


Mixing harmonically will make sure that the entirety of your set fits with the mood of the dance floor and stays interesting. Your song choice determines your storytelling and understanding how to stitch your songs together using keys is an incredibly crucial tool.

To keep the story engaging, you have to make sure that the scenes, moods, and emotions feel fluid and dynamic. I like to think of my DJ sets or live performances as short films. Certain songs will not work in conjunction with each other as they are composed in keys that conflict, in the same way, that certain emotions conflict with each other. Chords and keys are used as a reference for emotional expression. The key is essentially the foundational chord of the song and is often played first in a progression. Much like a guitar that is out of tune or a singer that is off-key with the rest of the choir, our ears and brains find it difficult to enjoy dissonance. Certain notes don’t sound as pleasant together as others, and we refer to this as dissonance. We use these notes in a variety of combinations to create arrangements of chords and melodies that eventually form a song. Western uses a system made up of 12 notes. In today’s article, I’m going to explain the importance of harmonic mixing for DJs, and I’ll also show you an easy way to compile and organize your playlists to be harmonically on point. These instances are generally due to mixing songs that aren’t harmonically cohesive. Often during sets, you’ll see a DJ lose a crowd when they switch to a song that doesn’t quite blend into the mood or feel of the set. Playing an unforgettable DJ set comes down to a combination of song selection and set flow.
