Serato Studio have created a range of different tutorials on how to create different styles of music. Work through the tutorials on the left to learn how to create different styles of music in Serato Studio. Start with the "Make a Hip-Hop beat" tutorial.

Note the different music concepts used for each style of music. Some may cross over to other genres and some may be specific to one. Examples of music concepts in beats are: 

• Drums, sequences, swing

• Samples, chops

• Loops

• Melody, Harmony (chords), Texture (layers)

• Tone Colour (changing the sound or colour of an instrument), adding effects

Choose a genre or an artist/band that you would like to create a type beat of. Pick one song as a reference to analyse. You will need to listen and figure out the following music concepts and write them down: 

• Tempo - the speed of the music in BPM (beats per minute)

• Rhythm - common drum patterns and sounds

• Instruments - what instruments can you hear? Write these down. Research what instruments are in the song if you're not sure. 

• Melody - what instruments are playing the melody? Vocals, synths, piano, guitar? 

• Harmony - what instruments are playing chords? synths, piano, guitar? What chords do they play? Write these down. 

• Colour - What do the instruments sound like? Raw, dirty, clean, gritty etc. How can you make those sounds? 

Now it's time to create your own beat in the genre you want. Use the music concepts you have figured out above in your beat. 

Don't worry about copying concepts from your reference song. You want to do that to make your beat sound as similar to it as possible.