How to DJ Deep House (Beginner DJ Guide)

Deep House is an amazing sound in the spectrum of House music. If you love listening to Deep House but want to start DJing or at least be inspired by DJing Deep House then this ‘How to DJ Deep House Guide’ is for you.

Follow the steps below to give you a good grounding of knowledge to start DJing Deep house. A good solid foundation of DJ skills and knowledge of Deep House will get you started.

1. Understand the Deep House sound

Tempo

Definition of Deep House is a groovy, vocal and a flowing sub-genre of House in the region of 125 bpm, can be as slow as 110bpm.

Sounds

Deep House features influences from soul, jazz and funk sounds, and in some cases (for me personally) I hear some older flavours of Speed Garage sounds in some tunes, e.g. Timmy P – What You Sayin.

Drum Pattern

Deep House obviously follows the same 4/4 time signature, that common House kick drum thumping on every beat.

Chords

You might come across some styles of Deep House using seventh and ninth chords to make repetitive chord patterns throughout the track.

Bass

Basslines can vary in sound with some being more prominent in some tracks taking more of a lead. This can mean the bass sounds are synths and more often than not alongside vocals or vocal stabs, chopping throughout the mix.

On the flip side there are Deep House tracks with proper Funk and Soul sounding basslines from Bass Guitar sounds. These sorts of Deep House tracks lead with a chord rhythm or that are the underlying tone and groove jelling everything together. Sometimes with a sample of older soul or funk track taking the lead.

When a funk / soul sample, vocals or chord takes the lead role in the track, the bassline is usually less prominent but more of an underlying tone and groove jelling everything together.

Prominent sounds in Deep House include:

Drums 4 x4 kick drum with a crisp snare clap combination
Bass
Chord synths / chord sample stabs
Percussion
Vocals
FX

Here are a few of examples to highlight the variations in Deep House.

2. Build a collection of Deep House ready to mix

Popular Artists in Deep House

Some of my favourite artists in this scene include:

Saison
Pierre Moritz
Kerri Chandler
Sebb Junior
Zetbee
Coeo
Marshall Jefferson
Crackazat

Where to Get Deep House Music (Plus Example Playlist)

Traxsource.com

To purchase House music and Deep House I personally find that Traxsource. Click here for their Deep House section.

For me, when visiting this amazing website, I feel like very reminiscent of crate digging in a record vinyl shop. Some of the tracks are just pure Deep House rollers and sort of hidden gems pop up now and again.

Beatport.com

Failing that Beatport has a fantastic collection of top Deep House artists. The file format quality of music that arises from Beatport is always the best out of all the downloading websites I’ve come across.

Checking out the top 100 Deep House tracks on Beatport can also give you some inspiration for popular tracks in this sub-genre.

Music Streaming

If you’re not a fan of downloading and buying music then you can always connect your Soundcloud account or Beatport LINK account to your DJ software and not download a thing. (Remember, it’s not always easy to record DJ sets via DJ software).

Spotify

In terms of gaining inspiration for building your DJ sets I’d recommend getting on Spotify and search for some playlists. It’s a great way to find new and old tracks that can work well for your DJ sets.

3. Learn to Beatmatch

Beatmatching is the art of aligning two beats together so they are hitting at exactly the same time.

This means that two beats playing will be at exactly the same BPM e.g. 124 bpm, with both kick drums hitting at exactly the same time. When both tracks are “in the mix” you won’t really notice a separate track and the rhythm will keep the same (which is great for keeping your audience bopping and dancing along to your DJing).

How to beatmatch?

The quick and easy way is to press the SYNC button on your DJ controller, the DJ software utilises the grids snapped to the beats and automatically beat matches. This is great for hobby DJs who want to just muckabout with DJing for fun. If you’re super serious about DJing as a profession it’s best to not rely on SYNC button, technology can go wrong.
Beat matching by ear using the pitch shifter on the turntable is the main way of beat matching, along side the jog wheel to slightly align beats to be perfectly matched. DJ software and modern DJ equipment does give you the advantage of seeing what the tempo of each track is set to, which makes it a lot easier to move the pitch shifters to match the BPM showing on the digital screens / DJ software.

4. Practice creatively mixing Deep House tracks

EQ & Filter Blends

EQ (High / Mid / Low) controls are featured on both Channels of your DJ mixer, these allow you to control frequencies of each track. Blending in and out of each frequency can help you have greater control vs simply switching the crossfader.

LPF and HPF are usually a common feature on DJ mixers and DJ Controllers. They allow you to control frequencies being heard through the speakers with the control of one switch. LPF simply will play all of the bass frequencies (until nearly inaudible), HPF will play all high end frequencies.

Looping

Looping can be a DJs best friend. It allows for great control in a couple of areas including:

Looping a track at the beginning or end of a track – gives you more time to beatmatch or not panic so much if you’re running out of time to blend in a track.
Looping for build up effects when transitioning into a drop. This can work really well by making an 8 bar loop shorter and shorter until its almost sounding like its own sound effect. Adding something like reverb or echo can really compliment a looping transition to sound super professional in the mix transition.

Mix Using Acapellas

There are some tracks you might find that do not have that much of a vocal section, or are instrumental tracks. Using acapellas (purely vocals) can really help you mix up your DJ sets.

For example you could mix in a really old classic sounding acapella on top of a brand new Deep House track. Quite a good way to grab the attention of existing listeners of older music and newer music at the same time.

Harmonic Mixing

Mixing music tracks that are harmonically aligned can make a DJ set sound that even smoother in transition during the mix. The blends between tracks sound harmonious and very seamless.

DJ software such as Rekordbox, Serato and Traktor are quite good at highlighting other tracks in your playlist that are in key and harmonically compatible.

Mixed In Key is an external bit of software that allows you to upload your music collection and Key and Energy will be added to your music tracks information. Which you can then add back onto your DJ software. Therefore allowing you to identify music tracks that are compatible in key.

5. Build a playlist & record a DJ set

Playlist Building

My advice is to build manual and also automatic playlists in the DJ software that you’ve collected all of your music.

For you DJ beginners reading this guide, start off by creating just one simple playlist for your Deep House music, say around 40 to 60 tracks to allow you to practice DJing and mixing up a 30 to 60 minute set.

Below are a couple of articles on Beatmatch Guru website to get you started organising your playlists efficiently.

11 Tips on How DJs Store & Organise Their Music

10 Tips to Organise Your Music in Rekordbox

Recording DJ Sets

Recording your first DJ set in Deep House is going to be great if you’ve completed the steps above. Stick with 30 minute DJ mixes at the beginning to to get used to your Deep House music tracks.

Recording can be relatively easy by clicking record on your DJ software. Alternatively, check out the below article to help you with recording options for your DJ mixes.

Final DJ Tips for mixing Deep House

Follow DJs on YouTube channels for track selection inspiration

Chris Luno is a great House DJ with a fantastic channel offering smooth and effective mixes on YouTube, not to mention some great locations in which he DJs. He mixes a variety of House including, progressive, deep and melodic.

I think his style of DJing really great and lends perspective on mixing a genre vs sub-genre. Why stick with one sub-genre when you can cater to all vibes and sit under the umbrella of HOUSE music.

Definitely a DJ to learn from and gain some little House music track gems in his DJ sets that you can use in yours too.

Live Stream your DJ sets to get better at DJing

Live streaming is a great way to gain technical knowledge, gain experience of DJing live to people and allow you gain exposure as a DJ.

Mixcloud is my go to live streaming platform as there are no issues with copyright takedowns during your DJ sets. I don’t foresee this being an issue in the future either.

Remember, try to get feedback from family, friends and followers to understand how well you are DJing plus potential feedback on getting better at DJing. For example, feedback on beatmatching, tune selection, stage presence etc.

Promote yourself via mixes, content and social media

If you’re live streaming a lot, why not consider recording your DJ sets so that you have an audio and video file to edit together? You can easily utilise this content and add to your YouTube channel, social media channels, use a promo material and also publish to your website if you have one.

Leveraging content such as live streams can really help you get an online presence and provide evidence when networking with other DJs and promoters that you’re the real deal.

Network at Deep House events to gain DJ gigs

On the point of networking, make sure that you attend DJ gigs and club events for Deep House (if that’s still your thing after this article).

Making sure you attend Deep House events or at least get active in an online community of Deep House (or House in general) online will give you a way of building up contacts.

The general rule of thumb is to offer support to other people in the scene and they will potentially be able to help you out in the future. The results could be beneficial for gaining DJ sets or maybe even getting a few tracks signed to record label if music production is your thing too.

Practice makes perfect

Remember, to get good at anything you need a roadmap of the essential skills, you need to practice those skills consistently and gain feedback on your performance. Set your goals and never give up.

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