In this new series, DJ Tutor takes some time from his busy DJ Academy schedule to share a few fundamental tips and tricks of the trade, helping budding DJs around the world get off the mark with their new careers.

1. Basic Beatmixing

The very first skill to master is basic beatmixing, or beatmatching. This process gets your two records running at exactly the same speed so that they can be seamlessly blended together without going out of time, causing ugly double-beats and an overall messiness in the sound. This is the most fundamental tool in the arsenal of the modern DJ, and should be mastered before any of the other techniques will be effective.

A simple analogy using two motor vehicles provides a quick and effective demonstration of this principle:

Step 1:
Imagine the turntables as two vehicles, both at standstill, engines roaring and ready to go.

Step 2:
At precisely the same time they both begin the same journey, but one is going at 60mph, and the other at 40mph. After just three seconds, the vehicle travelling at 60mph will already have covered the greater distance.

Step 3:
The vehicle going at 40mph needs to catch up. This one must increase its speed to above 60mph to catch up, and once it has, needs to reduce down to 60mph again.

Step 4:
This basic principle applies to beatmatching. If one track is a lot faster than the other, the only way for the slower track to catch up is to go faster than the other until it has caught up. Once it has, it can be reduced to the same speed as the other track, until eventually the two tracks are running together in perfect time. At this point, they are ready for mixing.

Having an understanding of this principle and practicing this technique regularly will see you get to grips with beatmatching fairly rapidly. The same approach applies to any two records, and once it is mastered is a skill that will eventually become second nature, allowing you to match beats within moments of hitting play.

Next week: EQ Mixing

Tipster:
DJ Tutor

For more hands-on tutoring from the experts, and the opportunity to play at the legendary Ministry of Sound nightclub, enrol at the Ministry of Sound DJ Academy now.