How to Manually Beat Match by Ear: Five Practice Drills

Why Learning to Beat Match by Ear Still Matters

Manually beat matching by ear is a skill that takes time to develop, but it builds real confidence when DJing live.

These five practice drills progress in difficulty. You start with the easiest drill first and work through until you're comfortable manually beat matching two random tracks by ear without Beat Sync or BPM counters.

Setting Up Your Practice Tracks

Using drum-only practice tracks makes learning beat matching much easier because you can fully focus without distractions.

These tracks consist just of drums. That means no instruments, no basslines, no vocals to distract you. You can fully focus on beat matching the drums together.

Drill 1: Match the BPMs and Press Play in Time

The first drill is simply moving both tracks to the same BPM and practising pressing play in phrase.

The track on the left is 128 BPM and the track on the right is 125 BPM. Use the tempo fader to bring the right track up to 128 BPM as well. You don't have to be exactly perfect, just get it as close as you can.

Press play on one track, then get used to pressing play on the other track in phrase and in time with the track that's already playing. You'll see a new phrase starting every 32 beats, signalled by a cymbal crash.

Once both tracks are running, nudge the jog wheel to get the beats sitting in time with each other. To speed the track up, nudge the jog wheel clockwise. To slow it down, nudge the sides of the jog wheel anticlockwise.

That will temporarily speed the track up or down, but it won't change the track's BPM. To change the BPM, you need to move the tempo fader. What you're listening out for is both beats playing at exactly the same time.

You can use the Q button to help your timing. Just tap it in time with the beat, then press play. Repeat this multiple times and train your ears to get used to nudging the beats back in together.

Drill 2: Beat Match With a 2 BPM Difference

This drill takes you out of your comfort zone slightly by introducing a 2 BPM gap between the two tracks.

Move one of the tempo faders down to around 126 BPM so there's a 2 BPM difference between the two tracks. Now you know you need to speed the right track up by around 2 BPM. That gives you a direction to work in, and because the tracks are close together, you only need slight nudges and slight adjustments.

The key is do not look at your DJ software screen. Rely fully on your ears to match the right track's BPM to the left.

You'll need to use a combination of nudging the jog wheel to bring the beats back in, and also moving the tempo fader in the same direction until both BPMs are as close as possible. Press play, and then work quickly. The longer you leave it, the further the beats will go out.

If the beats keep going out, move the tempo fader a little bit more in the same direction. The closer you get, the slower it will take for the beats to drift out of time. That means you're getting closer.

If the beats go further apart after a nudge, you've probably gone past the target BPM. Slow the tempo fader back down. If they sound better when you slow down, you need to slow the tempo fader down as well.

Keep adjusting until the beats don't go out of time. Also use the lines on the tempo faders as reference points. Keep an eye on where the fader is sitting as the beats come together.

Then practise it in reverse. Move the track on the left up to 130 BPM so this time you need to slow the right track down. Move the jog wheel anticlockwise and move the tempo fader down in speed. Practice both directions.

Drill 3: Beat Match With a 5 BPM Difference

Increasing the gap to 5 BPM forces you to move faster, make bigger adjustments, and react more quickly.

Set one track to around 132 BPM and slow the other down to around 127 BPM. Now there's a 5 BPM difference between the two tracks.

With a bigger gap, the beats will go out of time a lot faster. You'll need bigger adjustments on the jog wheel to get them in and bigger adjustments on the tempo fader. As you get them closer together, you start to make smaller adjustments.

If you nudge in one direction and the beats go further apart, you're going the wrong way. Change direction. Keep adjusting forwards and backwards until the beats lock in.

When you've done it one way, do it back the other way. Get your ears used to going both faster and slower.

Drill 4: Beat Match Without Looking at the BPMs at All

This drill removes all visual reference — you move both tempo faders to random positions and work purely by ear.

Move the tempo fader on the left to a random position. Move the right one to a random position also. Now you don't know if you need to go faster or slower, or how big the gap is.

Just listening to the beats, use trial and error to get them back in time with each other. Press play and move one track faster. See if the beats get closer together. If they do, move the tempo fader in the same direction. As you get closer, make smaller adjustments.

When the beats stay in time without drifting, that's when you know you're close. If you struggle with this drill, go back to the previous drills where you're looking at the BPMs and you know which direction to go in and by how much.

Drill 5: Beat Match Two Full Real Tracks by Ear

This is the hardest drill — two real tracks with basslines, instruments, vocals, and no drum-only simplicity.

Real tracks have different elements such as basslines, instruments, and vocals. Also, not all tracks have kick drums at the start, which can make it more difficult to beat match.

Start at the same BPM if needed, just like Drill 1, and then work your way up through the progression. Move them 2 BPM apart, then 5 BPM apart, going faster and slower. Then finally put them at random BPMs where you don't know where they are.

Hit play and you've got the full track to try and beat match. You also have a time frame to do it in. What makes it easier is waiting for the kick drums and drums to come in before you begin adjusting.

So give yourself the time frame from the start of the track to the end. Try and beat match without looking at the screens, just using your ears, the jog wheel, and the tempo fader. See if you get them in time and then try and complete a full mix.

If you get comfortable with that, try linking tracks together. Put a few tracks in a playlist, don't look at the screens, and just beat match everything by ear.

Final Thoughts on Manual Beat Matching

Personally, this skill isn't used much anymore in modern DJing, but knowing it builds real confidence.

We have better technology now with BPM counters and Beat Sync. However, when DJing live, feeling confident that if anything goes wrong you can always use your ears to manually beat match is genuinely valuable.

It is a repetition game. You have to keep doing it over and over and over again to train your ears to get used to the beats going in and out and back in time with each other. It's not going to be something that happens overnight. It is a skill that's going to take a while to learn.

Summary: Five Beat Matching Drills