umm can anyone give me a song so i can practice counting bars, and like then i will tell you the answer (write the bars and if it was a break-bar or a dance-bar and then you would confirm if i got all of the answers right or some wrong. so it would be like a test. i want to like master this/ or develop this skill while i continue saving money for my gear. if you can give me 10 songs that you already know the answer to that wud be great.
if this big question is confusing then ill rephrase. i have been counting 1,2,3,4…1,2,3,4…4 beats per bar, right. but i want to be tested now like if i do it myself i wud feel like so confidence like “yeah i did it right” lol so i want to put myself on a test drive.
and you producers i’m sure know some songs and know all the bars, break or dance or w/e other keywords they are, know it by heart so why not youtube me it so i can tell you the answers and you can see how i’m doing. ty ;]
oh and i want to become a tech house dj. but i don’t mind listening to prog, tribal or deep house as long as its a good decent song ;]
counting well just comes with practice, i’m pretty new to djing, but it’s other genre’s of music (non 4/4) where it gets harder. Radiohead being one example
yeah..your final exam is gonna be to count out a classical piece.. 7/8, 10/4, 5/4..mm..
but regardless of what time signature it is, you can usually “feel” the downbeat. even just listening to a song, if there’s a repeating melody, the downbeat will be whenever it starts over again, easy enough to remember right? it’ll take a bar or two after that for you to get how many beats are in between each downbeat, after that you’re locked in.
however, since most types of dance music use different patterns phrase lengths, you gotta know what’s going on. keep your ear open for synths/fx that indicate a phrase change, usually in the last bar before the phrase ends. if you can get down with dubstep, it’s a good way to practice. most every song is a bunch of 16 bar phrases, and you can distinctively tell when they start/stop. this will help ingrain that sense that others who posted were talking about. i’ve stopped counting, and i get kind of a tension in my chest when the phrase is about to end. pretty cool.
thats cool as hell. so your saying or recommending that its better to start practicing with dubstep instead of house what i would be spinning is tech house. and then after listening to dubstep then go to tech house. one of my main goals is to have an amazing transitional skills after knowing my tracks for a while of course. and findin the right tracks that fits/works friendly with other tracks. almost like building a family of brothers and sisters. thats what i need instead of having all these tracks feel lonely. i do have some tracks though that after a while listening to some tracks i’m like wWTFF this one makes a perfect transition with this other one.
Try a band named “Tool”
Their time signatures might through you for a loop, but if you can keep up with em, you know that house and all other electronic musics are going to be mostly a piece of cake. lol
thanks lol. ill take a look at it on youtube whenever i get a chance and start counting. its probably fast lol, i have thought of this before where if i wud get better at tech/prog etc etc house music if i listen to something faster, with 4 beats? or w/e
Tool is a proggresive metal band, who’s drummer especially is fond of some pretty ass crazy rythms and time signatures. They also do alot of polyrythms and polymeters so, even more so a mindgamer.
If you can accuratly count the time signatures in their songs, no problem. Try the album Lateralus!
it’s still bars… you can choose to count it in a halftime feel (70bpm) along with the kick and snare, or double time (140bpm) with the hats/bass. either way, there are still measures/bars/phrases. i don’t recommend trying to count out any Burial tunes…just stay faaaar away from that for now
Whilst drum patterns might change, the vast vast majority of music you’ll spin will be in 4/4 time. Thats 4 beats to a measure.
However, whilst you can mix by just counting 4 beats, you’ll often find that a synth or vocal runs over a much higher number of beats.
But don’t worry too much about this. If you can dance to music, you can almost certainly get a mix to the right phrase. You should hear it instinctively.
I have come from a background of classical and instrumental music so I know what you mean about counting right. But instead of 1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4, depending on the song or genre, you will usually have 8 or 16-bar phrases.
Sometimes it’s easier to think of music in terms of phrases and less on the actual downbeat. When counting bars for phrases, you would probably want to start counting like 1,2,3,4, 2,2,3,4, 3,2,3,4, 4,2,3,4 (that’s 4 measures or bars) do this all the way until the end of the phrase (sometimes 8,2,3,4). Then you can cue whatever effect or whatever event you want to happen for the next phrase.
Sometimes there will be a break after 8 bars and have a 1 or 2 measure break like before a key change or something. Mixing songs (although I’m fairly new to it) seems to get much easier the more familiar you are with the song and phrase structure. Just pick out a couple songs you really like and memorize the phrasing structure.
Usually its just enough to get into the groove, you can in almost all EDM feel when a bar starts so its easier to just count a slow 1-2-3-4 based on the downbeat of each bar rather than the downbeat of each quarter note.
Since you’ll probably have a lot more going on in your head than counting the music, it should rather be a thing you feel in your stomach than something you actively do in your head.
check out Beardyman on youtube, he doesnt count out beats but the way he builds a track “live” emphasizes how different phrase lengths are used together and he’s hilarious at the same time.
you can choose to count it in a halftime feel (70bpm) along with the kick and snare, or double time (140bpm) with the hats/bass. either way, there are still measures/bars/phrases. i don’t recommend trying to count out any Burial tunes…just stay faaaar away from that for now 