Counting the bars and phrases in drum and bass

0:00 A phrase is basically four bars

Alright folks, Jonathan here. In this video we're going to be looking at counting bars and counting phrases in drum and bass. A bar, 1-2-3-4. A phrase is basically four bars. You can count it in many ways. 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4 or 1-1-2-3, 2-1-2-3, 3-1-2-3, 4-1-2-3. Or bananas, apples, oranges, pears, bananas. In other words, it doesn't really matter. The main thing is the structure of how you count. Now drum and bass is quite a fast type of music, but there's an irony. It also could be classed as a very slow type of music. For example, let's say we listen to a track that's hip-hop and we count the beats in that particular track. The DJ Tutor is a great tool to help you get the most out of your drum and bass track.

That's 180. The reason being is because it's half speed. So, this is the way you do it. A drum and bass track is as follows. The beats would be 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4, whereas the hip hop track would be 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4, like so. Right, what we'll do now is I'm going to play this particular track and I'm going to count the bars. And then I'm going to count the phrases, here we go. Right from the very beginning, because this is an actual mixed CD, so this particular track isn't from right at the beginning, it's the area which the actual CD player has taken, all of a sudden it's taken that position where it's going to start from. Luckily it's at the beginning of a bar, so here we go. 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4.

2:21 It's very difficult to count that fast

That is fast, isn't it? It's very difficult to count that fast. So, what's the best way of actually counting it? Again, with phrases. Now, what I'm going to do now, I've got my piece of paper here, like so. I've got my pen at the ready. Every time I hear a phrase, I'm going to put a cross on that piece of paper. Now, I don't have to count 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, like so. I can count like this, 1. In other words... One, two, three, four. In my mind, one, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. Four bars, one phrase. As soon as I get one phrase, I put a cross on that piece of paper. It'll all make sense in a bit. Here we go. Now then, think about it from a structure point of view. One bar is four beats. One, two, three, four. Four bars is one phrase. Well guess what? We've got four phrases.

4:16 Here, where's the beat?

There. Hopefully it'll start to make sense. This is the whole idea about what I'm trying to get into you guys, and that is simply this, and that is music. 99% of dance music is structured. It's like it starts, it grows, comes back down a bit, it grows, comes back down, and then it finishes, smooths off. It doesn't all of a sudden start and stop all over the place. There's structure to it. Let's have a listen to this particular track. With the volume down. Now here, where's the beat? How on earth can you count there? This is what you would do. Again, if you haven't watched the video I made about 10 minutes ago then you wouldn't understand where I'm coming from here but I suggest you go and watch that one and then it'll all make sense. Now what I would actually do with this particular track, I would listen to...

The actual track first, where there is a beat. And then I would near enough get the sort of timing that I would need. Now at the beginning of this track you've got that airy feel, no beat whatsoever. So using that information I took from the middle of the track, I can get near enough a general idea of the speed, the tempo of the track. In other words then, I'll be able to roughly count the bars. Practice, practice. For God's sake, if you've only been mixing drum and bass or any music for that matter, for let's say one or two weeks, some people it clicks. Other people it takes a long time. That's the beauty about being a human. Sometimes it takes forever, sometimes you can just walk into it and it'll drop and you'll think, wow, that's easy. A lot of people, it's damn hard. So what we'll do now, we'll have a listen to this and we'll try and work out the actual bars and the phrases with no beat.

6:48 It to you but I hope

Here we go. Volume up this time. See, it's a nightmare! Absolute nightmare! Like I said earlier, if you get that mixed to begin with where the beat is, then theoretically there's not necessarily any need to count. You can count the actual bars at the beginning but also once you've got it in beat then what you can actually do is you could start that off where there's no beat, in with this track where there is an actual beat and you can count using the beat of the other track to get the exact timing of the bars where there is no beat. Now again some of you are probably thinking what the hell's he on about but it's all very logical. As follows, here we go. Let's play this one and put the volume up. Now we've got timing there. So, here we go. 1-2-3-4

Alright, absolute nightmare because I've got no headphones on and I'm trying to explain it to you but I hope you get the general idea, alright? You know, all these videos, a lot of them are, what do I say, a bit of fun. Hopefully, even if you watched every single video I made, if you got a tiny bit of information off each one, then hopefully you can bung that all together and hopefully get quite a bit of information. It's all about sharing and I'm having a damn good bit of fun here. I do get shouted at occasionally because I play the music too loud. That's why I've got small diddy speakers here today. But it's another tiny tutorial with regards to mixing drum and bass. For a lot of people watching this, they'll think, I already know it. Some people watch it, they'll think, I didn't know that particular point. And other people, they'll think, well, I didn't know another particular point. But, like I said, if you can get a tiny bit of information somewhere from this video that will help you, then all the better. So, practice and enjoy.

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