Well this might just be the worst time of your Life's. I suggest that you all go and shave your heads at the hairdressers before you end up pulling chunks out yourself. All DJ's started out somewhere and I guarantee that they were just as bad as you think you are now. I know it's annoying listening to Juleseys seamless mixing live from Ibiza and then when you feel confident and put your own decks on it sounds like a herd of African elephants are rampaging through the room.

Brief Explanation

Beatmatching in a nutshell is taking two tunes whether from a CD or a Vinyl and getting them to play at the same speed where you can switch from one to the other. Sounds simple!

Beatmatching though, is the most basic of basic skills that you have to learn on the way to becoming a professional. So why is it so damn hard? Well that's the down side. It is a skill that takes time to master, you have to constantly practice till you feel confident. It is just like a jigsaw. When I first got my decks I did not have a clue what I was doing, I tended to wus out and mix the records when they both went into a quiet breakdown - don't tell me that you haven't done this, but once you get used to listening to the tunes over and over the pieces start falling into place. When you can do it you will look back and think 'why couldn't I do this 6 months ago?' Once you have grasped the concept, with enough practice it will come natural.

How do I start?

I think the worst thing that anyone can do is start putting record after record on the decks as if you were playing a set. Using this method will result in you not getting used to the concepts of recognizing different bpm (beat per minute) tunes. You may be trying to mix tunes that will never mix in a million years because they all have different bpm's. The first thing that I would do is place one of your favorite records on the left deck - I assume that you have two decks, headphones and a mixer. Place the pitch slider on the deck down slightly from the center point but not more than +4 - I always recommend this as it is guaranteed that you will never play the record at it's true speed, most of the time it will be faster. Now sit down and listen to the record - I know this is tedious but it does help!

If you now find yourself tapping your foot on the floor or nodding your head then you are half way there already. What you are doing sub-conciousely is counting the beats of the record. You can pick out the 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4. Now by doing this you can calculate the BPM of each record. Set the pitch fader on the deck to 0. Let the record play again but this time count the beats for one minute. This number is the records bpm. A typical dance, house record will be about 130bpm - a hardcore record would obviously be a lot faster, maybe 160bpm. By doing this with a few of your records you will know what will and will not mix.

Expect it to Change!

Once you have mastered finding the beat of the record, the next stage is listening for change in the beats. If the record has a beginning bassline 1-2-3-4 then it is probable that beats 16,24,32 there will be a different array of percussion thrown in such as symbols, hi hats or drum fills. This is another concept that you will pick up over time, you will find that a lot of records will change in the same way with an opening bassline, symbols, drum fill and then the main beat will come crashing in. Even though your other record is perfectly beatmatched, if you drop the record in at a point where something changes, especially a string of vocals it could wreck the mix - not always but a lot of the time.

Enough sitting down - time to mix!

Right its time to take your position at the decks. You now know what two records are of a similar bpm. Take these two records, place one on the left and one on the right. I tend to start off with the deck on the left. Start them spinning. Place the needle on the left record and adjust the pitch fader slightly past 0 to about 2 - this is just to get the feel for a record playing past it's genuine speed. You now have the tune playing in the background. Start counting the beats and build up a mental pattern in you head. You will need to do other things so it is important that the beats are stuck in the brain. Now lets turn to the mixer. I assume that your channel fader for the left deck is up as you will be hearing nothing from the speakers. Now the issue with the crossfader. When I am personally mixing live I tend to leave the crossfader in the middle position. It is up to you whether you want to do this or alternatively the fader should be all the way over to the left.

Cueing

The next stage is to set up the headphones. You will want to adjust the cue dial or select the channel so it is pointing to the right deck. You should not be able to hear what is playing through the left deck at all through the headphones. Place one ear of the phones on your ear and have the other side on your head away from your ear - if you get what I mean. This is called monitoring as you should be able to hear the left deck in the background. You will now want to start the record on the right deck. Make sure the pitch fader is set to the same position as the left deck. If you have counted the bpm correctly then these two tunes should be the same so they can be both set to the same speed. Place the stylus at the start of the record and drag/push the record a few times just to set the needle into the grooves on the record. Keep turning the record forwards and backwards on the deck until you find the part of the record which is a good place to start. You want to be listening out for a beat. Once you have found a beat, keep dragging the record back and forward over the beat. You should be hearing a sort of BM, BM, BM everytime the needle moves over it. You are now ready to let the record go - not just yet as there is a trick to this.

Drop a phat one

Dropping the record in at the right time can save you a lot of pain. This is probably where most beginner DJ's go wrong. You cannot just expect to put two records on and expect them to mix, even if they are playing at the same bpm. The trick is to drop the record in at the right time so the two beats are near enough lined up. This is where you should have been paying attention when explaining how to count the beats of a record.

So you've got hold of the record on the right hand deck. You are pushing and pulling the record over the beat that you found earlier. Don't worry if you can't find the beat all the time but trust me it is there you must listen very carefully.

What you are now listening for is the beats that you have got stuck in your head from the left hand deck. You can hear the tune in the background as you should only be listening through one side of the headphones. Listen for the 1-2-3-4. I tend to know when I have found the beat as I start the push and pull the record on the right deck in time with the beat, just like you might tap your foot.

Start counting the beats on the left deck and when you feel confident, on the count of a fourth beat let the record go on the right deck. If you did it right you will get beats that sound good together for a few seconds or so - this is because the records match bpm.

Think of it as a set of traffic lights. The tune you are about to mix is stopped as a beat on RED. While it is waiting at the lights the other beats are coming through in fours at the other junction. The lights then change to amber as the final four beats are coming through. The lights suddenly change to green as the third of the four beats passes through indicating to go. When that third beat passes through this is when you go and drop the beat.

You will probably never get this right first time so just keep bringing the needle back and trying again. If you have counted the bpm for both of the records and they do match or nearly match then trust me it will work just keep practicing. If you never bothered to count the bpm of each record you don't know what speed each is playing at and this exercise will never work.

One good method of making this work is to have two copies of the same record, that way you do not need to worry about calculating bpm. They will always bee the same speed.

I will explain how to change the speeds / pitch of records in the basic mixing page.

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