Are Energy Levels Associated with Styles of Music?

0:00 Full on electro house

Alright guys, you're listening to the Ridney remix of Lenny Fontana's featuring D-Train, a track entitled Raise Your Hands. I'll put a link in the description that will take you to Karmic Power Records. This video is answering a question from a guy by the name of Gerald. What he's asking is are energy levels associated with styles of music? Well yes they are. So if we look at full on electro house, the energy levels are going to be a lot higher. So you're looking at 7, 8 and 9. And also if you're not sure about what I'm on about, well there's something that is part of a program called Mixed In Key. And what they do is not only will they give you the key of the track, they'll also give you the energy level of that track. And they'll mark it from 1 to 10. 1 is not much going on, 10 is full on, hands in the air, piano, breaks, bass lines and goodness knows what else.

1:00 The energy level is going to be high

So if we do listen to a lot of full on electro house, the energy levels are going to be higher. And a way to work out your own energy level of a track is how does it make you feel? Does it make you feel really deep and vibrant or has it got a lot going on? Is it full? The production is all over, well not all over the place, the production is just like rammed in there. You've got loads of piano, you've got loads of synth, you've got loads of vocals, you've got loads of screaming and shouting and drums and music. Then the energy level is going to be high. The likes of this track here, even though it's a very, very good track, the energy level is a little bit lower. There's less going on. So the energy level in a track like this could be say 5 to 6. Something where there's more going on. For example, techno, electro house, those sorts of genres depending on of course how full the track is.

The energy levels are going to be a lot higher. So hopefully that's answered his question. And hopefully that will help you as well. So when you do your mix, look at the energy levels of tracks. So not only look at keys, but look at energy levels and work out your mix based on the energy levels. Now again, you can only do this if you're doing a mix in your bedroom. You can't really do this if you're doing a mix in your bedroom. You can't really do this if you're doing a live mix because the crowd will always ask you. They'll always talk to you and they will let you know how they want the night to progress. If you're in your bedroom, you can maybe start off with energy level 4 to 5, lift it up to 6, go to 7, 8 and then bring it back down again. So you've got a natural sort of wave.

2:51 Soulful track, maybe maybe

And if you're in a nightclub, then if similar, you know, you want to have a nice sort of wave and the crowd will help you and you'll help the crowd. So what you're going to do is go from a 3 to a 7 to a 4 to an 8 down to a 2 and up to a 9 down to a 3 and up to a 7. That's not very good. Even if they're in key, that won't sound very good because all of a sudden you've got this really nice deep soulful track going into full on bang in tune and then right down to a soulful track. That's not a good way of mixing energy levels. A good way is 5 to a 6, 6 and a 6 again, maybe to a 7. Maybe to an 8. Maybe then drop it down to a 5 and up then to a 7, 8, 9, not 9, 1, 9, 1. I hope that's been helpful. Practice and enjoy. Thank you very much.

This transcript was produced automatically from the audio of the video and may contain mistakes.