Whats up everyone. New to the DJ world

Hey, Smitty, welcome to the board!

I wouldn’t stress too much about it, it takes time to get the chops. You’re on the right road, and you know what it is you want to get good at right now – namely, learning where the phrases are at and how to key mix. Of those two, understanding phrasing is much more globally important, though key mixing is certainly something you’re going to need to figure out.

So… before you can identify phrases, first, you just need to be able to identify bars. That’s not too hard, you should pick that up from the DJ Fast course… To the beat, 1-2-3-4… at least, usually. Don’t even try to mix tracks that aren’t a 4/4 beat right now (and don’t even worry about that that means for now either).

Phrases are usually just a certain number of bars… it depends on your musical style, but it is commonly 8 bars… in Hip-Hop, though, it is often 4. So, when you count beats, it’ll be, like:

1-2-3-4, 2-2-3-4, 3-2-3-4, 4-2-3-4, 5-2-3-4, 6-2-3-4, 7-2-3-4, 8-2-3-4… then repeat.

That will usually be a phrase, maybe only 4 instead of 8, whatever.

Practice, practice, practice. That’s the biggest key. You’ll get to the point where you will just feel where the phrases are at because the biggest indicator that you’re at a new phrase is that the music will change in some way. Either it will feel like it starts a loop over, or it changes up to a different this or that. A lot of the time, you’ll also get things like a drum roll leading up to the change, or a cymbal hit right after it, for example.

Hope this helps at least some, rambling as it is.

If they’re a compatible key, it won’t really matter. I’d pick which one you think is cooler sounding.

In other words… practice, practice, practice! This hobby right here is one where you can easily spend hours every day perfecting the skill.

I have slowed down slightly… when I started, I was doing 4 hours of practice pretty much every day… these days, more like 2-3 (and I have more off days now where I let myself not feel like it than I used to), but still, this is something where you can easily spend all your free time doing it if you so desire.

I’m going to add to what you said a little… stop practicing when you are getting frustrated, but if you are not, then keep goin’ so long as you are feelin’ the groove.

It’s the point of frustration when I let myself stop for the day too, usually because some song has a weird structure that’s hard to work with or what have you. “Why won’t this track mix with anything else? It’s so awesome, I want to play it out!”

Had one earlier today… the song had some truly bizarre phrase lengths. 7.3? Really? Why do you hate me?

Hi,

I’m new to it all too. I borrowed a mate’s laptop with Traktor on there about 6 months ago, played around wit it, liked it, bought my own Traktor software, practised A LOT, begged a good mate of mine to let me do a guest mix on his radio show (knowing they have Traktor available in the studio). Now I am joint host of the show. Got myself a Numark Mixtrack Pro3 about 5 weeks back, played my first club gig last night, absolutely loved it. It helps when you’ve got a lot of friends who are DJ’s and promoters but if you want something bad enough and you have a passion for it, then go for it. Good luck