Everything is in the title, the key to a successful mix is the structure. But what structures?
Before going into details, it is important to understand and recognize that all music has a structure, more or less elaborate according to the styles and the way of composing of an artist, the structure is the first thing to analyze before mixing music. another. Otherwise, disaster is assured.
When you listen to music, you can only notice that it is made up of different parts, if you do not perceive them, it is better to immediately stop wanting to be a dj or a composer. This is why before talking about the structuring of a mix, we must talk about the structuring of music.
THE STRUCTURE OF MUSIC
Music is exactly the same as a story, even if it has no words, the music is structured according to the desire of the composer as well as the writer. It is by the structure that these lead his listener or reader to an emotion, a frustration, a pleasure, a feeling, and even a reflection. In general, when we speak of a complete and well-made, well-edited, or well-constructed music, it consists of several different parts that constitute its structure:
- INTRODUCTION:
This part creates an atmosphere that plunges the listener into a universe, an atmosphere before starting the musical “story”. It makes you want to listen, to go down in history. - COUPLET:
The verse is the narrative part of a piece of music. It is through the verses that the story is told, they are like the chapters of a book and are the basis of a musical story. Unlike the chorus, the verses are not necessarily the same, there can be several types of verse in the same music, however, it is rare that they are superior to two different types. - PRE-CHORUS:
The pre-chorus is a part located between the verse and the chorus, it is not essential and therefore optional, but it allows you to slide over the chorus. The pre-chorus is a transition that prepares for the chorus. - THE REFRAIN:
The chorus is the most easily memorized part of a piece of music, it is the very essence of a piece and is generally the most emotional part because it contains the main message of the work. This part is repeated at least twice, but the chorus is so important that some music is only built around it. Some music is even composed of a single chorus that keeps repeating itself with slight variations. Maurice Ravel’s Bolero is the perfect representation of this. - BRIDGE:
A bridge is a part generally composed with a different chord (keyboard chord), the bridge is used to bounce on a verse or a chorus. By its difference, the bridge serves to revive the attention of the listener. - BREAK:
The broken part is actually a bridge, we give it this name when it is short and is composed of a rhythmic type of call or on the contrary devoid of rhythm. - SOLO:
As its name suggests, the Solo is a part of the song highlighting a musical instrument, such as an electric guitar for example. It is used to highlight the sound and playing of an instrument in the form of a performance. - OUTRO:
The outro part is the exact opposite of the intro, this part makes it possible to conclude music in style or in the case of deejay music to present a simple rhythmic part to facilitate mixing with another music.
Obviously, as you can imagine, there is no obligatory structure for the music, but it is clear that as with a book, there is little chance that you will find a story that begins in chapter 6 and continues on the 14th then the 25th, and the 2nd. Even if it does exist, it is still very rare. The goal of this article is, first of all, to make you understand that each piece of music has a structure and that badly constructed music has little chance of being appreciated, because the brain (human in this case) loves when there is a mathematical relation, it is moreover the whole principle of music, because it is a mathematical expression of a feeling, of an emotion. If you don’t like math, but music, you can still count,
MIX WITH RESPECT TO STRUCTURES
Here is the secret! To make a good mix, you have to respect the structures of the music. To do this, you have to start one music over another, by focusing on the start of a game and especially not along the way. That is to say, it is necessary for example to start music 2 at the beginning of a part on the beginning of another part of music 1. And it is on this point that the Hot-cues present on CD players and Deejay software have their main use. By marking the beginning of the types of parts composing music with CUEs, the deejay can then remix music live, and it’s just brilliant !!!
By respecting the usefulness of a part of the music with the usefulness of a part of another music, the success of the mix is assured. Indeed, as we saw above, a “bridge” makes it possible to bounce either on a verse or on a chorus, this is why when one mixes two kinds of music, one will prefer to launch a verse or a chorus of another music after the “bridge” of the current music. Or why not the opposite, to launch a “bridge” of another music after the chorus or the verse of the music in progress.
Obviously, it is still necessary that the 2 sounds agree musically and for that nothing beats the ear and a serious work of research of music which can be linked with each other before embarking on alive. This is called a playlist. But this is another story.
