Freestyling is all about transcending simple rhymes and rhythms. It’s a lot more than just that. It’s about creativity, confidence, connection. So, if you’re looking to impress your friends at a cypher or just want to hone your skills for personal enjoyment—there are plenty of time-tested ways to get better at freestyling and up your game! Let’s go over some practical tips to help you get better at freestyling starting today.
Strengthen Your Foundation
It’s super important to grasp the fundamentals before you even think about dropping bars. It’s kind of like learning to play the guitar. Yes, you can memorize a few riffs and impress your neighbor’s dog perhaps, but true art comes when you have a grasp of fundamentals. That’s when you can create something worth enjoying.
It’s the same with freestyling in rap. So, how do you begin? What are these fundamentals that you must get a grip on?
- Beats: Beats and rhythms are of different types. Know them all, use them all. You have to practice over different tempos and styles. What this does is train your mind to adapt your flow to different sounds while keeping your freestyles fresh.
- Rhyme Schemes: Do you believe freestyling is all about throwing caution to the wind? Well, you couldn’t be more wrong. All music is a beautiful, elegant science. Understanding basic rhyme schemes gives you the most important ingredient of a good freestyle—structure. Play with end rhymes, internal rhymes, and slant rhymes. Your flow will quickly begin to become more dynamic.
- Wordplay and Metaphors: The best hip hop tracks are full of clever wordplay and metaphors. They make the lyrics more impactful. Whether it’s the 80s, 90s, 2010s, or the 2020s, it’s all about making freestyles more engaging and memorable. But nobody becomes clever with words on day 1. The more you practice, the more natural it will begin to feel to incorporate these elements.
Practice, Practice, Practice
Freestyling is like any other skill—it requires consistent practice.
First of all, you’re highly recommended to do daily freestyle sessions. Set aside some time each day for your freestyle practice. It doesn’t have to be long—even 10-15 minutes a day can give you surprising results a month down the line!
Daily practice helps you hone your skills and develop the flow and confidence that you need. Pick a random beat or instrument and let your thoughts flow freely.
But it can get boring sometimes. That’s why we also recommend sessions with friends. Grab a couple of friends and set up a cypher. Not only is this a great way to challenge yourself, but it also creates a supportive environment where you can learn from one another. Plus, the energy of a group can spark creativity more often than you think!
We’d also suggest that you record your sessions. Listening to your own freestyles later helps in a remarkable way. If you’ve played a video game, you’ll know this. Professional esports players spend more time watching their own replays than watching others. Once you get in the habit of doing this, you will identify your strengths and areas for improvement.
Critique is an invaluable part of the growth process. Without critique, you will take 5 years to reach where you could’ve reached in 5 months. And you are your best, free critic.
An excellent tool to practice and experiment with different styles is using an AI music generation tool such as SOUNDRAW. It allows you to try out different beats and make music that is truly top-notch, being trained on all the best sounds in the hip hop genre.
Expand Your Vocabulary
Freestyling is, at its core, about weaving words together without having to think long about composing the perfect lyrics. You don’t have the time to ponder the best word or find the most suitable synonym. In fact, the words you use in your freestyling are hard-capped by the range of words you know.
That is where expanding your vocabulary comes into the picture.
- Read a lot! Books, articles, and poetry expose you to new words and phrases. Watching tons of movies and TV shows do that too—but the merit of recommending that is questionable, as you could follow genres that are not that useful. The idea is to consume as much as you produce so you can improve the range of your vocabulary such that many words and phrases become muscle memory when you’re freestyling.
- You can also use a rhyming dictionary. Many scoff at it and would rather have you focus on your “innate” talent. They find such a tool shallow. But the truth is, they have never really tried one, or tried one correctly. Rhyming dictionaries (or online rhyming tools) can really make a difference in your lyrics.
- Lastly, never forget to challenge yourself with a random prompt every day! You can make a habit out of it. Whenever you remember, see whatever is in front of you and use that as the prompt for some freestyling. Push your creativity and think outside the box. This is the best training you can do for real-world freestyling sessions.
Build Your Confidence & Enjoy Imperfection
Building your confidence and embracing imperfections go hand in hand. When freestyling, you have to be spontaneous. And sometimes, you’ll stumble over your words. The inherent spontaneity in freestyling is precisely what makes it so beautiful. So, know that it’s perfectly okay to stumble. Imperfection is the name of the game, embrace it!
Keep a positive mindset, use visualization techniques, and start small. These things will help you come back from mistakes with renewed confidence.
Also, keep going if you mess up during a freestyle. Did you know that those who carry the record for the fastest typing speeds in the world skip the word they accidentally mistype? It’s second nature to them to just totally ignore it. An amateur will take a small pause even if you tell them it’s best to just move on to the next word. A pro, however, knows this too well.
Everyone is an amateur at the beginning. Embrace those mishaps and keep going. You will learn from your mistakes and begin to enjoy this process in no time!
Want to practice your freestyling? Make beats with SOUNDRAW to rap over!