What is beatmatching?

Many people who are interested in DJing want to know, what is beatmatching? We can give you the answer and teach you how to beatmatch!

Beatmatching means matching the tempo and beats of two or more pieces of music. Normally when this comes to DJing it means mixing two tracks together that are the same tempo (BOM or speed) without the beats clashing. The beats have to sound at the same time in synchronisation with each other. If they didn't it would sound very messy and be even harder to dance to!

To fully understand what beatmatching is and why its important you need to know a few basics...

What is a beat

A beat is a time interval within a piece of music that is normally used as the grid in which drum beats, melodies and components of music are composed. You can think of it as the scaffolding of the music. For example, when you listen to music and tap your foot to the beat, this is beat you're tapping along with and the speed at which you tap is the tempo (BPM or Beats Per Minute) of the song you are listening to. How many times did you tap your foot within a minute? That is the BPM.

If you want to find the BPM of a piece of music you can use any DJ software or music production software. You can also use this handy app. Just tap the button to the beat to reveal the BPM.

What is the difference between a beat and a drum?

A beat is an interval of time, it is silent. A drum is a type of percussion instrument that makes a sound when hit. The kick drum is the main backbone of dance music and has the loud thud sound which on house music happens on every beat of the bar. 1, 2, 3, 4 and repeat, or kick, kick, kick, kick repeat.

INSERT IMAGE OF KICK DRUM

How long is a beat?

This depends on the tempo (speed) of the music. If you have a slow BPM track the beats will be long, like Hip-Hop for example. With faster BPMs the beats will be shorter, Drum & Bass for example.

What is a typical BPM of a track?

Most types of electronic dance music range in BPM from 60 BPM to 180 BPM but there are genres that might go further.

Click here to learn about the different types of electronic dance music and their BPM

Is a beat divisible?

Yes. Beats are often divided into smaller sections and help producers compose more complex rhythms and melodies. If every sound landed on the beat it would make for very boring music. Producers often put certain sounds on the 'off-beat' this is basically half a beat, or half way through a beat. A good example of this is the hi-hat on House Music. The Kick drum is on the beat and the hi hat is on the off-beat (in-between the kicks).

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You might also hear of another common division called the 16th note. This means that the beat is broken down into four smaller sections. It's common to hear a snare roll using the 16th note pattern before a drop.

What is a bar?

A typical bar of western electronic dance music is four beats. One bar equals four beats.

What is a phrase?

A phrase is a group of bars. Typically in western dance music phrases are formed of four, eight or sixteen bar groupings. In general with slower BPM genres like hip-hop the phrasing will be four bars per phrase. With most types of house and techno music there will be eight bars in a phrase. With faster genres like drum & bass and jungle you will find sixteen bars in each phrase. Listen to your favourite music and count along with the bars. You will notice that the music changes every phrase apart from some small exceptions. With a normal club edit of a house track the first eight bar phrase will be something simple, like a kick, snare and hi-hat. Then in the second eight bar phrase you will hear a new instrument introduced, perhaps a bassline. Then in the third phrase you might hear another sound, perhaps a melody of some sort. The track will evolve every eight bars. See if you can spot the phrasing structure in your tracks.

Why do you need to know what a beat, bar and phrase is?

You need to know these fundamental units of electronic dance music because in order to beatmatch and mix properly you should actually align (match) all three of these units by making sure you launch your second track not just on a beat, but on the first beat of the first bar or a new phrase. This way you will synchronise the beat, bar and phrasing structure of both tracks creating the best results!

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There are many ways to beatmatch nowadays so I wanted to create a blog to help you understand the various options and also give you some advice on how to improve your beatmatching.

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Conclusion

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Frequestly asked questions

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