Making beats like a pro producer takes time to learn and lots of practice. When learning how to make beats, many don't know where to start. Here's a beat making guide for the complete beginner which will help get you started on your journey. It helps when learning how to make beats if you know how to play at least one instrument, but it's not essential. The structure of most beats is very simple, but it's samples and instrumentals that gives them flavor.

• Pick one audio workstation software and stick with it.

• Learning to play the keyboard will work wonders for your beat making skills.

• Cockos REAPER and Audacity are two great starter software packages for beat making.

• Listening to a diverse set of music, from jazz to rock to hip hop to electronica, will help your skills in making beats.

The first step to making beats with your computer is to choose digital audio workstation software. The most popular for learning how to make beats are FL Studio, REASON and Ableton Live. However, all these specialized beat making software packages are very expensive. A good alternative is Cockos REAPER, a full-featured audio package that is shareware, with the full version costing only 65 dollars.

Try the free trial versions of some of these software packages and see which is easiest to pick up. Figure on a big time investment into the wonderful world of beat making.

Listen to hip hop and electronic beats on the radio or on your favorite albums or MP3s. What do nearly every one of them have in common at the most basic level? The answer is the kick drum/ snare drum/ hi-hat drum set combination. The kick drum typically comes on the first and third beat of the measure, with the snare hitting hard on the third beat. The hi-hat, that tinny cymbal sound, plays each beat of the measure.

As you get better at learning to make beats, your structures will begin to get a lot more varied, but this simple basic hip hop beat for beginners is a great place to start.

A good bass groove is the most important part that will set the beats you make apart from the competition. The bass is the first part you should lay down after your drum beat. All of the software mentioned above have support for MIDI files and VST plugins, two concepts you should familiarize yourself with.

It becomes extremely useful here to have a MIDI keyboard to play around with, or an electric bass you can record and add effects to later. The advantage of a USB connector MIDI keyboard is you can find or purchase all kinds of bass tones to add flavor to the beats you make. Try to listen to and duplicate some of the simpler bass lines on funk, hip hop and blues tracks on your keyboard, then branch out to your own ideas.

Using VSTi and MIDI instruments to add some strings, horns and synths to the beats you make will give them a more finished tone. Sophisticated string and horn packs, as well as VST pianos, can give a sound almost like the real thing. You'll need a pretty good mastery of your MIDI keyboard here, so practice makes perfect. Making good beats doesn't happen overnight.

Sampling, or using bits and pieces of other songs in an innovative way in your own beats, is done all throughout the recording industry, especially in hip hop beats. An ongoing debate about sampling rages in the recording industry, having to do with whether samples fall under the Fair Use Act applying to creative works or not. When you're first starting out making beats, go ahead and sample any song you want, cutting and dropping it into your digital audio workstation. If you sell any of your beats later, you'll have money to clear the samples with their original artists.