3:13
Counting explained to a ten-year-old
On YouTube this video is called DJ LESSONS FOR Super Pink Zebra Girl PART 1
What this lesson teaches
A different kind of lesson: Sophia is ten, has never done this, and is learning on camera. The value is that you see what the process actually looks like rather than a demonstration by somebody who finished learning twenty years ago.
The task
Count bars from the first kick, using his method - 1-1-2-3, 2-1-2-3, and keep going past four rather than resetting, so the count runs 5, 6, 7, 8 and onwards.
She loses it, they start again, she gets further.
That is worth seeing. The counting looks trivial written down and the thing that makes it hard is sustaining it over thirty seconds while listening to music, and no amount of explanation substitutes for watching somebody do that badly and then better.
What the track turns out to be
They count to sixteen and a bassline arrives.
So the phrase in that record is sixteen bars - and that is the deduction he is after. Not the number itself, but the fact that there was a number, that it was even, and that you could have predicted the change if you had known it.
The two questions
He checks her on both, and they are the two facts the whole stage rests on:
How many beats in a bar? Four.
Where did the change come? After sixteen bars.
The claim
His generalisation - that practically all dance music is structured in phrases - is the licence for everything that follows. If records were irregular, counting would tell you only where you have been. Because they are regular, counting tells you where you are going.
And the pace of it
He says at the end that he hopes she will be spinning properly in six months or however long it takes.
That is a realistic timescale from somebody with no reason to flatter anybody, and worth holding on to if you are two weeks in and frustrated.
Contents of the video
Alright guys, this is Sophia, my stepdaughter. She is how old are you? Ten. And I'm going to be giving her DJ lessons. So this is pretty much DJ lesson number one for Sophia who's also known as Pink Zebra Girl. Super Pink Zebra Girl on YouTube. We will put a link in the description to her YouTube page where she does really mad stuff. Okay, so what I'm going to do, I'm going to teach her in lesson number one how to count bars. So counting bars is 1, 1, 2, 3, 2, 1, 2, 3, 3, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 5, 1, 2. You're clever. Okay, so the track we're using is Fallow, The Weekend. So from the first kick, I want you to start counting a bar. 1, 1, 2, 3, 2, 1, 2, 3. Can you start that off so I know? Okay, there!
1, 1, 2, 3, 2 1, 2, 3, 3 1, 2, 3, 4 1, 2, 3, 5 1, 2, 3, 6 7, 1, 2, 3, 4 1, 2, 3, 8 9 Start again, dear! After three. 1, 2, 3 1, 1, 2, 3 2, 3, 1, 2, 3 3, 1, 2, 3, 4 4, 1, 2, 3, 5, 1, 2, 3, 6, 1, 2, 3, 7, 1, 2, 3, 8, 1, 2, 3, 9, 1, 2, 3, 10, 1, 2, 3, 11, 1, 2, 3, 12, 1, 2, 3, 13, 1, 2 Okay right so after 16 bars we had a definite change A phrase Yep very good We had the bass line come in So what we can deduce from this track is we have structure 16 bars a bass line comes in So what you've got to think of now is 99.999% of dance music or for that matter most music Is structured in phrasing and a phrase in this track was 16 bars And how many beats are there in a bar? 4 4 well done This is a short lesson for Sophia Because this is going to be a long journey
I am hoping that over the next six months or however long it takes This lady will be spinning these turntables like they're going out of fashion Practice Makes perfect No practice and Something Excuse me Enjoy I need to look at your practice and enjoy No practice and enjoy Practice and enjoy Kids kids Thank you very much Bye suckers Practice and enjoy Check out Bye suckers Shh
This transcript was produced automatically from the audio of the video and may contain mistakes.
