Phrasematching

conforming to time signature rules to make musical sense

The records that a DJ plays all roughly follow the same musical rules, in dance music they are usually arranged in four-bar phrases. Even if you are able to beatmatch, you cannot necessarily DJ effectively, and your mixes may struggle to make musical sense. When mixing a DJ needs to match up records phrases as well as their beats.

Counting Beats, Bars and Phrases
Before matching phrases, a DJ needs to be able divide a piece of music into beats, bars and phrases. The best way for you to learn this is to practice counting these musical elements every time you listen to a piece of music, whether it be trance or a dance pop record.

Beats
Listen to a piece of music and either in your head or out aloud, count in time with the rhythm of the record 1,2,3,4 - 1,2,3,4 - 1,2,3,4 - etc, etc.

Bars
Now that you can count beats, begin to count each beat as a group of four. The majority of dance music is '4/4' time e.g. each group of four beats is a bar and can be counted as follows1,2,3,4 - 2,2,3,4 - 3,2,3,4 - 4,2,3,4 - etc, etc.

Phrases
As a DJ you should count music in four-bar phrases, although they may appear to be longer than this (i.e. a four-bar phrase repeated twice to make an eight bar phrase). After every four-bars in a piece of dance music you should notice a small change in the sound, for example an off-beat drum pattern. Similarly after every eight bars, a larger change will occur in the sound such as a cymbal crash. These changes are markers which kind of represent full-stops in music, marking the end of one phrase and the start of another.

Matching the Phrases
When a DJ mixes they must be careful not to muddle up a records phrases with the phrases of another record. Even if both records are playing at the same speed they will not sound right if the phrases of the records start and stop at different times.

When beginning to mix a record into one which is already playing make sure the beat you have cue'd up, (see cue'ing up section) is the first beat of a phrase. Also you must start to mix in the second record at the first beat of a phrase in the first record.

Use Phrases to Help your Mixing
I have already mentioned the markers (changes) in a record which inform you of when one phrase ends and another begins. These markers are useful as prompts so that you know when to do something in the middle of mixing two records. For example, after a marker you may wish to move the x-fader a step across, increase the volume of the incoming record or swap the bass between the two records using the EQ (equalisation) controls on your mixer.

CD Mixing

the pros and cons of using compact disc's for mixing

Many factors have led to an increase in CD DJ'ing, for example the inexpensiveness and availability of CD-R's and their hardware recording devices, as well as the rise of p2p file sharing via the Internet. The moral and copyright issues of this aside, CD's are a very flexible format for DJ'ing and posses many advantages over 12" vinyl's.

A lot of experienced DJ's dislike CD mixing because it is less of a hands-on practice and although this much is true, making a switch from using vinyl to CD or vice versa, is not as difficult as it is claimed to be.

The Pros of CD Mixing

• CD players are available cheaply and basic equipment works much the same as the more expensive models
• Music is more affordable and easier to carry in transit
• Exclusive remixes are often released by major labels on CD only
• Up-and-coming dance music producers will create promotional CD's rather than expensive acetates
• Homemade and downloaded tracks can be burnt straight to CD then used for mixing

The Cons of CD Mixing

• Not all venues have CD mixing equipment installed
• You have to search sequentially through a track to find a desired place
• Scratching facilities are in early development stages and only available on very expensive models
• Many underground releases are likely to be only found on vinyl (although these could be burnt to CD)
• CD player controls vary greatly between manufacturers and may cause problems

Beatmatching

the art of getting two records to play at the same tempo

In order to match the beats of two records you must be able to distinguish which of the two records is playing faster than the other, then adjust them so that they are playing in time. At first this is a difficult skill to grasp and requires a lot of practice before you are able to beatmatch perfectly.

The aim of Beatmatching
By beatmatching you are looking to synchronise two records playing together so that both rhythms make musical sense when heard at the same time.

Cue'ing one record in time with another
Select two records with simple, clear beats and few other musical elements for practicing and set the mixer so that the first record is playing through your speakers, and the second is initially playing through your headphones. Start off by playing the first record alone, whilst finding the first beat of the second record. Once you have the first beat of the second record held in place, start it playing in time with the beat of the first record. If these records are playing at the same time they will sound in synch, if not they will drift apart. If the records are drifting apart they need adjusting, naturally the faster they are drifting the more adjustment they require.

How to tell which record is faster
Chances are when you try practicing the above, the two records will not be playing at the same speed and therefore require adjustments. The problem now is how to tell which record is playing faster than the other. This is probably the hardest part of beatmatching and requires a great deal of repetitive practice. Trust me there is no easy shortcut to gaining this skill, but some of the following may help:

• Listen and try to distinguish which record finishes its phrases first (see phrasematching)
• Concentrate solely on the main beat of the record (usually the kick-drum)
• Count the beats of the records in groups of four (e.g. 1,2,3,4 - 2,2,3,4 - 3,2,3,4 - 4,2,3,4)
• Use trial and error to guess which record is faster, then make adjustments

Adjusting a Records speed
Although the pitch control sets the speed that the music plays and keeps this constant, you have to find the correct pitch before you are able to get the records playing at the same speed. In order to find the correct pitch you will have to adjust the speed of the record either by hand, or more professionally by using just the pitch control itself.

Adjusting by Hand
Obviously there are two ways to adjust the speed of a record; speed it up or slow it down - the method you use depends upon whether a record is playing too fast or too slow. To speed up a record by hand you can either:

• Rotate the record players spindle between your finger and thumb, or
• Push on the edge of the records label and move it forward

In order to slow down a record you can perform one of the following:

• Brush the record players platter very gently with your fingers
• Squeeze the record players spindle between your finger and thumb, or
• Gently apply pressure to the label of the record

Adjustments with the Pitch Control
You may find it easier at first to find the correct speed by hand, but in order to get the seamless sounding mixes like those of professionals, you should use the following method. Using this method once you have initially placed the record on the platter of the record player, you should not have to touch the vinyl until you come to remove the record only because it has finished playing.

Assuming that a record is already playing through your speakers, you start by setting of the second record at zero on the pitch control. If the record is playing too slow, move the pitch control up to plus one. If it is still too slow, then move the pitch up to plus three. Now the record may become too fast, therefore you know that the correct pitch is somewhere between +1 and +3. So you adjust the pitch to plus two and if it begins to play a little slow, you know that the ideal pitch can be found somewhere between +2 and +3. Making these finer and finer adjustments you will be able to locate the correct pitch by narrowing down its possible location.

Enharmonic

A note which is the equivalent of another note, but spelled differently. For example in twelve-tone equal temperament, Eb and D# are the same pitch therefore enharmonically equivalent.