What’s up? Let’s talk a little bit about transitions. For those who don’t know, a DJ transition is a technique DJs use to move between songs.
Personally, I love mixing from one song to another, but I also love scratching into a song. It’s a great way to showcase your skill set and express your style and creativity.
In a recent video, we covered phrasing. In this tutorial, we’re going to apply what we learned and scratch and transition into a song. We’re going to start with the sound we all know and love, the sixteenth note rhythm.
I say that because anytime I talk to somebody about scratching, for some reason, they always do the scratching motion in sixteenth notes!
Enough with the jokes. We’re going to scratch and drop on beat one. The phrase will end on the “a” of beat four (this is the last sixteenth note in the measure).
Now that you know what we are going to do, let’s go over the phrase.
Rhythm 1 Phrase
When make the transition it’s important to drop on beat so the mix isn’t off. You want the records to be in sync.
If you’re a little bit early or a little bit late, it’s nothing to worry about. You can adjust the mix by slightly touching the record or center spindle.
But when you make this adjustment, if you don’t have a near-perfect mix (meaning the BPMs aren’t close or in the same range), the drums will start to clash, and your mix will sound like a train wreck.
Adjusting the mix on the fly might be a challenge at first, but you’ll get better with practice. Let’s keep it moving!
Rhythm 2 Transition
There’s a lot going on when scratching and transitioning into a song. If you’re struggling, work on the rhythm separately. Don’t worry about dropping the record until you’ve got the rhythm down.
Once you do, work on dropping on beat. The goal is to make the transition as seamless as possible.
In the meantime, practice that and get it as clean as you can, because we’re stepping things up in the next video of this series. Links are in the description. Peace!
