Listening Skills... !!!

[dj tandav]

Hi Djholics,

well i have come across many articles saying, to be become a great dj you need to listen to music all the time as a beginner can somebody guide me how does it help and how u shud listen to music. What exactly you need to catch. Bcz when u listen to songs u just enjoy it nothing more than that... And as beginner in this wonderful art which genre of music does really help to understand the skills of djing....

Some time i wonder guetta armin and tiesto are listening to music from time they have born !!!! :uhoh:

[Sigma]

Songs are split up into phrases. A new phrase occurs when something about the song changes, so for instance a song might start like this: -

Phrase 1 = Just the beat playing for 16 bars
Phrase 2 = The beat plays and a bassline kicks in for 16 bars

and so on.....

When you mix 2 songs together you are not only beatmatching them so that they are the same speed, you are overlapping phrases from each track in a way that sounds pleasing to the ear. Listening to songs means you get to know them well, which in turn makes it much easier to mix them.

Also, when you have a bit of experience you can listen to a song and think "this sounds like it would mix well with songs A, B and C" so you're already thinking about potential tracks you could mix the song into.

Plus obviously, discovering new music is an ongoing thing so you'll constantly be seeking out new tracks, discovering new artists and the cycle goes on and on.

[Finnish_Fox]

Also, when you have a bit of experience you can listen to a song and think "this sounds like it would mix well with songs A, B and C" so you're already thinking about potential tracks you could mix the song into.

While this is most certainly true, one of my favorite things is to just "blindly" choose tracks to mix together. Some work, others don't... but I've run across mixes I might not have consciously come up with without a bit of experimentation.

[KLH]

I think that its more precise to say that you should listen and decompose songs into elements:

* phrasing (intro, verse, chorus, breakdown, outro)
* Instrumentation (percussion, pads, vocal, etc)
* BPM and key
* genre

I'd you can do that, you'll be set.

-KLH

[dj tandav]

Thanks everybody for the interesting insight. also which genre best to hear for this art... As a first step

[Andrew B]

Thanks everybody for the interesting insight. also which genre best to hear for this art... As a first step

Whatever genre you're interested in spinning.

[dj tandav]

Guys,

Is there any technique on how to identify genre of music... for example how to identify house music or trance music or electro... etc...

[Andrew B]

Guys,

Is there any technique on how to identify genre of music... for example how to identify house music or trance music or electro... etc...

It will become apparent with a lot of listening. Go to an online dance music store like www.beatport.com and listen to songs from each of the genres. You could also go to the various genre sub forums here on DJF. http://www.djforums.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?20-Music

[dj tandav]

Is it true that listening to House or Garage music more helps to improve your djing skills irrespective of what genre u want to specialise. somehow my DJ sir tells me to listen to hiphop music bcz its easy to understand initial stage of your DJ learning. pls advise

[Sigma]

Is it true that listening to House or Garage music more helps to improve your djing skills irrespective of what genre u want to specialise. somehow my DJ sir tells me to listen to hiphop music bcz its easy to understand initial stage of your DJ learning. pls advise
All songs are built up out of phrases, so what I said in post #2 applies to any genre.

It is true that some music is easier to mix though. For instance, a lot of EDM is very DJ friendly - there's long intros and outros, the BPM is steady, the phrases are clear - but it is still best to learn using the music that you intend on mixing. I don't think that listening to music that you don't intend to mix will really help compared to just listening to the music that you will be mixing.

[Finnish_Fox]

Is it true that listening to House or Garage music more helps to improve your djing skills irrespective of what genre u want to specialise. somehow my DJ sir tells me to listen to hiphop music bcz its easy to understand initial stage of your DJ learning. pls advise

House music makes it easy to know where the beat should be.

[cambria1295]

When listening to a song how do you determine the BPM?

[KLH]

A simple method is to count the beats for 15 seconds and multiply by 4. There are other factors to consider, but most EDM songs' BPM can be determined that way.

-KLH

[dj tandav]

What if songs starts verse or chorus....!!!