Track Structure - DJing Tips
A page of sheet music

Track Structure

To mix well, you’ll need to become very familiar with the structure of a typical dance track. Fortunately, as if to make the DJ’s life easier, most records follow pretty much the same pattern. Knowing this pattern will allow you to tell where the music is heading and to manipulate it accordingly.

Let’s start with the basics. Every dance tune has kick drum beats, which define its rhythm: “boom, boom, boom, boom.” The beats come in groups of four that are called bars. The first beat of every bar is usually stressed to make it more distinguishable from the other three. In short, whereas the waltz is “one, two, three; one, two, three…,” house and other club music styles are “one, two, three, four; one, two, three, four…”

Here’s the very first bar of one of my favorite tunes:

The bars are in turn grouped into 4- and 8-bar chunks called phrases. A 4-bar phrase has 16 beats (4 x 4) and an 8-bar one has 32 (4 x 8). Here’s a 4-bar phrase from that same track’s intro, with a couple of seconds before and after it (the phrase itself starts between 00:01 and 00:02 and ends at 00:09):

Phrases are important because all parts of a track (intro, verse, chorus and so on) consist of an even number of 4-bar phrases. Thus all major changes in the music take place at regular intervals that normally equal to one or two 8-bar chunks. Here’s a typical verse that’s two 8-bar phrases long (starts between 00:04 and 00:05, ends at 00:35):

Can you hear the notable changes taking place in the music at the beginning of each 8-bar phrase? At 00:05, Su’Su Bobien starts singing; between 00:19 and 00:20, the piano kicks in; at 00:35, the chorus begins.

Now that you know what bars and phrases are, let’s take a typical house tune and break it down into parts. Here’s Get Down by Todd Terry All Stars (Kenny Dope Original Mix):

Listen carefully! The record follows this pattern:

  1. Intro – 16 bars
  2. Instrumental chorus – 16 bars
  3. Verse – 8 bars
  4. Chorus – 8 bars
  5. Verse – 8 bars
  6. Chorus – 16 bars
  7. Verse – 16 bars
  8. Chorus – 16 bars
  9. Bridge – 24 bars
  10. Breakdown – 8 bars
  11. Chorus – 16 bars
  12. Instrumental chorus – 16 bars
  13. Outro – 16 bars

This song’s structure is a good illustration of the typical dance track pattern: Intro, verses/choruses, bridge, breakdown, chorus, outro. First comes the intro – usually a pure kick drum with claps, snare and possibly some percussion, on top of which other instruments and samples are layered. The intro may end with a small breakdown that builds up the anticipation of the new track. Sometimes, like in Get Down, there’s the instrumental chorus instead of the breakdown that announces the track with a familiar hook.

After the instrumental chorus or the small breakdown, the first verse begins, which is followed by chorus. Then comes the second verse. After the second or the third chorus, there comes the bridge and then the breakdown, where the beat totally disappears; it’s the most dramatic part of the track. During the breakdown, the anxiety rises higher and higher, and when the crowd is already screaming with anticipation, the beat returns and the track reaches its climax – the last chorus that may be repeated several times. The last chorus may be followed by an instrumental one, after which the track returns to the pure drum beat of the outro.

Of course, every song has its peculiarities and the sample structure above isn’t followed verbatim by each and every dance track. Nevertheless, the general pattern is always the same, and we’ll be taking advantage of it when learning how to mix.

About the Author JM

JM has played open-air gigs, shared the stage with the likes of ATB and had mix albums released commercially. He has been teaching DJing since 2008.

  • JJ says:

    buddy please send me the name of the track you used to explains bars… I need it!! I promise i won’t tell anybody else… i know how it is.

    • JM says:

      Hey man, that’s not a huge secret or something 🙂 The track is Su’Su Bobien – Keep It To Myself (Eric Kupper Classic Pump Mix).

  • Jon N. says:

    In this example, the intro has 16 bars and the bridge has 24 bars. Do you refer to the intro as having 4 x 4 bar phrases or 2 x 8 bar phrases? As well as the bridge, is it 8 x 4 bar phrases, or 3 x 8 bar phrases? I’m not clear on this, sorry.

    • Jon N. says:

      Sorry I got my math wrong with the bridge, I meant to ask if it is 6 x 4 bar phrases or is it 3 x 8 bar phrases.

      • JM says:

        Depends on what you consider a phrase as it could be 4 or 8 bars. I tend to think in terms of 8-bar phrases as most changes in a track happen every 8 bars. So I’d say that that track’s bridge is 3 phrases long.

  • Tutti Serrano says:

    Hi there…
    I just wanna say THAN YOU for your time and this awesome educational page!
    May more knowledge come to you since whoever teaches only can get BETTER!

  • dhruv says:

    Hey have you uploaded any tutorial videos for beatmatching. I want to learn it.

  • Rochelle says:

    Great so helpful thank you

  • Rebekah says:

    This website is amazing. Thank you so much for creating it; it’s perfect for someone starting out like myself. Can I ask you what you mean by ‘bridge’? Thanks again JM.

    • JM says:

      It’s an instrumental part that’s neither a verse or a chorus, typically takes place just before the breakdown. You’re welcome 🙂

  • Hamouda says:

    Hi, I wanna say Thnx for this article it’s amazing and my question is what’s the groove ???

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