Counting Beats Like a DJ on Turntables

Video Transcript

"DJ Trails with hiphopelements.com. We are going to go on counting beats by measures and notes which the basis to all music is. You need to know it. For those of you that are not that musically inclined, I will explain it to you in the DJing purpose. Most of the music that we are going to be working with whether it’s hip-hop, drum and bass or electronic music with the towels, selector or bass works on a four bar measures. So we are going to count the thing in four and we are going to start with four notes, which will be 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4 and the basic record whether it be hip-hop or house, the bass usually drops on the 1 and the snare usually drops on the 2 into 4. So how we do this is 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, bass, snare, bass, snare, bass, snare, 1, 2, 3, 4. Now we are going to break it to eighth notes; for mixing it is a little easier. Eighth note works like this 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and... Especially when you are beginning, it is probably going to help to count out aloud; seriously count aloud it will help you to keep timing and stay focused. I am going to explain how it works with remixing and scratching next. "