(TUTORIAL) How To Beat Match PART 1

How To Beat Match









Learning how to beat match is the most essential skill for any beginner DJ.
Unless you plan to only play songs back to back, you’ll need to learn how to beat match if you are serious about DJing.
Learning [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
isn’t an extremely difficult to learn the fundamentals but it does take
many years to reach the professional levels of the greatest DJs.
Once you understand and can accurately beat match, you’ll be on your way to creating your first mix.
What is beat matching?


The purpose of beat matching is to match the BPM and phrasings of two records so they can be mixed together in order to blend together as if they are a single song.
Beat matching allows a DJ to create a mix that lasts for hours without ever stopping.
Understanding the beat


To understand beat matching, you must first understand music.
Every song has 2 major aspects:

- Tempo or Beats Per Minute (BPM)
- Phrasing
Phrasing in music helps break up each note and creates music
sound like… music. Phrasing creates a continuous flow of the notes
instead of sounding like single one-shots.
In order to mix correctly, you will need to
The tempo or beats per minute (BPM) is the speed of the record.
In electronic music and many other genres, the speed of the record is measured by the number of beats each minute.
Counting bars


Counting bars is one of the fundamentals to beat matching.
With most electronic music, songs use a 4/4 (on the floor) beat; this keeps the song at a steady tempo.
The easiest way to understand counting bars is to put on your favorite track and, out loud, count the beats on the kicks drums.
When the kick on a track begins, you begin counting.
On each kick drum count one…two…three…four…one…two…three…four.

If you did not catch the first kick just listen for little
indications of the next bar. This indication could be a sudden snare
hit, a new bassline or the start of a synthesizer lead.
Soon you’ll be listening to tracks, completely understanding the pattern to the song.
Notice how you can visually see how the song is breaking down?

Once you’ve trained yourself to count bars correctly, you will be
able to anticipate what will happen in a song. That snare roll that
keeps building up? Keep counting out one…two…three…four and when you’ve
reached the final bar, the track will change up and break into bass,
lead or any various sounds.