Ahhhh…. There is nothing in the world like dope hip hop piano beats; I think that hip hop piano beats are my favorite type of beats to listen to. You know, songs like “Nothin on You” by B.O.B. and Bruno Mars, or “My Last” by Big Sean and the boy Lamborghini Breezy. They just move me so. When those chord progressions hit and you have a hard 808 kick behind it and them snares crackin, man……

More than likely, you like hip hop piano beats too, but you’re wondering how it is that you can create hip hop piano beats without it taking you years to learn how to play the piano. There are one of two different approaches that you may take to accomplish creating piano based tracks, so let’s discuss, and then you can decide which route you feel would be the best fit for yourself and your needs.

Lean How to Flip Them keys

No no no, not those kind of keys, piano keys! I wouldn’t ever advocate that you do anything illegal, so let me throw that lil’ disclaimer out there before I cause some ruckus. Selling drugs or otherwise. You know it’s so prevalent with our hip hop music, everybody’s a dealer supposedly. Even the producers are gangsters now.

But the keys that I’m talking about are those piano keys, where in which if you follow a simple plan, you can have some basic piano playing skills under your belt in a short matter of time.

Invest in a program such as Rocket piano, which is designed to get students up and running with playing the piano in the shortest amount of time. I mean, after about 3 months of daily practice and dedication, I was well on my way to making hip hop piano beats. All you need to do is learn some chord progressions, memorize them, and apply some rhythm to those progressions. Easy. Done. You’ll be thinkin you’re Scott Storch or somebody in no time.

Sample Piano Arrangements

The best way to do this is to pick a song with a piano arrangement within it that you like, preferably one without any drums or other supporting instrumentation. If the track does have drums or other instrumentation, that’s okay, but it’s best that you find a sample that does not have those elements within it.

Got your sample? Cool. Now, you should edit and trim the sample until you have an even, 2, 4, or 8 bar loop. You want to do this because your typical hip hop verse will contain 16 bars, so you want a loop that can be multiplied until you have the 16 bars. Just a lil’ math for ya.

Once you have your loop and it set to your desired bar length, you will need to add your own drums, percussion elements, bassline and other instrumentation. If you only want to stick with the sampled loop and your drum arrangement, then that’s perfectly cool too. Creating tight hip hop piano beats is all about your feeling, your emotion, and how the track moves, YOU. If you’re vibing to it, chances are someone else will too…