What's the best way to start making beats as a beginner?

1. Choose a DAW – FL Studio, Ableton, or Logic Pro.  
2. Learn Drums First – Start with simple kick, snare, and hi-hat patterns.  
3. Use MIDI & Samples – Experiment with melodies and basslines.  
4. Study Song Structure – Analyze pro beats for arrangement tips.  
5. Practice Daily – Keep creating and improving!

Starting Your Music Production Journey: A Beginner's Guide

If you're new to music production, this guide is here to help you kickstart your journey. As a beginner, it's essential to focus on music production and composing before diving into mixing and mastering. Here's how you can start:

• Choose the Right Software (DAW)

Select a digital audio workstation (DAW) that feels user friendly and suits your workflow. Invest time in learning it thoroughly.

• Explore Your Favorite Genre

Study the structure and arrangement of tracks in your favorite genre. Pay special attention to sound selection this is crucial for creating impactful music. Take time to carefully choose high-quality:

• Drums
• Synths
• Bass
• Leads
• Effects (FX)

Ensure all sounds blend harmoniously to avoid any clashes.

•  Practice by Remaking Tracks

One of the best ways to learn is by remaking your favorite songs. Experiment with recreating sounds you admire. Utilize resources like YouTube tutorials and platforms such as LinkedIn Learning or ProducerTech to sharpen your skills.

• Learn Music Theory

If you’re unfamiliar with music theory, it’s highly recommended to learn the basics. Understanding scales, chords, and progressions will significantly improve your compositions and overall workflow.

Tip
Avoid shortcuts. Consistency and practice are the keys to success in music production. Stay patient, and keep working until you achieve the sound you want.

Good luck on your journey! 

Start....

In all seriousness though find a software / app within your price range, watch a YouTube video on how to use it, and start practicing. After that it is a matter of repetition and practice, but the only way to start, is to start.

What I would say to someone who's starting out 

1- Find a genre of music that you relate too

2- Have a basic understanding of music theory

3- Find a DAW that's easy to you 

4- Try to remake songs by artist you love from the genre you relate to

5- Keep on practicing 

Grab some drum samples from Splice (not loops!)

Grab some individual notes for an instrument from Splice (not loops!)

Find some creative effects plugins, (for example a good starting plugin would be something like Soundtoys Effects Rack)

Notice how I said NOT LOOPS twice. Using loops, is the number 1 way of killing your growth and creativity as a producer. Don't use other people's loops. Make your own. Otherwise you will never learn how to create an emotional colour with sound. Each loop we make, is the element whichcarries the primary emotion of a song. Much like the color palette of a painting. If you are not able to make a loop yourself, then you will never be unique.

Some advice I could give you is:
1. Use the DAW that is most comfortable for you to work a beat (If I had to recommend you some it would be Ableton Live or FL Studio).
2. Practice recreating the instrumental of some songs that interest you, this helps you to understand how its structure is made.
3. Having a basic knowledge of music theory and understanding between major and minor scales helps a lot to be able to create instrumentals.

No idea is a bad idea, in practice you will always improve to create better beats.

I would say, start by recreating beats of artists that you love. This is a great way to start since the you can learn a lot of great music productions plus it's fun because you already love the artists.

There's a couple things you want to figure out:
- What kind of samples are used? Use splice to search for similar sounding samples
- What is the structure of the song? E.g.: Intro, verse 1, chorus 1, verse 2 etc.
- What chords are used? Are you not able to figure this out on your own you can use tools like: Chordify
- What instruments are used? If they use syths, a great start is to use Serum and to load presets that you can also find on Splice that sound similar to the ones you're hearing.

The best advice I can give is to use acapella vocal tracks that are recorded in an exact BPM or time and then you will have a structure which you can reharmonize from scratch and you can create in your musical imagination whatever you have in mind. Try to capture what you have in mind in your music program and from there, a lot of practice.

It's never too late!