Christopher Milam's List: Music in Key - English Comp

• Harmonic mixing consists of two elements: knowing the key of every song that you play and knowing which keys are compatible.
• To help DJs learn harmonic mixing, Mark Davis created the Camelot wheel, a visual representation of which keys are compatible with each other
• Many professional DJs move around the Camelot wheel with every mix.

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• If you just throw any tunes together, the keys will more than likely clash. Think of a bad choir! The reason is that not just any old notes go well together. But if one song is in the same key as the next, or if it is in a related key, the tunes will mix just fine. That means that as a DJ, you can do more adventurous mixing:
• You no longer have to wait until one song is just the drum part before bringing in a musical part of another song
• You can drop acapellas over instrumental background tracks
• You can switch between songs of different keys knowing things will sound OK, as you’ll be able to know when the keys are related
• You know when you can’t mix two songs together musically so you can adjust the type of miix you are going to do accordingly
• You can use advanced techniques, like moving “up” on every mix, to build tension (a trance DJ favourite)
• The reason you can go from 11A to 12A or 5B to 4B (for instance), is that for every key, there are two related keys you can mix well into, and the Camelot wheel is set up so that those keys are one number more or one number less than the current key. That’s why when DJing, if you want your mixes to sound great, you simply do as suggested – go from A to B or back again, or up or down a number – or, of course, stay on exactly the same number/letter combination.

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• Harmonic mixing or key mixing is a DJ's continuous mix between two pre-recorded tracks that are most often either in the same key, or their keys are relative or in a subdominant or dominant relationship with one another.

   

  The primary goal of harmonic mixing is to create a smooth transition between songs. Songs in the same key do not generate a dissonant tone when mixed. This technique enables DJs to create a harmonious and consonant mashup with any music genre.

• key signature
• the sharps or flats placed after a clef in music to indicate the key
• In music, the sharps or flats placed on the staff to indicate the key for a composition or a section. Placement of the symbols on lines and spaces indicates which notes are to be altered by the sharps or flats; for example, a sharp on the top line of the treble clef governs every F on the staff and indicates the key of G major or E minor. Each set of major and minor keys is designated with a particular grouping of sharps or flats.

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