This is one of the things I spend most time on when making a mixtape.
Most tracks work in a range of bpm’s, eg. a certain track with a bpm of 118 can work between 116 and 123 bpm. So if you’re playing one genre and the tracks in your playlist are in the same bpm range (eg. 117-127) you should focus more on the intensity of the tracks and which tracks sound right together, and less on the original bpm values.
Having said that, starting with mellow tracks and building up the intensity should go hand in hand with increasing the bpm’s, but for me the intensity is primary and the bpm is secondary.
If you mix multi-genre and the genres have very different bpm ranges things get more challenging. The easiest method is to separate the genres and find a good bridge between them.
And then you can take it to the next level by taking the tracks’ key into the consideration…
But those are just rules – it’s when you’re breaking them and you’re just playing around while practicing that the magic connections happen!
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