DJ Add Some Bhangra to Your Mix to Make It Unique

0:00 How do you get found out?

Alright guys, so how do you get seen? How do you get known? How do you get found out? Well, there's loads of ways, but there is definitely two. One is do something big, bold and drastic that will change you forever, also get you noticed, get lots of clicks, likes and goodness knows what, before you know it, you're a mega superstar! But, the quicker you go up, the quicker you go down possibly. On the other hand, just trundle along, but build up, slowly get your network behind you, get your contacts, get the feelers out, and eventually, you'll be at the top, or you'll be top-ish.

And it's, I don't know, you could still fall flat on your arse, but then again, you've got a lot behind you. Instead of, like, one-hit wonders. Wow! One-hit wonder, they're in the charts, fantastic, great hit, and all of a sudden, they're gone, and it was like, who was that? Oh, it was that, erm... what are we having for tea? Instead of, like, some geniuses out there. Absolute geniuses that are still around in our hearts and minds to this day. Right now, also... There are some people, most of the people, and I'm not talking about ethnic minorities because that really doesn't exist. We are all people living on this planet together. It's up to us, we can make it better. Courtesy of Mr David Peaston, I think.

2:09 Work, you know, and just do

Anyway, so whether you're black, white, red, green or blue, orange, purple or multi-coloured, you should like all kinds of music. And this demonstration here is a bit of an experiment because it's mixing two different genres. Not only two different genres, but ages as well. I mean, we've got a track here from the 70s as well. So what I'm about to do is something wacky. Now there are most of us out there that will follow protocol, straight line, just get up and go to work, you know, and just do the normal average things. But there are some people out there that will think outside the box. They're stepping on that very thin line and the thin line is there, and it's very thin because they go one direction and they get arrested or die the other direction and you're with everybody else really.

I like being on that thin line. So let's have a look at what we can do here. We have two tracks here. One is by Edwin Starr, a track entitled Contact. The other one is by Dolna Shubhamudgal. Sorry, I do beg your pardon. My pronunciation is rubbish, but it is a Bhangra style tune. Have a listen.

4:27 It seems to jump

So we've got a track here that most Western DJs wouldn't touch with a barge pole. But I'll be honest with you, Bhangra and Bollywood styles. These bands have got so much energy. They're so vibrant and uplifting. I'm not surprised that when people dance to them, their hands are in the air all the time. Their hands are in the air not because the DJ has said put your hands up in the air. They're doing it because the music is speaking to them. It's eargasmic pleasure. OK, so now Edwin Starr as well. The editing on this is all over the place. So you get like to the beginning of a new phrase and it may have been edited incorrectly. So it seems to jump.

OK, so that's all well and good. Alright, we've done a kind of a mashup but it was very, very rough. I have to admit it was exceedingly rough. If that was sandpaper, it would be like a road. An old road. It would be like a road made by the Romans. That's very old. But what we have to think of here is that Bollywood styles, some of them, I mean, I haven't... I've listened to like this much but I do admire the structure of the tracks and I also, like I said, love the vibe and the energy. But some if not all or maybe... Alright, OK. From what I've heard so far, you do have structure. Of course, you have chorus verse, chorus verse. But the phrasing can be slightly different. So for example, you could all of a sudden have a bar chucked in where there's a bit of a break of one, two, three, four and then a new phrase starts.

6:40 You noticed I hit the hot cue

So that could put you off forming a mashup type mix as I did there. You noticed I hit the hot cue. That's because all of a sudden it went and listened back slightly out of phrase so I had to get it back into phrase. But imagine the potential if you formed loops, hot cues. You knew both tracks and you could do a mashup on the fly very easily. Now I would like you to try this all you western style DJs. Bring in a bangra type tune. Now if you can also bring in something that's in the major scale not the minor scale. The major scale is far more vibrant, uplifting. There's more euphoria. There's more of a feeling of like whoa! Instead of what a lot of western DJs play is a lot of tracks in the major key and I dare you to try and have a look.

You have a look at your list of tracks and you'll find that probably most of them, a good 80-90% if not more are all in the minor key. Where's the major key gone? It's a shame really because there's far more sort of beauty about the feel of tracks in the major key. Okay so we've got a couple of tracks here. I had a bit of a mess around but really this video is about experimenting, having some fun. If you feel in a lull as though your mixes are like that into that again. Oh I know what I can do. I've done that before. I've got a good idea. I've done that as well. You haven't done this have you? Try it. Check out some Bollywood and Bhangra style tunes. There's loads on the web. Have a listen, give it a go and you may find that adding a little bit of tabla over a western style beat will give it that balls.

Give it that little uplift. Make it sound different in your mix practice. And enjoy. Nice one, thank you.

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