Yeah, at the moment I DJ as a bedroom-hobby because I love electronic music and hip-hop tunes, and DJ at small venues and house-parties to a crowd that I already know and identify with musically. To become a 'DJ' in the professional sense is a LOT harder. The basic skills of mixing, beat-matching and crossovers take some perfecting, but the craft that you'll be learning for the rest of your life is how to play to an audience. DJ'ing is a musical talent, without question, but the bigger talent lies in being an entertainer and conductor of partayssss. KEN is talking about the hip-hop / turntablism side of DJ'ing a little more from what I'm talking about - as far as club/electronic music goes, it's more simple in fundamentals but has just as much room for the flashy tricks with queue-points and mixing in FX. DJ'ing is a bit of a financial investment as well... none of the stuff comes particularly cheap, and if you do buy the 'entry level' gear, I can guarantee you'll want to sell it within 12 months and there will be no one to flog it to. My first piece of advice (from my limited experience) is to splash out on the DJ headphones and turntables that you're likely to stick with. Or, if you're like me, buy the mixer and sound-setup that will last; I do most of my DJ'ing using CD's and MP3's so I don't 'use' turntables as such, more often controllers and mixers.KEN-JENNINGS wrote:
It's not hard to pick up at all, especially if you have an ear for music. The hard part comes in perfecting the crossovers, doing little dj "tricks" like cutting in and out, scratching, double drops, etc. I kind of dj as a hobby but it's more often just fucking around on my turntables for fun. I don't have any desire to spin in clubs or make beats or anything, it's just relaxing.JakAttaK wrote:
Uzique, on a scale of 1-10, 10 being the hardest. Just how hard is it to pick up DJ'ing?
Pochsy - I love the classical/nylon string guitar sound. I've seen Ottmar Leibert twice in the last year, truly amazing stuff. A buddy also recently got me into Michael Hedges so I've been checking out a lot of his stuff. He's a little out there with some of his expiremental stuff but extremely talented nonetheless.
Personally I don't think I'll ever stop picking up new music and learning new ways to put together mixes. 300Gb of music and counting, and I still don't have the 'ear' to recognise when songs are 'naturally' good for a setlist. I have to properly sit and think it out. I guess I still just enjoy albums and songs for what they are, rather than live-DJ material. I really recommend it though, even if you're partying at small house parties, it has a lot of perks .
libertarian benefit collector - anti-academic super-intellectual. http://mixlr.com/the-little-phrase/
