How to Make a Beat – Practical Guide

How to create a beat that sounds professional is a key skill for any musician or artist who wants to produce and create their own music.

The beat, also called instrumental, is the musical ensemble that accompanies the main voice of a song. Although the voice is usually given more importance, a good beat is essential for your song to sound professional. The way the voice and beat blend will determine the quality of the final result, and that’s why, in this new article from GuitarRec studio about how to create a beat, we explain everything you need to start producing your own instrumental bases.

It’s very common for beginner artists to use beats or bases for songs that already exist to compose, either by purchasing them or downloading them without licenses. While it’s totally legitimate and understandable to use these instrumentals, and you can create real wonders with them, learning to produce and customize your own beats will elevate your songs to the next level.

What do I need to create a beat?

To compose or produce beats, you need a computer and a DAW, which is the software for creating music. There are many DAWs on the market, and the truth is, any of them can work for you. The key is to pick one and master it. Before choosing, I recommend watching YouTube videos of several of them to see which one fits your workflow best. Here are the most commonly used DAWs today: ProTools, FL Studio, Cubase, LogicPro, Reaper, Ableton, Studio One, and Garage Band.

Once you have your DAW installed on your music production computer, you have everything you need to start composing. However, make sure to spend several hours watching beginner tutorials to avoid getting overwhelmed when you start composing.

You might be interested in our articles on the best studio headphones for music production.

Define your style of instrumental

Before starting to create a beat, you’ll need to choose the musical style of your instrumental. As you can imagine, creating a trap beat is not the same as creating a techno beat.

You don’t have to be very specific; just choose a genre that inspires you and allows for flexibility. You’ll often find that what you initially envisioned turns out to be something completely different.

The Sampling in beat creation

A sample can be defined as a sound fragment reused for a different production than the original. Virtually all instrumentals from 90s tracks are created from other compositions, extracting melodies and percussion.

Here are two basic ways to use sampling to start creating beats:

1. The first method is using sample libraries. These contain percussion or melodic loops and isolated sound samples (OneShot). Sounds are grouped in folders, oriented toward specific genres, making your work easier. You can find many free libraries online. Here are some sites to explore: Cymatics, Function Loops, Splice, Loopmasters, or Freesound.

2. Another sampling method involves using a part of a song you like, downloading it, and incorporating it into your beat. This is usually done with melodic parts of songs, but it can also be done with percussion loops. If you want to isolate a specific instrument from a song, tools like Moisés Audio using AI are recommended. Check our article on creating music with AI for more in-depth information on this topic.

It’s important to note that sampling should be used to create original ideas and not to plagiarize other songs. The key is to modify the chosen sample as much as possible to create a unique sound distinct from the original.

We also have some free drum loops from classic funk tracks of the 60s and 70s.

Virtual Instruments for Creating Beats

Another way to create instrumentals is through virtual instruments or VSTs. These replicate real instruments in software, making it easier to create beats without having to record acoustic instruments. While the sound isn’t identical, some VSTs are almost indistinguishable from real instruments. 

However, unlike sampling, using virtual instruments for your instrumentals is a bit more demanding, as it requires some basics in music theory. You don’t need to know how to read sheet music or memorize all musical scales, just a minimum understanding of melody and chord creation.

All DAWs offer free plugins you can try. Alternatively, here are some external VSTs that sound amazing: Keyzone Classic Piano, Spitfire audio LABS, all free VSTs from Native Instruments, or the free version of ARCADE Output. You can find these and more in our article on Free Virtual Instruments. Keep in mind that some of these libraries might be quite generic, so if you’re looking for something more specific (e.g., a saxophone library), you’ll need to dig a bit deeper.

Theoretical Basics for Creating Beats

I won’t go into too much detail here, as while music theory is vital for producing professional beats, you might be eager to start producing without spending hours studying. This is a valid approach, but I recommend dedicating some time to studying theory alongside your practice.

The basics you need to know are that an instrumental is primarily composed of four fundamental pillars: melody, harmony, percussion, and bass.

• Melody: Likely the most prominent part of your beat, so aim for something truly captivating.
• Harmony: Based on the chords that form your composition, providing structure to the melody and adding depth to your instrumental. 
• Percussion: The timbre and rhythm of the sounds will largely determine the genre of your song.
• Bass: Essential for adding power to your beat. In most beats, the bass plays the root note of each chord at the appropriate points in the instrumental.

Creating the Instrumental Base

Now we know the genre of our beat, have a DAW installed, and have the samples and/or sound libraries we need. It’s time to get to work. But where do we start? Melody, harmony, percussion, or bass?

While there’s no hard and fast rule for starting a beat, nor a magical formula for how to write songs, I recommend starting either with percussion or harmony.

If you choose to start with percussion, it will help you better define the style of your beat. Starting with harmony, on the other hand, will help you create a more coherent and engaging melody. These are not rigid rules—experiment to see what suits your workflow best.

It’s important to note that creating instrumentals varies greatly depending on the genre you’re composing. While we’d love to give you tips for all existing genres, that’s not feasible. So we’ve chosen the genres most common among beginner beat creators: Trap and Rap.

How to Make a Rap Beat

Since rap encompasses a vast array of subgenres, we’ll focus on classic rap, also known as Boom Bap. The first step is defining the tempo of the beat, which usually ranges between 80 bpm and 105 bpm.

For percussion, you’ll generally need a Boom Bap percussion sample library. Start by selecting the rhythm your instrumental will follow. 99% of them divide their rhythmic structure into 4-bar fragments. In the first beat of the first bar, place a kick; in the first beat of the second and fourth bars, a snare; and in the first and second beats of each bar, a closed hi-hat.

This will be the general percussive structure. From there, you should fill in the rhythmic pattern with kicks and other sounds like open hi-hats or scratches in between, avoiding placing kicks at the same time as the snare. Experiment with different patterns until you find one that suits your goal. Once you have it, you can add variations throughout the song’s structure or beat. 

There’s no specific way to compose rap harmony, but generally, beatmakers opt for simple harmonic patterns. You can even create two-chord patterns with slight variations. The melody follows the same rule. Whether you’re using samples or composing it yourself, aim for simple and catchy patterns. If you’re composing the melody, you can try searching for different musical scales online and experimenting with note combinations.

The bass is no exception. I recommend creating a basic pattern with few variations, primarily aligning with the kick.

How to Make a Trap Beat

Trap beats range from 120 to 160 bpm and use 8-bar patterns.

Once you have your trap sample pack, you can start creating your beat. The general percussive structure is as follows: In the first beat of the first bar, place a kick; in the first beat of the third and seventh bars, a snare; and in the first and third beats of each bar, a closed hi-hat.

An essential element for trap is the hi-hat rolls. These are a series of fast, continuous closed hi-hats. For example, you can try placing 8 hi-hats only on the second beat of a bar. However, don’t place them randomly; ensure they are rhythmically symmetrical. 

Trap is more flexible with percussive timbres, allowing for the inclusion of various distinct sounds. Don’t forget to add open hi-hats as well.

Trap harmonies are often dark, with prolonged chords. Melodies are simple yet attention-grabbing.

The bass is an essential element in trap since it’s given significant volume. The bass timbre used is the 808, known for its explosiveness and presence. This sound originally came from sampling a kick (bass drum) from the iconic Roland TR-808 drum machine, manipulating the sample’s pitch to tune it into notes and use it as bass. It’s crucial to align all your 808 hits with the kick.

Now you have all the tools and information necessary to create a beat. You can start creating! Oh, and if you need professional help in the later stages of your song’s production, you can contact an online music producer from GuitarRec to finalize your project.

Be patient. You might feel overwhelmed at first, but I assure you that with practice, you’ll achieve results you can’t even imagine today.