Music

Learn to DJ & Make Compelling Beats

Unlock Musical Creativity & Expression

Teaches Producing and Beatmaking

Timbaland

Meet your instructor: Timbaland, producer of countless Top 40 hits for artists ranging from Jay-Z to Missy Elliott and Justin Timberlake. In your first lesson, Tim shows you how to create an entire track with just your voice and a microphone.

1. Introduction

Introduction

Step into the studio to see improvisation and creative feedback at work. Tim teaches you how to build a song around a beatbox, starting with the loop he created in the first lesson and adding harmony, melody, and texture.

2. Studio Session: Making a Beatbox Beat

Studio Session: Making a Beatbox Beat

It's essential to establish a workflow that serves your personal creative process. Tim talks you through his digital rig and reveals his process for selecting the sounds that he uses in his music.

3. Building Beats: Tim’s Process

Building Beats: Tim’s Process

Collaboration with producers and engineers is a key part of Tim’s process. In this chapter, Tim teaches you how he shares music with his team to get them excited and into the creative groove.

4. Making a Beat: Getting Warmed Up

Making a Beat: Getting Warmed Up

Tim recalls how he built the backing track for Jay-Z’s hit “Dirt Off Your Shoulder” and explains how to create a complex texture from simple elements.

5. Song Origins: “Dirt Off Your Shoulder”

Song Origins: “Dirt Off Your Shoulder”

Complex songs can develop from simple ideas. Tim and his co-producers show how a four-bar chord progression can form the structure of a multi-section song.

6. Making a Beat: Starting With a Chord Progression

Making a Beat: Starting With a Chord Progression

Tim’s drum sounds are legendary. Learn how careful audio engineering can turn dry drums into something that thunders through headphones.

7. Making a Beat: Tweaking and Layering Drums

Making a Beat: Tweaking and Layering Drums

Using Ginuwine’s “Pony” as an example, Tim demonstrates how choosing unique sounds can make your music production stand out from the competition.

8. Song Origins: “Pony”

Song Origins: “Pony”

Join Team Timbo in the studio as Tim’s co-producers Fede Vindver and Angel Lopez teach you how to imprint your signature sound on samples through effects and plug-ins.

9. Making a Beat: Manipulating Vocal Samples

Making a Beat: Manipulating Vocal Samples

Tim believes that contrast is essential in keeping a song interesting from the first beat to the last. Here he shows how to create that contrast without changing the song’s chord progression.

10. Making a Beat: Creating a Breakdown

Making a Beat: Creating a Breakdown

With help from New City vocalist Adrian Mitchell, Tim shows you the most important step in making a chart-topping hit— creating the vocal melody or “topline”— and shares his philosophy on lyrics.

11. Making a Beat: Adding a Topline

Making a Beat: Adding a Topline

Tim pays homage to some of the great producers who came before him and explains what influences helped him shape his own sound.

12. Tim's Influences

Tim's Influences

Tim believes resilience and dedication are critical for success. As he concludes his MasterClass, he reveals what drives him and how you can keep focused on your inspiration and goals.

13. How to Persevere

How to Persevere

Timbaland’s collaborations with Missy Elliott are dynamic and iconic. Here Tim shares how they worked together to create their hits and shows you how vintage samples can bring a beat to the next level.

14. Song Origins: “Gossip Folks”

Song Origins: “Gossip Folks”

Tim, Static Major, and Aaliyah had less than 24 hours to write “Are You That Somebody?” In this lesson, Tim explains how they did it. He also teaches subtle production techniques for turning good songs into great ones.

15. Song Origins: “Are You That Somebody?”

Song Origins: “Are You That Somebody?”

Timbaland Teaches Producing and Beatmaking

variant_1

Enjoy 7 days free

The promo may be over, but your opportunity isn't. Dive into the full experience, worry-free, with our 7-day money-back guarantee.

The offer has ended

Amount charged now

Your 7-day free trial starts today

Be one of the first 100 people to complete this course and you'll receive a limited-edition collectible designed and made by The Moonshot Factory.

Earn a rare collector's item

If you’re one of the first 100 learners to complete the course, you’ll get this collectible framed set, inspired by patches worn into battle by SEALs. Hurry—they’ll go fast.

Earn Your Achievement Patches

Congratulations on being among the first to complete the course.  To commemorate the skills you’ve built, we’re offering a limited-edition set of achievement patches inspired by those worn into battle by Navy SEALs.

Claim your Navy SEAL Foundation Achievement Patches

Pre-enroll now to save 15% on the Breakthrough Innovation Strategy course.

Save 15% on this course when you pre-enroll by October 22, 2025.

Turn bold ideas to business impact—pre-enroll by October 22, 2025 and save 15%.

From TIME ©2022 TIME USA LLC. All rights reserved. Used under license.

Times

Wirecutter

Reviewed - USA Today

Building Beats

Layering Drums

Manipulating Samples

Song Studies

Teaches Film Scoring

Hans Zimmer

Hans Zimmer Teaches Film Scoring

Teaches Songwriting and Producing

Alicia Keys

Alicia Keys Teaches Songwriting and Producing

Teaches Music and Connection

Yo-Yo Ma

Yo-Yo Ma Teaches Music and Connection

Teaches Drumming & Creative Collaboration

Ringo Starr

Ringo Starr Teaches Drumming & Creative Collaboration

Teaches the Voice as an Instrument

Mariah Carey

Mariah Carey Teaches the Voice as an Instrument

Teaches Singing

Christina Aguilera

Christina Aguilera Teaches Singing

Teaches Music Curation and DJing

Questlove

Questlove Teaches Music Curation and DJing

Teaches Creativity in Choreography

Parris Goebel

Parris Goebel Teaches Creativity in Choreography

Teaches The Art Of Performance

Usher

Usher Teaches The Art of Performance

Teaches Philosophy

Cornel West

Cornel West Teaches Philosophy

Teaches Hip-Hop Storytelling

Nas Teaches Hip-Hop Storytelling

Teaches the Art and Soul of Guitar

Carlos Santana

Carlos Santana Teaches the Art and Soul of Guitar

Elevate Your Singing and Stage Presence

A Documentary by Bess Kargman

Diane Warren: Relentless

Teaches Songwriting

John Legend

John Legend Teaches Songwriting

Teaches Music for Film

Danny Elfman

Danny Elfman Teaches Music for Film

Teaches Filmmaking

Werner Herzog

Werner Herzog Teaches Filmmaking

Teaches Country Music

Reba McEntire

Reba McEntire Teaches Country Music

Teaches ʻUkulele

Jake Shimabukuro

Jake Shimabukuro Teaches ʻUkulele

Teaches Violin

Itzhak Perlman

Itzhak Perlman Teaches Violin

Teaches Electronic Music Production

deadmau5

deadmau5 Teaches Electronic Music Production

Lessons from Influential Black Voices

Angela Davis

Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw

Nikole Hannah-Jones

Sherrilyn Ifill

Jelani Cobb

John McWhorter

Black History, Black Freedom, and Black Love

Teaches Drumming and Percussion 

Sheila E.

Sheila E. Teaches Drumming and Percussion 

Teaches Electric Guitar

Tom Morello

Tom Morello Teaches Electric Guitar

Teaches Dance Music

Armin van Buuren

Armin van Buuren Teaches Dance Music

Teaches Jazz

Herbie Hancock

Herbie Hancock Teaches Jazz

Teaches Being a Band

Metallica

Metallica Teaches Being a Band

Menu

Skills You'll Learn