Mixing house and hip hop are still the twin pillars of basic DJing techniques. Wherever you are in the world, either one of the two styles are the backbone of partying. As a DJ, it’s worth knowing your way around both, even if you’re only a fan of one of them. But what about other musical rhythms that require their own alternative styles of mixing?
Dub & reggae
Wanna know why it’s called dubstep? The rhythm of dubstep mimics the half-time reggae beat popularized by Jamaican producers like King Tubby and Lee Scratch Perry in the 1970s. Skrillex basically drew inspiration from reggae! Although dub is not dance music by any stretch of the imagination, DJs could take a page out of its book. Mixing music means first understanding a core rhythm. If you’re not familiar with half-time rhythms, give mixing dub reggae a go!
Breakbeat, breakcore
Mixing breakbeat music can be tricky. Unlike house music, most breakbeat places its identity in the hands of fidgety drum patterns that can be inconsistent from one track to the next. On average, there are more than two kicks per bar. As such, there’s sometimes no clear’one’ and ‘three’ beats that can be used to anchor the mix. But done successfully, mixes can resemble pleasingly scattershot rushes of snares, hats and percussion elements. And you’ll impress the UK party crowd if you can do it!
Glitch hop
Artists like Opiou and Slynk have put their stamp on this (admittedly Eurocentric) instrumental style, which favors erratic and raw sounding beats over the smoothness of deep house and EDM. Makes for good practice! Added to the complexity of mixing this style is the typical swing groove, which can throw off your efforts to sync up the hi hats during the mix. It’s fertile terrain to see if your skills extend beyond auto-sync house music mixing. Listen to Slynk and give it a bash!
Getting out of your genre comfort zone is a great way to level up. Not only are you forced to listen to new types of music, but you’re also stretching your techniques and familiarizing yourself with the mainstream offshoots. There are also a ton of ways to level up, so check out the DJ Techniques I course by DJ Courses Online today.