As you should now be well aware beatmatching begins with good track choice. Some tutorials may suggest that you use two copies of the same track to begin learning but I would say it’s more realistic and enjoyable to work with two different, but closely compatible (see choosing tracks to beatmatch), tracks. What I will say however, is try to avoid tracks with tempo changes and unusual breaks or fills as they will probably only confuse you at this point.

Once you have set up your decks (see setting up your DJ equipment), for argument sake we’ll call them deck A and deck B, place your first record/CD onto deck A and start playing the track you want to mix from (which we’ll refer to as track 1). At this point it is important to make sure that the pitch slider on deck A is set to 0 (most decks will show a green light on the pitch slider to let you know you’ve managed this) and the cross fader is fully across towards deck A.

Diagram

You should now be able to hear your chosen track (track 1) playing through your system at its normal speed, enjoy it for a moment, then stop it and return it to the beginning of track 1. Next load the second record/CD containing track 2 onto deck B, as with deck A, ensuring that the pitch slider is set to 0. Begin playing track 2, but make sure the cross fader is still set fully towards deck A. Pick up and put on your headphones and you should be able to hear track 2 through the phones only, if not make sure you have the phones ‘switched on’ (this is usually controlled by a button on your mixer) and their volume turned up for deck B.
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