9:12
A short counting lesson, start to finish
On YouTube this video is called Pink Zebra Girl Gets a Short DJ Lesson
What this lesson teaches
The follow-up, on a standalone player, with tracks already cued to the start of a phrase. No headphones - deliberately, so the only thing being practised is counting.
The task
Start the left-hand track, count sixteen bars, and start the right-hand one on the one.
She gets close, drifts, they go again. He is patient about it and that is instructive in itself - this is a skill with a long tail and there is no version of it that works first time.
The tip
The thing to take from this lesson, and it is small and excellent.
Tap your finger next to the play button while you count.
Not hovering, not resting in your lap - actually tapping, in time, right beside the button. Then when the count reaches sixteen, your hand is already there and already moving in rhythm.
The alternative - counting with your hand somewhere else and reaching for the button at the last moment - fails for a mechanical reason. Reaching takes time, and the time it takes is not constant, so you arrive late by a varying amount. Your counting can be perfect and the press still lands behind the beat.
Tapping solves it by removing the reach. You are already in motion, in time, and the press is just one more tap that happens to go down on the button.
The other half of the timing
His instruction while she tries is "sixteen, two, three, and bang".
The press happens on the beat before the one you want the sound on, or at the very least exactly on it and not after. The sound comes out when you press - there is no grace period - so a press that happens after you have heard the beat is already too late.
That is why he wants her tapping: so the final press is part of a rhythm she is already keeping rather than a reaction to something she has just heard.
No headphones, on purpose
Worth noticing. Cueing, levels and the rest are all absent, because the lesson is about phrasing and counting and nothing else.
That is a good principle for your own practice: when something is not working, take away everything that is not the problem.
Contents of the video
0:00 About your YouTube channel and what
Ladies and gentlemen, I have one of my stepdaughters here, Sophia. Just say hello. Hello. And first of all, would you like to introduce yourself and explain about your YouTube channel and what you do? My name's Sophia. And? My surname's Pal. And? My name's Sophia. And? My surname's Pal. And you have a YouTube channel called Pink... Monkey Girl. No, come on, because you want people to know. Come on, what is it? No, should we put info in the description? Yeah? Yeah. Yeah, okay, so there'll be info in the description. Right, so I've got here in front of me the XDJ-RX. I'm teaching Sophia how to DJ and in this lesson we have got some tunes from Karmic Power Records and the tracks are set at the beginning of phrases, so if we have a listen here. And the track on the left hand side, Disco Zen, is...
2:05 This is phrase mixing
At the beginning of the track, so this is what I want you to do. I want you to start the track on the left and I want you to count 16 bars. After you've counted 16 bars... No, you know what a bar is. 1, 2, 3, 4. That's one. So 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4. Or you could count 1, 2, 3, 4, 2, 2, 3. The DJ Tutor is available for purchase at Ellaskins.com. 8, 9, 10, 11. You were sort of on but a little bit off really. Now this is phrase mixing. You'll notice we're not using headphones. This is mainly about making sure you understand phrasing and counting bars. Shall we try that again? The way to remember a good way of practising to bring it in at the right point is if you tap right by the play button.
1, 2, 3, 2, 1, 2, 3, and then when you're ready, press play. So instead of keeping your hand out of the way, get quite close to it. Okay, so start again. 1, 1, 2, 3, 2, 1, 2, 3, 3, 1, 2, 3, bananas, 1, 2. Okay, do you think we should let her go to bed at sort of 4 o'clock in the morning and not 7? Mind you, you're very good because you do tidy the house at 2 o'clock in the morning. So well done, good for you. Yeah? Come on then, off you go. As soon as you press the... Yeah, as soon as you hear that first kick, you start the one. So one, one, two, three. One, two, go on then. Okay, it's ready. Hold on. There you go. Are you ready? Why can't we start yawning all of a sudden? Go blind me woman. Ready? Off you go. Do I press that? Yep, press that one. One, one.
4:08 One, two, one, two, three, three, four, five, six, seven
One, two, three. Two, tap there. Five, six. No, it's okay. What's happening is as soon as you get to the count of 16, you're almost 16 and press, you've got to remember 16, two, three and bang and then press because what you're doing, three, that's it, you got it. So start again. I'm not ready. Okay. One, two, one, two, three, three, four, five, six, seven. Slightly better. Now that is a bit too fast. I want you to, on the outside of the jog, we'll move it anti-clockwise. A bit more, go on. Listen. A bit more. A bit more. A bit more. Stop. Nearly there. Okay, move that volume up and bring that one down slowly. Okay, that was not bad.
6:14 I think someone's tired here
Alright, so, do you want to try it one more time? Yeah. Okay, I think someone's tired here. That's ready again. Now this time, we can try this way. While you're counting, you can just hit the cue, like that. So if I press play, 1, 2, 3. Now bearing in mind as well, anyone who's watching this, you wouldn't normally have the volume up. That sound there, you'd be hearing on your headphones. It's a good way of just keeping a good time. Press this, 3, 4. Do you know where you are? The timing. And start now, 1, 1. Hold on, we'll start again from the beginning. Okay, start from the beginning. Yeah, I was out there slightly as well. So, 1, 1, 2, 3, 2, 1, 2, 3, 3, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 5, 1, 2, 8. A tiny bit too fast, anti-clock goes a bit.
Okay, volume up on that side, volume down on the other side. Okay, fair enough. Alright, there's slight, you know, what you did there, if you imagine the analogy of like a paintbrush and someone asks you to paint a wall, you would just get that, you wouldn't get the paintbrush, you'd just open the pot and throw the pot against the wall, like splash. So, you know, you want to treat this with a little bit more respect, but that's very good, yes, very good. You've got to remember timing. Thank you for watching. See you next time. It's a good thing. Alright, now this kind of exercise is great for a complete beginner. It's very good at you recognising phrasing and bars. Sophia, well done. We will have more lessons for Sophia over the next however long practice. Thank you.
This transcript was produced automatically from the audio of the video and may contain mistakes.
