How to Rap: Fundamentals

This lesson will help you discover which aspects of rap you like and explain how you can explore the talents of other artists to improve your own rap skills.

This lesson will teach you how to count syllables and break up words into sounds. This is the absolute most basic piece you'll need to know to start building lines and will be a key component as we dive into more complex rhyming.

Make sure you know how to count syllables

In this lesson you'll learn how to write lines as couplets. This is important for how to rap because most rap is written in couplets. You'll learn about how many syllables to put in a line as well as how to build couplet lines.

Identify Couplets

This lesson is about perfect rhyming, the type of rhyming you're most familiar with. It also covers rhyme schemes, which will help you map rhymes into your verse and understand the structure of other verses.

This is an exercise helping you to understand rhyme schemes. Answers are provided.

This is a description of what bars are and how to count them. By the end of this lesson you'll have the resources to know how to count bars yourself and how they fit into the writing of rap music.

As you learn how to rap, you'll get a serious of exercises to help you out. This is an exercise that I've seen work for many rappers to quickly increase their skills. After this, you should understand how the exercise works and how it can help you develop your rap skill quickly.

This is the first lesson on freestyle, emphasizing that you start. By the end of this lesson you should be trying to freestyle and starting to understand how it works.

This lesson is dedicated to helping you build confidence in your rap skills. Overcoming doubt and feeling comfortable is absolutely important in art. This lesson will also teach you how to use feedback effectively to grow as an artist.

This lesson covers a few areas where rap artists are likely to find inspiration. It also gives different themes that you can use to create your own music and helps you expand your current style preferences.

This lesson considers the differences between skills you learn and your actual being as you become a rapper. Some things can be taught, but your essence is your own and you're the only one who can bring that into existence.

This lesson explains how to rap with internal rhymes. There are some examples of how rappers use internal rhymes. It also gives you ideas for how to add internal rhymes in your own verses.

This lesson covers how to use slant rhyming in your raps. It also breaks down the concepts behind slant rhyming so you understand why things are or are not slants.

A quiz to help you understand how slant rhymes work.

This lesson covers how to pick good words while you rap. Each word is important and makes a difference in how your art is percieved.

This lesson we start to cover ideas for how you can quickly improve your rap delivery. Lyrics are important, but it's also important to give those lines a strong delivery.

This is the second lesson where we cover ways to improve your delivery. There's also specific exercises for how to improve these rap skills quickly.

This lesson gives the outline of a rap song. By the end of this, you should understand how to structure a rap song and be able to put one together yourself.

This is another lesson about freestyling. Now that you've learned many of the other skills, this lesson emphasizes rhyming and how to continue freestyle rapping to long periods of time.

Another lesson on how to freestyle rap. This lesson emphasizes the fun of cyphers and the ultility of using your surroundings to keep rapping longer.

This lesson explains the difference between types of language. By the end of this you should know how to rap with more complex language and create your own similes and metaphors.

This lesson explains wordplay and teaches you how to use double meaning wordplay. By the end of the lesson, you should understand how to make your own rap wordplay.

This lesson is about multi-syllable rhymes, also called complex rhymes, multis, or compound rhymes. This is a more advanced rhyme technique, but absolutely essential as you learn how to rap.

This lesson is about how to battle with other emcees. You will learn what a punchline is and how to craft them to attack your opponent. This is a great starter for those who want to learn how to rap battle.

This is a lesson about how to tell engaging stories. Since many rap songs contain stories, it's important to understand how good storytellers work. After this lesson you should understand how to write a story.

This lesson explains what flow is in rap. Flow is a huge concept that is extremely important and can define an artist. After this lesson, you should understand how to expand your flow styles and exercises you can do to keep improving your rap flow.

This lesson covers a great strategy for freestyle rapping longer. It also covers what adjustments you need to make when freestyling over an instrumental and gives you ideas for how to improve those skills.

This lesson gives you a mindset strategy for increasing the length of your freestyles. The more ideas you have, the longer you can freestyle rap.

This lesson teaches you how to record better and also where to find instrumentals to make music. This is a very basic overview of how to record but you should feel comfortable with your phone or home setup after this.

This lesson reviews what you've learned so far in how to rap. There is a focus on understanding your progress and ensuring you feel comfortable rap battling, freestyling, and knowing how to write a rap song.