The Complete Guide To DJ Basics With Turntables And A Mixer

In this video course, world-renowned DJ Shortee teaches you all the essential basics that you need to know when you are first learning how to DJ using two turntables and a DJ mixer. You will learn how to handle the record, the correct way to put the needle on the record, where to place your hand on the record, and the best way to forward and rewind the record. Discover how to read the grooves on the record and various ways to cue up your songs using both traditional vinyl and control vinyl, for use with DJ software such as Serato and Traktor.

Videos

• Introduction (00:48) - In this video, DJ Shortee introduces the course in which she teaches all the essential basics that you need to know when you are first learning how to DJ using two turntables and a DJ mixer.

• Handling the Record (03:28) - In this video, DJ Shortee shows you how to hold the record and put it on the turntable, how to hold the needle and place the needle on the record, where to put your hand on the record, and the best way to forward and rewind the record.

• Cueing Up the Record (05:15) - In this video, DJ Shortee explains the definition of cueing and how to read the grooves on a record. She also demonstrates various ways to cue up your record with traditional vinyl records and also with control vinyl records, which are used to control DJ software such as Serato and Traktor.

• Headphone Cueing (07:10) - In this video, DJ Shortee teaches you how to cue up your record in your headphones and how to listen to the music in your headphones using three different techniques: cueing headphones to monitor, cueing all in the headphones, and split cueing in your headphones.

• Identifying the Beat (05:20) - In this video, DJ Shortee shows you how to identify the primary beat that you will use to count music with, identify the main drum kit, break down the drums, and tune your ears so that you are able to isolate the specific sounds in your mind that are helpful for beat matching.

• Counting Beats & Bars (03:48) - In this video, DJ Shortee explains basic music theory; what a note is, how all the note values relate to each other, what a beat looks like in traditional music notation, what a bar is, what a time signature is, and how to count beats and bars in 4/4 time.

• Counting Phrases & Identifying the "One" (07:34) - In this video, DJ Shortee explains basic song structure, what a phrase actually is, how to count groups of phrases, what to listen for, and how to easily identify the “one” in each phrase.

• Counting Beats Per Minute (bpm) (09:46) - In this video, DJ Shortee explains what beats per minute actually is and why it’s important. She teaches you the various ways to count the bpm of your music in order to identify the tempo and keep track of that information. She also covers the safe bpm ranges for mixing and explains why it is important, especially when DJing on turntables with traditional vinyl records.

• Baby Scratch (04:54) - In this video, DJ Shortee explains what types of songs to use when learning how to drop on the “one,” how to mark your records, and how to perform the baby scratch for use in mixing.

• Release Scratch (02:19) - In this video, DJ Shortee teaches you how to perform the release scratch and explains why it is so important to your mixing skills.

• Baby/Release Combo (03:41) - In this video, DJ Shortee teaches you how to combine the baby scratch and the release scratch so that you are able to drop your tracks in as accurately as possible.

• Dropping on the "One" (09:20) - In this video, DJ Shortee shows you how to use the baby/release combo to drop your song in on the “one”of a second song playing on the other turntable.

• Dropping on the "One" with Crossfader (08:23) - In this video, DJ Shortee teaches how to “cut” a song in using the release scratch together with the crossfader and how to use the baby/release combo with the crossfader to drop your song in on the “one” of a second song playing on the other turntable.

• Basic Transition (06:29) - In this video, DJ Shortee teaches you how to perform a simple transition between two songs with the same bpm using the crossfader to blend them together.