The Deep House Mix v. The Progressive House mix

Aloha,

I have recently been asked to play a night that is geared more towards progressive house fans. So last night I figured I would practice a bit and spin only progressive house compared to my typical deep house. I am sure for some of you this is a no brainer yet spinning these two genres are completely different in terms of working the transitions and length of the actual mix.

Most deep house tracks carry the melody and bassline almost to the very end of the track whereas progressive house breaks down much earlier. It leads me to wonder if a producer's song structure is influenced by how the DJ actually uses the track. I know when I produced dance music, before I became a DJ, all my DJ friends were asking me to extend the intros and outtros to allow for longer mixing. I am constantly reminded of mistakes I made in producing tracks by the very things that frustrate me now about certain tracks.

OK back to the topic. Deep house mixes are shorter, creating either exciting shifts during the mix or short seamless transitions. Progressive house mixes succeed with the length of the mix and integration of both tracks elements producing a short musical play between both tracks. So what is essential for great progressive house mixes you ask...great beat matching. All good DJing starts with clean, consistent beat matching. Spinning progressive house and striving for the perfect 2 minute mix will definitely test your beat matching skills and your ear for more intricate programming.

Hopefully this was somewhat informative or entertaining.

Geoffrey / Mint DJ