5 Easy Steps to Being a Great DJ

Last time I wrote about the 5 Elements of a Good Night Club, if you haven’t read that article have a look and you’ll see me getting into a little bit of why I thought the #1 most important element of a good night club was the DJ. In essence, it’s all about the music!

1. Being ahead of the curve. How hard is it to be ahead of the curve? Well in my opinion if you want to make it as a DJ you have to give it your all, there is a ton of competition out there and you have to set yourself apart from the rest. Simple suggestion…get on the newsletter list of all the top mp3 download sites such as Beatport.com, Trackitdown.net, djdownload.com, etc. As you listen to the latest music being produced you’ll be able to see where the music is going and how it is changing (this comes with years of experience). Now you have one leg up.
   
   
2. Master the art of mixing. Don’t be freaking lazy, you are a DJ and your art is to be able to blend two tracks together seamlessly. Immerse yourself in this, get books, watch videos (youtube is a great free source), ask friends to listen to your mixes and give you constructive feedback. Then when you post your set to a site (plug here for www.thefreshpage.com!) become part of the community and ask for feedback. The only way you can get better is by listening to this feedback.
   
   
3. Be prepared when you have a gig. Plan your track listing out beforehand, in fact, plan out more than one track listing and gage the crowd and the night for which direction you want to take people. Practice these mixes several nights leading up to your gig and record them so you can review the mixes and think of ways to improve it. This sounds smart doesn’t it? How many dj’s do you think actually do this? Do they really not have time for it, or are they simply being too lazy and wasting too much time on facebook?
   
   
4. Get to your gig early and do a bit of socializing and networking. Several weeks back when I went to a venue to hear Miguel Migs I was shocked to see him mingling in the crowd and absorbing what the atmosphere was all about. In fact, I noticed that he had no pretensions about himself, and when I went to talk to him he was just like any other ordinary guy and smiled and thanked me for saying hi. My level of respect for him, went up THAT much higher! Now how do you think I will react when I hear about his next cd release? I’m probably going to go out of my way to show support for him. So lesson: get off your high horses dj’s! You will be much more successful if you do.
   
   
5. Watch the crowd and feed off their energy. Without a doubt the most pleasurable experiences I have had at a club or party has been when the DJ is so into their music it physically shows. Now some dj’s go a little over board on this part, but for the most part you can still be professional and at the same time exude an energy that influences everyone around you. So watch the crowd and see how they are reacting to your current track. If everyone is just barely shuffling their feet, step it up. Throw in that track you had pre-planned to bomb the place and really physically express how pumped you are to play this music. Great examples of dj’s who follow this rule are Donald Glaude, DJ Heather, Fedde Le Grand to name a few.

Now that wasn’t too bad was it? Doesn’t it all just make sense? So why are there so few dj’s out there that follow all these steps? I’d love to hear feedback on this article and if you get a chance to follow these points (hint: print it out!) and provide your experience that would definitely make my year!