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Tips & Tricks - BPM Supreme Staff - March 29, 2016
Back to Basics: 3 Fundamental Music Skills You Need to Know as a DJ
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To start DJing properly, you should educate yourself on some basic music theory and technical audio knowledge. Below are just a few music principles all DJs should start becoming acquainted with before tackling their first mix.

1. Beatmatching

Who needs beatmatching when you have the sync button, right? WRONG. Beatmatching is an essential skill you need to know as a musician, but especially as a DJ. Other than it being a cornerstone of DJing, learning to beatmatch effectively will grow other skills in your understanding of music.

Learning how to beatmatch will help develop your ears so that you know what to listen for when spinning your tracks. It is the necessary step to mixing, phrasing, etc. Learning to properly beatmatch will turn you into a better mix DJ. It will also help you learn about BPMs for different types of music and help you learn how to construct a rhythm (beat).

2. Phrasing

Phrasing is an important skill to have as a DJ. Phrasing is defined and is usually referred to as an “alignment of phrases of two tracks in a mix.” This will allow the transition between the two tracks to be done without breaking the structure.

Lucky for you, most of the open-format or mainstream music out right now is 4/4. Phrasing becomes much more simple with the 4/4 structure, instead of having to worry about more complicated structures, like 6/8, 7/8, 11/4, or 15/8 (we can go on and on). Learn more on how to phrase-match in this informative article we found here (http://www.djingtips.com/skills/phrase-matching).

3. EQing

EQing is an art. It takes a lot of practice and a ton of patience. Proper EQing is something learned through experience. The best approach is to know the elements of the style of music your playing. If you’re playing a ton of EDM, then you should know that a lot of the sound occupies the lower frequencies. Other genres may make up more of the higher frequencies. Generally, most mixers come with a 3-band EQ (low-mid-high) setting. Knowing how to EQ different styles of music properly will elevate the quality of your mix/set.

 

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