RainMan44 wrote:Slim Fiasco wrote:I think that at first you'll need to practice the changing of your intonation solely, instead of trying to change the pace as well. Like, if you listen to Hopsin's verse on Am I Psycho he flows the same after saying "but with the wicked..." but he changes the intonation.
I'm having some trouble understanding this.
What exactly is intonation, and how should I practice it?
Also, here's a clear way to express the problem I'm having. Let's say I'm rapping one bar. If I fuck up, I won't know how to get back on track. I don't recognize the instruments/sounds to use it to help me get back on track. Let's say the bar is "Mom, dad, I'm no longer the boy you're used to seeing."....I know I have to fit that into the 1 bar...which is the beat that keeps getting repeated. But let's say I say "Mom, dad, I'm no...." and fuck up and get off beat, I don't know how to have the instruments/beats/drum/whatever to help me get back.
So when I flow on beat, that is because I have rehearsed it so much that I know how to make it flow well.
But if you put on a new beat, I won't know how to twist/turn my flow into a creative one...I can just give you a simple "bar for bar" flow.
I want to know how to command the beat with my flow...how come some rappers can go fast, slow down, speed up, twist, etc and still be on beat? I can't do that.
Intonation is the tone/melody of your voice and it doesn't affect the speed of what you're saying. It ultimately leads to inserting emotion into your rapping but that's a more advanced part of flowing so you should worry about it later. But let's say you have a line to act, you can say it with a more angry voice, a sad one, as if you're laughing etc.
Ok so, you need to fit your pace to the drum pattern and you may change the intonation according to the various melodies of the beat (like you're almost singing them) or simply add a random melody to your voice. The best way to practice this is to try rapping by saying "one, two, three.. one, one, two three", you'll notice that catching the beat like this is much easier and you almost can't miss it. When doing so, you should also try to change the sound of that "three" which should hit the 2nd snare of the loop (the repeated beat as you call it) and that's usually the ending rhyme of a line.
So when you write, try to make your lines to end in a rhyme and make small pauses when you say each line. You should also make tiny pauses within the line itself (not always though) and you'll notice this when you'll try rapping the "one, two three" thing. Pay attention at the (very) short pauses between each word!
Among other things you should understand the concept of a beat. The best way is to download the demo of FL Studio (or watch a tutorial) and make a simple loop. You'll notice 16 small squares for the kick, the hat and the snare. There should be
only 2 snares,
each at the beginning of the red groups of squares which are the 5th and the 13th square. There should be more kicks just don't overlap them with the snares, and hats you can put in-between. There's also a bass line but it's not very important to your delivery. If you do end up making your own beat (loop) don't forget the tempo which should be around 90-95.
So anyway, if you listen to a loop over and over again you'll notice the pauses which are usually around the snares, and you should also know that emphasizing of certain words is recommended when the snare comes around (which is what you read in the How To Rap book).
To conclude, start practicing the "one, two, three; one, one, two three" pattern and you should get a better feeling of the beat, which afterwards you'll start doing with actual words/lines. Oh and another good example is to "chop" words like Em does in Lose Yourself when he says:
Snap
back to reality,
Oh there goes gravity
Oh, there goes Rabbit, he
chokedHe's so mad, but he
won't give up that
Easy,
noHe won't have it , he
knows his whole back's to these
ropesIt don't matter, he's
dopeHe knows that, but he's
brokeHe's so stagnant that he
knows And by chop I mean adding an extensive pause ala emphasizes at certain words. If you try this more often in a line you'll catch the beat even better but do this only to get that feeling, you shouldn't really rap like that all the time i.e. those pauses shouldn't be very extended but start by overextending them so that as I said, get the feeling.