Tap along to any track and it tells you the BPM — then lock a metronome to it and train your timing. Every mix starts with knowing the tempo.
Listen to a song and tap the big pad like footsteps — 1, 2, 3, 4! It counts how fast the song is going. Then turn on the drum-tick and clap along to feel the beat.
BPM — beats per minute — is how fast a track's pulse is. Two tracks at the same BPM can be beatmatched and mixed together. Tapping the tempo trains the most important DJ muscle you have: hearing the beat. Do it on ten tracks and you'll start guessing BPMs within a couple.
Slow songs have a slow beat. Fast songs have a fast beat. The number you tapped is the song's speed. When two songs go the same speed, a DJ can join them together so it sounds like one long song. Cool, right?
Any song with a clear beat — house, hip-hop, pop.
Pick one with a big thumpy beat you can hear.
Tap on every kick drum. 4–8 taps and the BPM settles.
Tap the pad every time you hear the BIG drum — 1,2,3,4.
Send it to the metronome and play along — feel the "1" of every bar.
Start the tick and clap on the bright one. That's the start of the beat!
Count in bars, not beats. Music moves in 4-beat bars, and phrases in 4, 8 or 16 bars. The glowing "1" is the top of each bar — DJs bring the next track in on a "1" so the two grooves lock. Tap tempo to find the BPM; count bars to know when to mix.
The bright number is the boss beat. Count "1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4" with the ticks. The bright 1 is where a new bit of music usually starts — that's the magic moment DJs use to switch songs!
Ready to line two tracks up for real? Open the Mix Simulator →
← Back to your journeyEvery tempo from 60 to 180 BPM, ten note values (dotted and triplet included), in milliseconds. Dial in delays, reverb pre-delay and release times without a calculator. Printable PDF, A4 to A1.
Track BPM down the side, target BPM across the top: the cell is the exact pitch % to set, colour-coded for ±6, ±8, ±10 and ±16 % decks. House & techno in 1 BPM steps, plus every genre from 80 to 180. Printable PDF, A4 to A1.
The bit that actually moves you on is someone stood next to you saying “that’s why it slid.” I teach one to one in King’s Lynn on the real thing — Pioneer CDJ-3000X, a DJM-V10-LF and Technics 1210s — not a controller you’ll never see in a booth.
Not near Norfolk? Nothing here goes behind a paywall — carry on through the free lessons.