Beat-matching is a technique used to seamlessly match the tempo and beat of the current song you are playing with the upcoming song intended for play. It is best used on songs with a great kick or drum đ„ that allows you to easily count, feel, and or hear the beat. As you can see in the diagram, when the beats are aligned with their corresponding numbers the transition from one song to the next will be smooth, which allows dancing to continue uninterrupted.
Imagine this! You are playing nothing but back to back hits đ„... BUUUTTTT the dance floor is empty. Why is is empty you ask? Because while people WERE dancing and getting their groove on, the transitions from song to song got them off beat or they had to stop dancing during the transition. What a nightmare! I can tell you from experience that people do NOT like this.
Mastering your transitions is key because it keeps the dance floor engaged. The ultimate goal is to transition so smoothly that people don't even notice that you changed the song.
Timing is key! Even after years of Djing you'll see me counting the beats out loud and tapping my foot to ensure that I properly bring in the next tune. There is no shame is making sure you do your job correctly.
A little about how to perform the art of beat matching.
As you can see pictured above I have the first 8 counts of Tell by Drizilik looped on the left deck. Which means it will play those first 8 counts, the highlighted part, over and over until I un-loop it. As it was plays I count 1, 2, 3, 4 ,5 ,6 7,8 and once it is about to repeat back to the 1st beat I press play on the second song on the right, which is also looped to it's first 8 counts. By doing this you match the 1st beat of the song on the left to the 1st beat of the song on the right. This will naturally cause all the other beats to match up. At this point you can transition your crossfader to integrate the two songs.
use songs that are close in bpm (+/- 5)
use songs of the same genre to start
Songs in diagram
Drizilik - Tell
Natasja - Better Than Them (Pharfar Remix)
If you have any questions please feel free to email or leave a comment. Please login or signup to leave a comment. Thanks for reading and more to come!
-DJ Omu