixed, you can remove the scale markers, leaving just the piano riff. This Riff is now a C-D progression.

The last step is the simplest. A ride on the first step of every bar.

Notice the extra note in the 4th bar? That is just there to give it a bit of flair. All that does is lock 4 bars into a rhythm.

And that is that. A very simple hip hop beat.