Rap is a popular trend in music
Rap, one of the most popular trends in modern music, attracts with a combination of musical rhythm and poetic virtuosity. The best rap artists gather in halls and stadiums, arrange battles, and in music studios, young talents are taught to sing rap and hip-hop.
At the same time, both boys and girls can learn to rap, because there are many famous rappers on the stage. You can master the musical style on your own at home, doing simple exercises and improving your skill every day.
People and Youngsters now take more interest in rapping and all. Rappers do change their stage name or remain original. If you’re changing your stage name, find something that is unique that describes yourself. Give a try at online rap name generators to get more ideas.
Important: You’re never old to learn something. If you have talent then your age is just a number. For note, to get the perfect age of yours for documents and all, using an online age calculator, you can easily find that.
General information about rap direction
For more than 10 years, rap and hip-hop have been the favorites of young people. Both young people and girls want to compose and perform compositions and dance to them. The success of performers such as Deck, Eminem, Oxymoron, or Kanye West reinforces the popularity of this trend.
Like any other musical style, rap has its own distinctive features that set it apart from other musical styles.
History of origin
Rap originated in the South Bronx, an area of New York where Latin American immigrants and blacks settled. Discos were open only to whites, so the “colored” arranged concerts for “their own”, where they shared stories from life to rhythmic music.
Along with rap, beatboxing began to actively develop, when music is played with the mouth.
Key features
The main feature of rap is a rhythmic recitative set on aggressive or, conversely, meditative music. To perform it requires a perfect sense of rhythm and poetic talent.
Where is it applied?
Today rap and beatbox have captured the minds of young people. The direction of hip-hop arose – it combined dance-pop music and rap.
There is also rap-rock, funk metal, rapcore, and rap metal.
Vocal Direction Laws
Like any musical style, rap has its own laws:
- Text in which the beat is clearly audible. You can even say that it is the rhythm that forms the basis of rap, and not the melody. Any melody has a rhythm, but it sounds clearer in rapper compositions than in Chopin’s waltzes or Beatles songs.
- Intonation. It is the tone of voice that replaces the melody in rap. This must be taken into account when a rapper writes lyrics: the rhyme and rhythm embedded in it serve as the basis for modulation.
- Emotion. Rap is a performing art. It is impossible to imagine a rap artist who simply reads lyrics into a microphone. The lyrics of rappers are often highly social, their task is to provoke a reaction from the audience. Emotions are indispensable here.
How to learn to rap?
Learning to rap is difficult, but real. It is rare that the performer initially possesses all the necessary skills. All other rappers learned to write lyrics and create beats before they mastered it.
Some of the guidelines for mastering rap at home are similar to those used by beatboxers. First of all, this is a sense of rhythm and breathing with the diaphragm (or belly, in a simple way), as well as reading tongue twisters and classes with a metronome. But first things first.
Basic principles and rules
Rap has several important rules to follow:
- Theme. Rap lyrics are characterized by thematic polyphony. This is the stream of consciousness of the hero or the performer himself, who tells the public about what moves him.
- Flow. This is the name of the reading style, where intonation (voice, pauses, and accents) and music (tempo rhythm) are combined.
- Rhymes. Writing a successful rap is almost impossible without them.
- Bits. Some rappers first compose the beat, then write the lyrics, others do the opposite. The order is not as important as the final “product”.
Exercises
To master any skill, you need to systematically perform certain exercises. And they exist for rap too.
1. Diaphragm breathing produces a deep, beautiful sound
This is important for rap: this style retains the aggressiveness of the Bronx and the slums of Harlem, so a high-pitched, “clavicular” voice will sound strange. In addition, it is in this way that you can hold your breath for a long time and read long stanzas, as if in one breath.
To master diaphragmatic breathing, place one hand on your chest, the other on your stomach, relax, take a breath and make sure that only the hand on your stomach rises. The hand on the chest remains motionless.
This breathing is easy to master, but exercise should be regular.
2. Sense of rhythm
If you’ve been or are practicing beatboxing, then you already know how to practice this skill. You will need a metronome: you can use a real instrument, or you can download an application to your phone or computer.
Important: you should start developing the rhythm from the slowest pace, gradually accelerating. Your task is to master the skill qualitatively. Rhythm is one of the main components of rap and hip-hop, so there is no need to rush here.
In addition to the metronome, try to hear or match the rhythm to everything that surrounds you: traffic, the rustle of the wind, the sound of water. You don’t have to play the rhythm with your mouth; you can use any tools at hand, from ballpoint pens to spoons.
3. Tongue twisters
Ideal diction is indispensable for a rapper: the lyrics are pronounced quickly and rhythmically, and if you “chew” words and swallow sounds, then you can forget about world fame. Therefore, read tongue twisters aloud, preferably recording yourself on a dictaphone and noting mistakes.
If you have good diction, but the words are still “eaten”, try rap with nuts in your mouth.
Chanting
There are a few basic exercises that will help you quickly develop the skills you need to rap.
- Lower register development. To do this, sing the vowel sounds as low as possible. It is best to use a piano or synthesizer for this purpose, where you hold the keys yourself.
- Expansion of the voice range. To do this, sing each note, from C to B, from the lowest point to the highest point, and then back again. The wider the range, the brighter the voice sounds, since you can give the text different shades.
- Development of all registers. For this exercise, keyboards are necessary, since you need to play and simultaneously sing a short phrase. This is the usual sound “brrrr”, but it is with its help that both registers and diction are perfectly developed.
