Hip Hop & Beat Making
Course 2: Reference Vocals

As a producer, you need to know how to create songs that will resonate with the masses. Most producers will tell you that a way to really resonate with anyone is through vocals that draw them in and connect with listeners on some level. Vocals also have major importance in the structure and framework of most songs.

Knowing how to create powerful vocals is a major ability and can help your own career as well as the careers of many others. By understanding certain production workflows, you can learn how to easily lay a foundation for what will eventually become amazing lyrics – all the way up to a finished song.

In course 2, you’ll learn how to create scratch vocals to give your song a start. Once you have a scratch recording, you’ll begin to build around it with your digital audio workstation–one of the essential tools for hip hop and beat-making.

During Market Time, you’ll work on an inspiration board centering on the image you want to portray as a professional artist. Think about what you might look like during a live show, during a magazine interview, or on a press junket. Your listening library will consist of the self-titled Run the Jewels album to listen for production values, beats, rhyming style, and other aspects of the album.

Your digital field trip will be to investigate Melodyne further on your own. Learn more about its features, research professionals that use it, and what you hope to get out of it.