What is Key Mixing?

With all the technology available to us as DJs these days, we have a lot of mixing tools available at our disposal. Blending, crossfading, EQ mixing, scratching, and effects are just a small sampling of such tools. All of these work together to help us create seamless transitions at our events to keep our dance floors packed and busy. However, if you’ve mastered beat-matching and are looking to take your mixes to the next level of smoothness, key mixing may be the next technique to add to your tool kit.

All songs are played in a certain key, which is a set of notes that form the base that the song is played around. Certain keys sound happy and upbeat, others sound ominous or sad, and some can even instantly bring certain genres to mind like jazz or blues. There are dozens of variations of musical keys, but most popular music falls within one of 24 major and minor keys. These 24 keys can be graphically arranged on something called the circle of fifths, or Camelot wheel.

The circle of fifths, or Camelot wheel
Alright, music theory lesson aside, why would a DJ care about musical keys? Because we are constantly combining songs with different keys, and while certain ones can sound amazing together, a lot of them sound terrible when they are blended. For a DJ, a perfectly beat-mixed transition between two tracks can sound like a trainwreck if clashing keys cause dissonance. You’ve probably experienced this before – you’ve got two songs with similar BPMs lined up perfectly, but as you’re fading between them something doesn’t sound quite right. However, get two songs together with complementary keys and you’ll love the results.

The circle of fifths, or Camelot wheel

The great news is that you don’t even need to buy any more equipment or software to begin mixing in key. While programs are available for purchase to analyze and tag your music with key information, all of the most popular DJ software nowadays will analyze your tracks and label them with the key automatically. The results may not always be perfect, but it’s a great way to get your feet wet with key mixing before deciding if you want (or even need) to buy additional software.

So how do you get started with key mixing? It’s simple. First, make sure that the “key” column is enabled in your library browser within your DJ software. This is usually as simple as right-clicking on the column headings above the library and making sure “key” is selected. If your songs have been analyzed, they should already have a number (from 1-12) and a letter (A or B) in this column.

The key of the song is circled in the top right of this image
To find compatible keys to mix in, all you need to do is make sure the songs you are mixing are not more than one number or letter apart from each other. For example, a song that’s in the key 5A can be blended with a song that is 4A, 6A, or 5B. A song that’s labeled 11B can be mixed with 10B, 12B, or 11A. It’s that easy! Jumping to a compatible key is not always possible (depending on the size of your library and the BPM you are at), but as you practice you’ll get a feel for what keys definitely should NOT go together and what you should avoid.

Key mixing is a next-level skill that will add another layer of polish and shine to your mixes. Give it a try the next time you’re behind the decks!