Arts & Entertainment, Music
Meet Your Instructor: Questlove
Lesson time 05:00 min
Meet Questlove, the four-time Grammy Award–winning musician, DJ, drummer for The Roots, and late-night TV star. He shares what he’ll be teaching you in his class.
Students give MasterClass an average rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars
Topics include: Meet Your Instructor: Questlove
Preview
[STEPS WALKING ON HARD WOOD] [PEOPLE MURMURING IN BACKGROUND] [CROWD CHEERS] [PENCIL SCRATCHES ACROSS PAPER] [SOUNDS OF PAPER FLIPPING RAPIDLY] [RECORD SCRATCHES] [FUNKY BEAP DROPS] [BASS DROPS IN AND OUT] [RECORD SCRATCHES] [BEAT CHANGES ENTIRELY] [PERCUSSION AND VOCALISTS ONLY] [BONGOS COME IN] [RECORD SCRATCHES] [RECORD SCRATCHES] [QUEST CONTINUES TO SCRATCH THE RECORD IN TIME WITH THE BEAT THROUGHOUT] [BEAT ENDS] [THEME MUSIC] QUESTLOVE: Greetings, hi. My name is Questlove. Professor Love. You know I've never shared the method to my madness or my secrets or my creative process in DJing. Because oftentimes I think people just take it for granted that DJing is nothing but taking my little laptop, putting some songs together, spinning for a couple of hours, and walking away with a nice check. And it's so much more than that. I probably became the drummer in the world's funkiest group. JIMMY FALLON: Give it up for The Roots everybody! [INTENSE DRUM BEATS] QUESTLOVE: Just so that I could get all the money that I could, so that I could really invest in my passions, which is records. My first love is records. Not the book writing, not the producing television shows, not creating records, not drumming for other people, not being on late night television, not any of those things. Nothing will take place of the passion that I feel for music. [RECORD SCRATCHES] [FUNKY R&B INFLUENCED BEAT DROPS] [HORNS PLAY] [SHORT RECORD SCRATCHES IN TIME WITH THE BEAT] - I hope to teach and reach you people to learn the craft of curating music and being an effective DJ. I hope to teach you how to curate the perfect playlist, how to search for music, how to figure out where it belongs, and then I want to teach you how to utilize it. And that's the transitions. The killer transitions. Like, what makes this song sound even better and relative to what came before it? And how to make this song a downer, only to make the next song even more exciting. On top of that, how to use condiments. Use effects. [DISTORTED VOICES] [PLAYS SEGMENT OF DR. DRE SONG] - I did an exclusive just for you. Curation of songs that I felt were effective in teaching you how to transition, how to tell a story, how to keep moving, how to be creative, all those things. I'll share stories of my greatest highs in DJing. And my not so great highs and failures, or, life lessons. Which is very important. I hope to open up a portal in your heart so that you learn to love music. I mean, it's one thing to listen to it, but it's a whole other thing to embrace it and have it come to you. And so, loving music, and learning how to find it and appreciate it and use it to find effect. That's what I want to teach you. [ORIGINAL BEAT RETURNS] [PERCUSSION AND VOCALS ONLY] [BONGOS ENTER] [BEAT FADES OUT IN ECHO] My name is Questlove, and this is my MasterClass.
About the Instructor
Ahmir Thompson—better known as Questlove—is an iconic DJ, the drummer for The Roots, and the “coolest man on late-night,” but his first love is collecting and mixing music. Now the Grammy winner is sharing his passion with you. Explore DJ techniques, expand your musical vocabulary, and learn how to glide from genre to genre—including hip-hop, neo-soul, jazz, R&B, and more—to curate your own perfect playlist.
Featured MasterClass Instructor
Questlove
The iconic DJ and Roots drummer Questlove teaches you how to be a better DJ, deepen your love of music, and make a perfect playlist.
Explore the Class