Intermediate DJ Lesson on Finding the Key Because the Key Is the Key to a Good Mix

0:00 This is an intermediate DJ lesson

All right guys, this is an intermediate DJ lesson. It's a way of you listening and understanding how music works. Okay, using a track here by Lenny Fontana, a track entitled In the Morning. It's the original mix. I have the same track on both sides. Differences though, I've got the master tempo engaged on one side, I've got it disengaged on the other. And if you can see where the pitches are, the pitch here is at the centre point, 0% of the time. 0% 125 BPM. Over here, on the other hand, don't want to press that, hot cue, it's at 150.6 BPM. It's on the wide feature and it's at plus 20.5%. So I'm going to move over. Let's have a listen to this side first. Right, let's go back to the other side at the correct speed with

2:01 The idea here is to match, the key

Master tempo engaged. Go back a bit. Just give you a demo quickly. Okay, so what was going on there? Well, what I've actually done is I've disengaged master tempo. I've increased the speed of the track on this side. So what happened? Right, okay. What is master tempo first of all? When it's engaged, it will keep the same key of the track no matter where you put the pitch. So if you slow it down, speed it up, the sound, the key will stay the same. If you disengage master tempo, then all of a sudden, you're in the realms of the gods because as soon as you start slowing the track down, not only will you slow the BPM, you will also start to reduce the key of the track. Opposite applies. If you speed it up, you will not only speed the

Track up, but you'll also increase the key. So the idea here is to match, the key. And this is where your ears come in paramount. This is so important. So for example, if I just move the pitch slightly down a little bit more, let's try again. Let's try that again. Here we go. No, it doesn't work, does it? It just doesn't work. Now I want to get that sound. So let's move over there. There. Have a listen. That's what I want. Sound. Now what this is doing, it's training your ears for the correct sound. Really important. Okay, let's go back. Let's do that again. Now, let's listen to this track on the left hand side first in not its entirety of just listen at that point there.

That's the sound we need to get.

Okay,

There,

There, again there. Okay, this is not something that you will do at a gig. This is more for practice to train your ears to find the key of a track. So let's snap this one in again. Cross fade is engaged and all I'm going to do. I've set hot cue by the way, at that point, I'm just gonna move the hot sorry, hot cue gonna move the crossfade straight over and just gonna bring it in. That's it. That's all I'm gonna do. Bring it up. That's it.

Now you notice as well, it was too fast. That's of course because it is too fast. So all I need to do is bring that tiny, tiny cut in have a listen again.

That's it again. Let's try again.

Okay, to prove a point, I'm going to move the pitch slightly down at the moment on the right hand side side. I'm at 100%. It's a wide feature, so we're gonna make hell of a difference. Let's do exactly the same procedure this time. Move the pitch slightly down. Let's have a listen to the key, the sound of the track and see if there's a difference and there will be okay. Oops, sorry, I hit the play pause. Start again. Okay, turn it down now. I again about music. It's the feel the vibe. So let's find that sound you can hear. There's nothing else going on. I haven't got anything. All right, look, headphones not plugged in. There you go. See I think plugged in something else going on. So let's find that sound. This is what a lot of DJs do is they've got the imaginary track

Inside their mind or the next track is playing inside their mind. They're feeling they're listening to the music of that track inside their mind even before they brought it into the mix. So let's have a listen again. Let's sorry, there if I go too high, listen there. That's what we want. Okay, let's do it again. This is really good practice.

And again, if I let this one play, just listen to the difference. Listen.

Okay, very, very good practice. This is definitely intermediate DJ lesson. Hope you've enjoyed it. Don't forget. Check out the link to the Lenny Fontana track in the morning. The original mix karmic power records in the house. Practice and enjoy. Thank you very much.

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