DJ Live Video Lesson on Understanding and How to Work out the BPM of a Track

0:00 Let's imagine you have been driving for a very, very long time

Right then, so how can a piece of paper and a sharpie change your life forever? Well, probably not, but this will give you an insight into what was going on during the course of this video, at the end of the video, and you may be quite pleased with yourself or you may have to start again. Not this video because you'd have already done it, but it's a good way of practising. Anyway, let me give you a scenario here. Let me give you this sort of example. Let's imagine you have been driving for a very, very long time. You're driving along the road and all of a sudden you come to an area where you have to go 30 miles an hour and you slow down. You don't look at the speedo, you just carry on, you slow down and then you carry on going at that said speed even though you have not looked at your speedo. Now because you've been driving for a very long time it's highly likely that you are very

Very close to 30 miles an hour. So try it next time, think about it, don't just do it automatically, think about your action of slowing down to get to that speed, have a look at the speedo and I'm quite sure you will be practically spot on to 30 miles an hour or 40 miles an hour or so on because you're so used to it. Now in this demonstration this is almost similar, very similar but we are using our ears and we're beat matching instead of slowing down so we don't get a bloody speeding ticket. Happy days! Right, so this is what I want you to do. I want you first of all if this video has been up for quite a while is not look at the comments, okay? Don't look at the comments because it's going to spoil it, alright? It won't spoil it for anybody else, it'll spoil it for you because the whole idea is to teach you. Because if you look at the comments you might as well not even watch the

Video, so bugger off. On the other hand if you do want to start teaching yourself don't look at the comments I'm going to be playing a track it's from Karmic Power Records it's KPR 271 Billy Brown and Lady S Disco House. Now I have got this set to the center position on the pitch so there is a certain BPM that this track is going to be playing. Now when I start playing it I want you to not write it down straight away but think about it first and put down what you think the BPM of this track is while I'm playing it. I'm then going to stop and I am going to then maybe speed it up, maybe slow it down. So can you see my hand there? Yeah you can so I'm just gonna move that up slightly so you can't see my hand, sorry! Alright so I'm going to either speed it up or

2:54 Second time, rekordbox software, four times

Slow it down and then we're going to repeat the test. You're going to write down on a piece of paper what you think the BPM is okay, alternatively if you want to you could just post it in a comment because you don't have to watch it's about listening this is about hearing just remember driving in that car you don't like look at all you know you do it automatically this should happen automatically we will do this four times you will write down what you think the BPM is four times on a piece of paper then after that I'll say right put it in a comment okay and then you will put it in the top comment now don't look at other people's comments because they could have been wrong alright because as soon as I ask you to put it in a comment

Put it in and then I will explain the or I will tell you the exact BPM that track was playing at. Now I am not using rekordbox software so I have to admit the BPM could fluctuate very very slightly alright so let's say that if you are within about 10 or 20 percent then well done spot on because that could be the difference in BPM by me using a regular mp3 file instead of going through the rekordbox software having it analyzed correctly and theoretically being it having it bang on the money okay. So first of all this is

The track and now I need you to work out the BPM. Now I'm not going to start it from the beginning where we've got this there hold on let's go forward a bit let's go forward to there okay what is the BPM of this track as it should be playing set to position this is the original BPM of the track I'm looking and I'm gonna write that number down okay that is the first BPM okay let's bring the volume down now what I'm going to do I have moved the pitch in one direction all right it could be slower it could be faster so now you have to try and remember what it was like before you can always rewind look at the time on the video now skip to this time so you can get rid of me talking and waffling on like that now listen faster

Slower what is the BPM now second time

Okay that was the second time now this is the third time again let's repeat the process what is the BPM of the track now

Okay that was the third time now this is the fourth time okay that was the last time the fourth time so once you've heard this you should have four numbers written down on a piece of paper here we go now again if this is slightly confusing before you write down any numbers all you've got to do is rewind the video and start again and listen to the four separate times of me playing that track listen to it again and again and again take your time and please don't look at the comments because you're only going to ruin it for yourself this is about training your ears not cheating okay so I've done that little tiny sort of gap where I've waffled on where you're hopefully thinking about the BPM and now I'm going to show you what it was okay

7:40 BPM and get an idea get

The first one was a hundred and twenty six BPM then down to a hundred and twenty three BPM then we went down again so I slowed down again to 120 BPM and then we went up I I started to speed it up and we went to a hundred and thirty BPM all right so hopefully you would have written those numbers down in a comment alright and if you were close to that well done if you weren't close to that don't worry about it but listen how can you do this at home how can you do this at home it's very simple get a track set it at the center position by all means have a look at the BPM and get an idea get a feel of that track all right now of course because it's just you you're going to know if you're gonna be slowing it down which means if it was originally 120

It's gonna be reduced from 120 down it's not gonna go all of a sudden to 140 because you're slowing it down so of course you will know it's going slower but if you close your eyes and you do not look at that BPM readout you're not gonna know the exact BPM so slow it down a little bit have a think have a listen write your number down without looking at the BPM okay that's the important part write the number down now of course at that point you can't then speed up because the BPM that you were at will change so you write the number down and then you look at the BPM that you were at how close are you are you within 10% 20% and then repeat the process again maybe slow it down a bit more don't look write what you think the

BPM is and then look again alright so you can't do it this way on the video because I'm changing it and I'm making note you you can do it though your way at home by slowing or speeding it up writing what you think the BPM then looking, but you can only do it once every time. Like I said, you can't slow it down, write your BPM what you think it is, speed it up, write the BPM what you think it is because the BPM's gonna change. You won't know the last BPM where you were. That does make sense. All right, so give it a go. Once again, the track I was using is DJ Billy Brown feature and Lady S, a track entitled, I think it was Disco House. Hold on, let me have a look. Maybe it's just classed as Disco House so I need to get that right.

No, it's called Thank You.

Okay, okay, so KPR271, DJ Billy Brown and Lady S,

Thank You, and it's the Areas Vinyl Remix. Practice and enjoy.

And now it's faster. 60.6.

I like a bit of Disco House. Practice and enjoy, thank you. Oh, thank you.

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