The Complete Guide to DJ Basics with CDJs 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 CDJs and a mixer. The Pioneer CDJ 2000s are featured, but this course is structured so that you can easily learn using any brand or model of CDJ player. Shortee shows you how to handle the jog wheels, various ways to cue up your songs, three different ways to listen using your headphones, how to identify the beat, and how to tune your ears to be able to isolate the drum sounds within your music. She explains basic music theory; note values; how to count beats, bars, and phrases in 4/4 time; and how to identify the “one.” You will discover various ways of counting the beats per minute (bpm) of your music and why it's so important to know the tempos of all your songs. She teaches you the two most important scratches for DJing manually with the platters, how to combine them with each other as well as with the crossfader, and various ways to drop your songs in on the “one.” To finish things off strong, you will learn how to perform a basic transition between two songs with the same bpm, using the crossfader to blend them together.

Videos

• Introduction (01:07) - 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 CDJs and a DJ mixer.

• Handling the Jog Wheels (08:22) - In this video, DJ Shortee shows you where to hold the CDJ's jog wheel, aka platter; how to use it to forward, rewind, speed up, and slow down the audio; and how to quickly search through your sound waves.
Songs:
Shortee & Step 1 "Wax that Booty" (Bikini Wax Album--5 Star Records)--115 bpm

• Cueing (14:12) - DJ Shortee explains the definition of cueing and demonstrates various ways to cue up your song with and without the CDJ's jog wheels, using the Play, Cue, and Cue Point buttons.
Songs:
Shortee & Step 1 "Wax that Booty" (Bikini Wax Album--5 Star Records)--115 bpm
Mr. Brackets "Overflow" (Arkade Records)--128 bpm

• Headphone Cueing (13:36) - DJ Shortee teaches you how to cue up your music 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.
BONUS MINI LESSON: Shortee breaks down the Pioneer DJM-S9 DJ mixer’s headphone controls in depth.

• Identifying the Beat (07:50) - DJ Shortee shows you how to identify the primary beat that you will use to count music, 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 beatmatching.
Songs:
Shortee & Step 1 "Wax that Booty" (Bikini Wax Album--5 Star Records)--115 bpm
Pawax "Shaolin" (Arkade Records)--128 bpm

• Counting Beats & Bars (07:49) - 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.
Songs:
Pawax "Shaolin" (Arkade Records)—128 bpm

• Counting Phrases & Identifying the "One" (15:21) - 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.
Songs:
Pawax "Shaolin" (Arkade Records)--128 bpm

• Counting Beats Per Minute (bpm) (16:39) - 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.
Songs:
Pawax "Shaolin" (Arkade Records)--128 bpm

• Dropping Options & Baby Scratch (07:30) - DJ Shortee explains various ways of dropping in your tracks using the CDJ's Play, Cue and Cue Point buttons. She also explains the difference between "Vinyl" Mode and "CDJ" Mode and teaches you how to perform the baby scratch using the jog wheel to drop in your tracks manually.
Songs:
Pawax "Shaolin" (Arkade Records)--128 bpm

• Release Scratch (05:28) - DJ Shortee teaches you how to perform the release scratch and explains why doing it correctly is so important to your mixing skills.
Songs:
Pawax "Shaolin" (Arkade Records)--128 bpm

• Baby/Release Combo (03:27) - DJ Shortee teaches you how to combine the baby scratch and the release scratch so that you are able to manually drop your tracks in as accurately as possible.
Songs:
Pawax "Shaolin" (Arkade Records)--128 bpm

• Dropping on the "One" (08:19) - DJ Shortee explains what types of songs to use when learning how to drop on the "one," and teaches you how to use the baby/release combo, as well as the various buttons available to drop your song in on the "one" of a second song playing on the other deck.
Songs:
Shortee & Step 1 "Wax that Booty" (Bikini Wax Album--5 Star Records)--115 bpm

• Cutting (10:16) - DJ Shortee teaches you how "cut" in a song by using the release scratch together with the crossfader. BONUS: Shortee breaks down the crossfader controls on the Pioneer S9 DJ mixer.
Songs:
Shortee & Step 1 "Wax that Booty" (Bikini Wax Album--5 Star Records)--115 bpm

• Dropping on the "One" with the Crossfader (07:36) - DJ Shortee teaches 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 deck.
Songs:
Shortee & Step 1 "Wax that Booty" (Bikini Wax Album--5 Star Records)--115 bpm

• Basic Transition: Part 1 (07:30) - DJ Shortee teaches you how to perform a simple transition between two of the same songs with the same bpm using the crossfader to blend them together. She also elaborates on why it's so important for the phrasing on both songs to match up with each other during your transitions.
Songs:
Shortee & Step 1 "Wax that Booty" (Bikini Wax Album--5 Star Records)--115 bpm

• Basic Transition: Part 2 (09:45) - DJ Shortee teaches you how to perform a simple transition between two totally different songs with the same bpm using the crossfader to blend them together. She demonstrates how to seamlessly transition from the end of a song into the beginning of another.
Songs:
Fransis Derelle "Rocca" (Heavy Artillery Recordings)--128 bpm
Pawax "Shaolin" (Arkade Records)--128 bpm