Why Beatmatching by Ear Is Still Essential for DJs

In today's digital age, it's quite hard to explain to young DJs the benefits of beatmatching by ear (and by hand). Personally, I think beatmatching is fast losing its important place in DJing – but that doesn't mean I'm advising you to skip it.

It's no surprise that plenty of “old-school” DJs will wholeheartedly agree with this article: beatmatching is a skill that took them weeks, months or even years to master… and now any “young and gifted” DJ can just press a button and get a computer to do the hard work for them. That's also why new DJs often miss out on many of the subtler joys of the art of DJing.

In this article, we'll go through some of the reasons why new DJs still need to learn this skill. I'll also share some tips on how to learn it if you can't do it yet.

We won't rehash the arguments around the topic, because as far as we're concerned it's obviously a must-have skill for any DJ.

The practical benefits:

• You can play on any kind of gear. Knowing how to beatmatch by ear gives you far more options. Invited to play a vinyl-only gig? Turn up to a show where there's no room on the DJ booth for your controller (but a standard set of CDJs is already there)? Dropping by a house party where the gear isn't what you're used to? Your controller acts up or your laptop “gets sick” just as you're about to play? If you can mix smoothly the “old-school” way, none of that will throw you.
• You understand the structure of a track more deeply. Beatmatching by ear makes you rely on your own ears. You're forced to listen to the music instead of letting technology do it for you. Your ears start picking up cues like the snare or the hi-hat. You start noticing how the percussion is built and how far the beats are drifting apart… All of this helps you move between and blend genres with more finesse.
• It lets you mix in easily after the previous DJ or play a smoother b2b. Imagine you want to go b2b with a fellow DJ, but they don't use the same setup as you. You'd both waste a lot of time “negotiating”, and all that complication really isn't necessary. Just enjoy the mixing and don't worry about other media formats.
• You can mix tracks with different tempos without editing them in advance or using something like Ableton. And it's not just tracks with different BPMs – you can also smoothly mix funky tracks built on samples of live drummers.

And there's more:

The points below aren't about technique, but they're just as important.

• It connects you to your roots. Beatmatching is one of the fundamental skills of DJing, and there's no harm in learning to DJ from the basics. Along the way, you'll understand the culture better and grow more passionate about it. (It's like learning to walk before you run, or learning to add and subtract before you use a calculator, and so on.)
• You'll earn the respect of your peers. Whether you want to admit it or not, people (especially other DJs) have a certain respect for you if you can show that you don't rely completely on technology to mix.
• It's more fun for everyone. A DJ spinning records, digging through their music for the next killer tune, completely focused on what they're doing, looks seriously cool – and audiences love watching it. It's a feeling you'll struggle to find in DJ software. Some people also love flicking back and forth and holding the CD jog to get that same thrill. And it's hard to surprise the crowd, or yourself, with a set of 20 tracks reluctantly glued together with the sync button.
• It stops you from turning into a mixing robot. It's like comparing a good drummer with a drum machine. Beatmatching by ear brings your sets to life and shows the crowd you're not just a walking iPod.

Tips for learning to beatmatch

• There will be times when it drives you crazy, but you have to persevere. Keep at it bit by bit, and you'll be amazed at your progress.
• You don't need a pair of turntables to learn to beatmatch (in fact, beatmatching on them is twice as hard as on CDJs or a controller). Just turn off the sync button on your controller and put your laptop away, or cover the BPM display on the CDJ with a small piece of paper.
• When matching two tracks, the incoming track will usually have a faster tempo than the one that's playing. You can use this to slow the incoming track down until the beats line up.
• Practise as much as you can. It isn't all that difficult, but it takes weeks, months or even years to truly master.

Source: DJhub.vn