Beginner DJ Lesson on Mixing in Key BY Ellaskins the DJ Tutor

0:00 Jonathan here, The DJ Tutor

Alright guys, Jonathan here, The DJ Tutor. So you're into your house music and you like vibe, you like energy but you like to keep vibe or the energy at a constant. Now of course one very big way of doing that is to make sure that you mix in key. Now still to this day I am personally convinced that if you can't beatmatch it to save your life but you can mix in key, that is far better than being able to beatmatch perfectly and not mix in key. Why? Well if let's say for example you have two tunes and they're not key matched then they may be in time, in phrase, they may be the same style but you will lose the energy, you'll lose the vibe, the sensation, you'll use lose that kind of sort of like tingly feel you get when you hear a tune

That you love and all of a sudden the DJ brings in another tune, you think what's going on? It's a little bit like someone you know just gently rubbing you with a nice piece of cloth and then all of a sudden bringing some sandpaper into the picture as well. It's not a nice experience. Now let's take mixing in key to the next level. Now some people seem to think that now I'm referring now to what's known as the Camelot wheel but if you mix a track from A1 into A1 it's you're going to have the same feel because they're the same key and you can carry on mixing A1 in A1 all night long and you'll have the same feel, the same vibe. Well that's actually incorrect because even tracks in the same key will have

A different kind of feel and I'm going to show you that right now. Now I have some tunes here that I put through the Camelot wheel and they are in I believe 7A so I'll start off here. This is Antonio Cortez, I'll just give you the actual name as well. Right, Antonio Cortez and Mario Cruz a track entitled Monkey Junk so let's listen to this.

Okay so the first track we're going to mix in is Argue Mama Deep Found Vibe. I will put the names in the description of these tunes okay? So I'm gonna start mixing them in here just after

There. So let's have a listen to this kind of vibe first of all, give you an idea. By the way after this video I'm going to tell you about a night I'm going to be doing in Bristol very soon which is taking place on the 30th of October at SWX Nightclub that's in Bristol okay? And I'm gonna be playing this kind of vibe. Right so you get the general idea.

Let's go back a little bit. So this is the first track I'm bringing in. Same key.

3:20 In a comment how it made

Okay so what I want you to do, I want you to listen back to that mix. Close your eyes and just explain in a comment how it made you feel. We've gone from quite an uplifting kind of tune something a little bit deeper even though we're still in the same key. Now this proves the point that not all tracks will be the same key. So let's go back to the beginning. So this is the first track I'm bringing in. We'll keep that same vibe. Every track is different in its own way. Now let's go back now to track number seven which um is what I played earlier and I've lined up another tune here. Okay so we'll go to exactly the same point where I mixed the last one. Exactly the same.

5:09 This one's still deep but it's got a slightly more uplifting feel

Okay this one's still deep but it's got a slightly more uplifting feel. Now what is doing this? What is making these tunes have different vibes, different energies even though they're in the same key? It's the music. It's how the producer has made the track. They have made the track as though it's got that deep soulful feel so it's down here or maybe it's a nice chugger. It's sort of here or maybe it's uplifting. It's got loads of vibe. It's up here. So you may have in your collection if you use the Camelot wheel a thousand tracks in A1, a thousand tracks in B1, a thousand tracks in A. What you need to do maybe is go through all those tracks and have sub folders based on how those tunes make you feel and then you may find your mixes become even better because you can not

Only keep them in key but keep them in vibe as well. Right think about that now then let me tell you something about what's happening on the 30th of October this year. I'm going to be taking part Halloween House Night. Now I'll put a link in the description to the Facebook page. We have DJ Nikos from Switch Disco and also this rather strange chat called DJ Elliskins. The party starts at 10 30 finishes at four o'clock in the morning and it is at SWX in Bristol. It's a rather nice nightclub and we will be playing house vibes, well I will be anyway, playing house vibes like this. I'll finish off with practice and enjoy and don't forget it's not just about mixing in key it's about keeping the vibe as well practice and enjoy thank you

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