Lesson 4 Harmonic mixing, key change/ for the dj

0:00 This is lesson 4 in harmonic mixing, key change in music

Alright folks, this is lesson 4 in harmonic mixing, key change in music. Now then, like I said, I'm not a musician, my son is at the moment, he's playing his Playstation over there, so if you hear funny noises, funny noise please son, do a funny noise. I can't because it isn't on yet. Well just, well you just said something anyway, just go rrrr, something like that. No. He doesn't want to, fair enough. There you go, funny noise, right. One of the videos I made, we had, in fact it was first video, we had this picture. And there was a funny man and lots of men walking up funny steps and all of a sudden, big pitfall. Now then, right, keys on the piano. Now first of all, this is what I would class as a pub piano. It sounds rather dodgy. Sounds very dodgy. Now then.

Let's say you're paying attention to what you're doing and you're paying attention to the pieces of vinyl you're playing or the CDs you're playing and you're making note, that's the key word by the way, of what you're putting on next. And you're looking at what you're doing and you're listening to what you're doing. Hopefully it should sound something like this. Something like that. Now then, if you don't pay attention and you don't watch what you're putting on next and you don't listen to what you're putting on next, it may sound a bit like this.

2:23 Concentrating, tried tried, anywhere sound

Like I said, I'm not a musician, but what I'm trying to portray here in this particular video is firstly, when I played that little tune, I was watching what I was doing and the notes worked well together. Now then, I wasn't concentrating on the second time and I wasn't looking at what I was doing, I was just throwing any notes in anywhere and it didn't sound right. A good set and a bad set. What I'm trying to explain here is the music of the records matters just as much as getting them beatmatched. By watching what you're doing and listening and concentrating on what records to put in next makes you get a good sound. Who are you shooting, Ryan? He's playing Grand Theft Auto. Amazing. I can't play it to save my life but there you go. Are you shooting you? Yeah.

3:50 Don't worry, all is not lost

Oh, you get the so-and-so. But then also, right, by then... Well, I've lost my train of thought now, that's it. By concentrating on what you're doing, you'll get a good set. But by not concentrating, OK, and by just throwing any record in anywhere, it doesn't sound right. Now, that's just as important. Now, also, one point to hear that, again, is very important. Now, let's say you can't mix. Let's say you have tried and tried and tried... But for the love of God, you cannot put one beat into the other. Then don't worry, all is not lost. Because I knew one DJ a while ago. I mean, he was a pain in the arse, alright? And he was a bit of an idiot. I wouldn't trust him with two pence. But that guy, right, he couldn't mix. Like I said, he couldn't mix. But what he could do is this. He would listen to the end of one record. He'd listen to the tone, the feel, the vibe.

And he'd listen to the beginning of another record and it was fantastic because as soon as one record finished, the other one would come in. And there was this perfect blend of tones and feels. Perfect, perfect blend. And it sounded brilliant. But the guy couldn't mix beats to save his life. Now then, to be a good DJ, you don't have to beatmix. To be a good DJ, you have to be able to... Yes, read the crowd, this, that and the other. But you have to be able to work the music in what you're playing. Now then, again very quickly, you have these guys who will play Top 40 and stuff like that, like me. Quite a lot of the Top 40 material is very difficult to mix because there's so much going on, very little introduction, very little outro-duction, whatever you want to call it. So there's not many places to mix the music.

So this is another lesson. Thank you for watching and don't forget, practice and what have they got to do Ryan? Enjoy. Thank you, take it easy, bye bye.

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