How to ALWAYS have a perfect transition when DJing

In this video, we show you how to have a perfect transition every time when DJing, by using Phrasing. In this Phrasing tutorial, we show you how to count beat, count bars, cover the structure of a song, and how to avoid bad transitions when DJing. By watching this tutorial, you will know exactly what is phrasing and how to use phrasing.
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Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
0:48 Phrasing
1:24 Incorrect Phrasing
2:59 Song Structure / Arrangement
4:01 How To Use Phrasing Correctly
6:15 Learn To Master The DJ Decks

[@David2on]

Planning your set and listening to the music helps too.

[@markcaulfield6449]

I love this tutorial this has been a big help to have it broken down like this about the phrasing and knowing when to bring in the next track, before tha chorus starts, thanks man!

[@DanielWalker.]

Glad you went over this. Essential to any DJ. Thanks Bolo!

[@prodjacademy]

Thanks for watching Daniel!

[@ajkopchak8356]

I'm just starting out and this was a HUGE help!

[@jayson6633]

Great video will definitely have to try this!

[@TayajohMusic]

Thank you for helping me understand this better 🙏

[@starlight_starbright8204]

Great instruction...I have times where the mixing will make sense and other times, I am at a loss! The phrasing technique really helps drill down those transition points! Thank you! 🤙

[@DJ_20_THOR_7]

Yooooo this is the worst explanation I've ever heard about counting and phrasing he don't count nothing out he's a fraud go to Crossfader or look up Carlo Atendido he's a Red Bull DJ world Campion he will teach u how to really learn

[@alexhandshaw5021]

Thank you for this !

[@buddafingaz9403]

Yea, every count of 8 beats, no matter what song your using, and no matter what genre your playing, its scientifically proven that every time you count to 8, either something new happens within your track, or a new instrument gets brought into it, or a bassline, or drum beat starts! Literally, if you play a track, and count to 8 over and over again, you'll notice that on 8 something new, or different always happens within your track. I always thought that was kind of interesting honestly! Good stuff, you can always skratch into your next track, or echo out into another track, or even filter out your bass, and drums, and bring in your next tracks Highs only, while the bassline, or drums to your other track are still goin. Then gradually filter out your bassline, & drums on your first track and bring in your bassliney, & drums on the next track & at the same time, you bring your line fader volume fader all the way down,and bring the volume of your new track up, essentially bringing in your new track, and slowly dropping your first track. Then your ready to rock out with your new track at that point. It definitely takes finesse, and practice, & hard work!! Eventually you'll get it down as a honed skill. This is something that takes a lot of practice, to do it correctly, & also so that it sounds decent, as well too!! Dont beat yourself up about this, its one of the hardest things to learn, when its comes to mixing music flawlessly! 👍🙏😎🔥💯🎵🎚️🎧🎛️🛸👽

[@prodjacademy]

Great point! Thanks for the input!

[@d.b.cooper2052]

Thanks buddy, great video, much appreciated, Respex, Big Upz, & Mad Love homeslice

[@smasherdobson4884]

xpansions - Move Your Body (Elevation Club Mix) That drops after 48 beats so you let go 16 beats in on other track on a 64 beat mix.. djs would use the last 16 of first 32 to get the beats perfect then bring track in and do a 32 beat mix on last 32 of 64 beat mix.. That's the tune I would use to teach me mates back in the day in fact there was quite a few tunes back in the day that were like this nowadays they are DJ friendly and if you have cdjs you can even mix without earphones if you run all your tracks through rekordbox... Also move one channel up and one down after 8 or 16 beats depending on length of mix and you will do some amazing transitions and NEVER have your channels in the red....

[@waynedebrosse61]

Thanks for the benevolence and genuine sharing 🙏🏽✨

[@Stevie0ch0]

Nice advice. Need more lessons like this.

[@johnbrooks7633]

Wow this was amazing thanks it helps a lot

[@djoldskool5763]

DISCO FOREVER! Gotta love those long old school Disco jam intros. Patience is rewarded in music and in life.

[@Gosha1992]

Thank you, this is useful information

[@jeffrey6283]

Good explanation! Thanks for this. Btw, I saw that even your laptop has a waveform! nice one! :)

[@AntonioCampbell]

Great advice

[@williamflint6535]

Thank u bro,being a dj virgin any info is needed

[@peacesupreme]

Thank you Hermano. Dios es Beuno

[@cityxstar]

great advice, thanks man!

[@prodjacademy]

Happy to help!

[@dani.papaya]

Nice intro, main content and outro guy😆🫶🏽

[@DJSolstice]

So like, when I started DJing I knew it was all about timing. Amazes me that people don't grasp this simple concept

[@keatonjones1424]

bless this video

[@DJCRANKMASTER]

Great teacher

[@user-vb2di3ku3f]

Nice Tutorial Tks

[@mukeshpathak7302]

Thank you sir

[@yrnal22]

well explained thank you so much

[@prodjacademy]

Thanks for watching!

[@raver96]

👏 super helpful!

[@prodjacademy]

Glad we could help!

[@geraldmcclaren]

I'm a beginner, playing two songs simultaneously is easy, however, you should've demonstrated hitting the play button at the beginning of a new phrase and then beat match both songs. We will be able to see how both songs are manually lined up. Thanks for the demonstration.

[@VaughnGoy]

tech has made it so easy to avoid bad phrase mixing..beat jump on most controllers these days can fix phrasing if u bring in a song late..just hit beat jump till the phrases are matched or back cue to sync with the start of the new phrase then beat jump forward..but this assumes u know how music structure works initially so good on u for educating beginners.

[@artisans8521]

Cue points also help.

[@cloudsinthesky353]

Question 🙋‍♀️ which platform do you recommend to download/stream songs?

[@gerpa24]

How do you make the parts of the song A B C D appear on the spectrum, in rekorbox? gracias !

[@prodjacademy]

Doing a huge giveaway at 2k subscribers so make sure to subscribe to be the first to know! Thanks for watching 🙌🏽

[@leroymayo8580]

Wow! giving away the secrets here, a little music theory and track knowledge is the key........ in my experience most new dis are too impatient to wait to get to know their music.🤣 but in practice the dance floor reacts better if your phrasing is correct.🎧

[@artisans8521]

Agreed. Having some preparation (cue point, loops etc.) helps.

[@davidmadigan8393]

Nicely explained, And if I'm being honest, this is something I've only grasped properly in last few months (being playing for 18 months or so). My only problem with this is...... I got myself a nice XDJ RX3 a while back and when i employ the phrasing method i can't help feeling a bit redundant. I mean i have all these new features. For example I've recently started looping intros and outro's on the fly, and doing longer blends etc. This often goes wrong for me but it's very exciting when get it right..😅 I guess my point is that, with the gear you have currently it's hard just to do "phrasing" and not want to do more. I guess I need to learn to walk before run....😅😅

[@revvvvvvvvvvv]

This! Me rn actually!!

[@corneliussmiff2773]

I don't want to be that gatekeeping prick you see on most DJ videos, but it's a sad indictment of current DJing trends if phrasing has to be taught as some sort of secret technique. For me this is fundementally the most important thing any beginner DJ must be taught, after basic beat matching but before mastering beat matching. To me this was the moment the light bulb went off and I understood transitions and/or the importance of making them mean something. How is this not the among the first things a DJ is taught? To be fair I never called it phrasing, it was always the '32Beat' rule when I first learnt it. But, it is awesome when you learn this, because you start counting beats all the time and it does become second nature. I am a terrible DJ, but I always count my beats and this is kinda cool that I can do this.

[@Lyfe_A1]

Nice

[@fausto412]

Does this apply to all music including latin genres?

[@deeepanshah]

Which controller are you using?

[@cristinac9807]

Hi! Thanks for the video! I am starting this awesome new hobby, but I was wondering why do you roll the platter? I thought it was for the sound effects. Here I didnt hear any, so what other function does it have? Also the tempo seemed to stayed 128 on both sides. Kindly let me know the purpose of it :)

[@Skxddy8081]

You "nudge" the platter to get the beats in sync with one another (so it doesn't sound like sneakers in a tumble dryer) ... That's only going to work if you have to BPMs matched the same on both decks. For example, the 128 you mentioned there, also needs to be 128 on the other track. Don't make a 120 track for example, into a 128 though. It's not going to sound good. So yeah, use the platter to rotate and nudge the track so the beats sound in time with one another.

[@prodjacademy]

Yes it’s called “nudging” and slightly slows/speeds up the track to get it on beat with the song that’s playing over it. This is called beatmatching. Will be making a video on this soon!

[@buddafingaz9403]

Your ears are the best tool of all! Listen, and get to know your tracks inside & out, that your planning to mix with. And, once you've got a good understanding of your musical tracks, then, you'll be able to use your ears to break it down alot easier my friends. Its always good to get well known with the tracks your using to mix, or skratch with. Cause, going into it blindly, can be a gamble alot of times, due to being put on the spot with your music. But, thats only opinion my friends, everybody has their own ways that work for them! But most DJs would agree with me, definitely get to know your tracks really well, so that your able to manipulate your mix, and your tracks within the mix best as possible, without having to freestyle it, and possibly sound horrible....lol.. Great video my friend, your appreciated 👍🙏😎💯🔥

[@artisans8521]

​@@buddafingaz9403Indeed....prepare or beware😂.

[@Yerrr973]

Might be a dumb question but If I want to check on software if a song is a 16 bar intro or 8 etc, is there an easier way than zooming into the wave form and counting ?

[@Miguel-wk8gu]

Most DJ software have a beat jump feature where you can define the jump lenghts per click

[@FarebrothaChronicle]

It is very simple in that genre. Hip-hop and rap are quite different.

[@v_Magica]

as a DJ, i think 32 has become my favorite number

[@johnluthiersn5284]

Whats factory reset ddj flx4 pionner

[@user-rf5wo3ju9d]

or just do it all in Ableton and trigger pads of phrases, lol..well described video

[@jorgesilva9737]

in all the tutorials I've seen they never try to delve into the types of sounds or where to look for songs with similar sounds that help a lot to mix based on a rhythm or genre

[@Garrin1977]

In the UK we call this going round the houses. Why would someone go to all this trouble just to repeat themselves in the most important section of the video for retention 🤦🏻‍♂️😂

[@jeffmistera5735]

Why on earth did I watch this as if I’m an amateur to DJ’in lol

[@nofood1]

because even professionals have to keep their fundamentals sharpened

[@user-wb2es5mx3y]

What is the name de Song of times 3,15 ?

[@MrRalphellison]

Never knew Ned Flanders was a dj!😅

[@nanmahtweofficial]

Can I know the price of the cheapest DJ controller? Because I'm living in a country that is having civil war around every state of the country.

[@DJAndyFitz]

How to add markers to your tracks ?

[@anthonygarner457]

I would love to see a video where real music and songs are being mixed... It's easy to mix two similar sounding beats together. For house parties and birthday parties ppl want to hear top twenty hits.. Not to discredit techno or EDM. But you can play that all night terribly and still get the dance floor moving

[@kabooyouhellarandom]

Dat 👕 is 🔥🔥🔥🔥 & clever 💡🤣😂💯

[@bowlingdj300]

Truthfully so many club purists think they are the shizzles because they can mix or beat match everything in the 125-132, big whipee, so could Ray Charles, peeps need to get over themselves already , you can loop/echo or fade out of just about anything and still make it work, focus on playing great Tunes and have Fun!

[@philipTOMPSETT]

Any real song examples rather than techno type tracks or does that create copyright strikes? Thanks

[@rose10002]

Can you please elaborate on selecting the place to start the next song? The 16-bar phrase is a great start, but for example, it would be awkward to have a song buildup fade out into another song’s buildup when people are expecting a drop.

[@no0kieNRW]

its called replacing drops. you can replace build ups.. you shouldnt replace a build up with a "build down"

[@jessemartinez6513]

You pretty much said it for yourself so just use a drop from another song

[@philjimenez4874]

pretty much like mixing with turn tables but you have to manually set the beats yourself and keep them together manually😉

[@doctordilanka]

Wait, I don't get it... I would like to learn how to mix songs in the middle, not at the top by pressing play at the same time. What's the point of that? Did I miss something?

[@elportee5438]

Just Dj, have fun😂

[@garnet6665]

Bro i love you t shirt

[@xstra1111]

Will have to disagree with the first example of bad phrasing - sometimes, cutting the phrase in half could work really well, so it shouldn't be "avoid at all costs" rule and this doesn't actually sound bad at all. I think the example would work better if the song B is introduced on a 3/4 of a phrase, so that it's more clear for complete beginners what you wanted to show. Great vid otherwise!

[@prodjacademy]

I see your point! Yes could have done a worse “bad example” lol but hoping ppl understand the importance of counting bars and phrasing! Thanks for watching 🤙🏽

[@icemn]

EDM is the easiest genre give me tips on how to dj reggae 😂

[@uliszuniga7997]

He gives you a whole minute to admire that dirty Sanchez stache

[@kudamah]

This is good but wont always work as some tracks throw of the phrase with 1 phrase and that's something to be aware of. Also rekordbox loops throw off a phrase if u were to halve a loop in the second half of a loop. When we try this instead of keeping the phrases of the loop, halving would take us back to the beginning of the loop - which kinda sucks. This part isn't an issue in serato or virtual dj. Pioneer needs to fix that.

[@artisans8521]

Depends on what your mixing. If you mixing straight house mixes (where the 8 bar rule aplies) your right, if you mix open this is not so straight forward. Then you need feel. That can't be tought. Then you also will have to resort to other techniques. Looping for instance, using separate loops (remix decks for instance), echo outs in the tempo of the new song etc. But in general this is indeed a way to go. Nice tutorial. But stop dissing others in the proces, looks a bit spitefull and drags yourself down.

[@Mydjprogress]

B O L O N C I A G A

[@ryanks2766]

How was he able to tell us was 16 phrases ? Did he just count ?

[@Garrin1977]

Just thought I’d give some feedback. After watching the video it dawned on me I should perhaps give some feedback. So what I’m gonna do is I’m gonna give some feedback. Stick around and pretty soon I will provide this feedback. Once I’ve given the feedback I’ll be finished and you can read the feedback that I’ve left cos I really wanted to give feedback. My feedback is that your videos need to stop wasting at the start

[@soyboy2238]

What's the sense in having a cross fader if you're going to leave it set in the middle using volume controls instead?

[@zaynmalice7106]

Scratching mostly. Volume controls give you a little more control, but both useful for different applications

[@jae6220]

This man looks like he eats donuts and writes tickets to motorists all day.

[@nabhyaAman]

Whts the app he is using

[@prodjacademy]

Rekordbox

[@mardyj]

Hardly a secret mate

[@smithw1083]

What’s the discord please

[@toddgattfry5405]

16 x 2 is a lot of math 😂

[@joeharrycanson5967]

Wrong. Phrasing usually changes every, 32 beats = 8 bars. I encourage beginners to mix within 32 beats not 64 for semi quick transition.

[@kaseone6896]

bolonciaga isntnit balanciaga?

[@jbooks888]

DJ just has to yell "Yo, you ready for this" (or something similar) as the transition is happening and this will cover up any rough patches. Problem solved, no digital intervention needed. You're welcome.

[@gerardobarrera4956]

I need to say that hairline is impressive.

[@user-kn8tr2bx7c]

On your example you start the songs at the beginning of both, didn't start at the top of any phrase, IN the actual track... how's that good mixing? ..sorry but don't get how your example matches your lesson

[@Errorlaunch]

🙄 just use a 4 beat loop and release the loop when it lines up with your other vocal points

[@Mad_ox52]

Bolonciaga 😂

[@AveryBlackman]

Just play songs with the same exact beats.

[@lucaslovesyouiii]

A LOT of djs don’t know this

[@josereyes2181]

Bro no diss but get to the point 👉

[@DJ_20_THOR_7]

U never played in a

[@stevenwilliamson474]

Wow. If you didn't know this already you're probably not a DJ. This is not going to keep you 'ahead' of other djs. This is bread and butter basics. This is as basic as plugging in headphones. If you don't know that most music works on a 8/16/32 beat principle.... give up now and save your money

[@imani828]

Wasted a whole minute to get into the video. RIP your retention rate.

[@prodjacademy]

Noted, thanks for the feedback!

[@angeld7689]

Geez relax buddy, it's a free tutorial..

[@curtdsouza8282]

@@prodjacademyyou’re helpful thanks!

[@vohnholden6203]

Can confirm I started skipping the intro as soon as I smelled it

[@jwdeepsky]

Subscribed

[@POPQC]

you need a microphone

[@chrisdewe821]

A transition is between genres. That is just a mix mate stop trying to fluff it up

[@Monschmeister]

The proper example you made is not good- should have chosen a build up / drop with proper phrasing

[@apo5]

Wtf...what kind of example is this? No one is starting both songs from the begginning. Seriously...

[@jamiemcsloy8005]

Boring

[@ramirez368]

Ok kid…… now lets try mixing disco from the late 70’s and 80’s with Vinyls, then we can talk…….

[@sarpgunes3367]

You talk too much bro. You can show more examples for us