DJ advice not talked about enough — A Guide to Grow your DJ career
6 practical tips you can start applying TODAY to grow your DJ career
I’ve been DJ’ing since 2016 — I picked up the art right after I had graduated from university.
Much like any new skill, when I first started I was horrible. Yet — somehow I got booked. Then, I continued to get booked. Don’t ask me how because I still don’t know. It took people saying yes and willing to pay as a sign I was doing something right. My confidence began to grow, but my skills came to a halt. I had begun to plateau. Thankfully, I got help and mentorship at the right time. These were some of the elements that really helped me become more well rounded . Not just as a DJ — but as a performer.
I found myself becoming bored, letting records draw out because I did not have the skills to mix things up and keep them fresh. Here are 6 tips to grow your skill set.
Develop both hands
All my one handed DJs know the drill, especially those not formally trained. You learn how to do some scratches, all pretty poorly, on your dominant hand (you learn backward and put your strong hand on the record and not the crossfader :/ now you’re stuck learning the harder way). You instant double the record over, do the same messy scratch with your dominant hand, rinse and repeat.
Boring right? Perhaps not to the casual listener, but to the DJs that really appreciate the art.
Developing both hands is crucial. When it comes to your hands, they are like a father and son. One is always a season ahead of the other; they have the same genetic makeup, but little differences and nuisances that make them who they are. That translates into the scratches that sound similar but also slightly different adding a new variation to your sets.
Another important reason to develop both hands is so that you can pull off juggles, phases, flashes, and all of the other techniques that allow you to break down beats of records and create a new sound no one has ever heard before.
Lastly, it helps you get out of pinches easier. No DJ set is ever executed perfectly, but part of the magic of being a true DJ is the ability to correct and mask errors. Having a strong off hand will allow you to take a step closer to creating seamless mixes.
Music theory — keys
Music is one of those mediums of art that regardless of someone’s experience, they know when it sounds amazing without knowing WHY. But on the reverse, they know when it sounds off, even if they have never taken any music theory.
I have a love-hate relationship with this fact. My hate comes from the revelation of how tough it can be to always get right. To get to the next level I conformed and realized that as a DJ you HAVE to be musically competent to keep up with all of the talent that exists in the DJ space these days. Your audience will appreciate it without ever knowing why. Trust me.
Understanding music theory is important, but specifically understanding what it means to DJ in key. Serato makes it simple with the Camelot wheel concept. I’m not going to go deep into what it means but here is a simple overview.
DJ software like Serato, Rekordbox, etc. provide keys in the form of a camelot wheel. They are color, number and letter coded to show what tracks should be blend well together.
Here is a quick run down: if the numbers match, the letter can vary. If the letters match the numbers can vary by “1” variable up or down. This is not a one size fits all description, but if you’ve never heard of the concept of DJing in key the first 4 sentences should get your mixes immediately sounding better. Great. Now read this paragraph again. Repeat until it makes sense.
Clean up your scratches
“Inevitably we find ourselves tackling too many things at the same time, spreading our focus so thin that nothing gets the attention it deserves. This is commonly referred to as “being busy.” Being busy, however, is not the same thing as being productive.”
― Ryder Carroll, The Bullet Journal Method: Track the Past, Order the Present, Design the Future
When I first started learning how to scratch, babies, chirps, flares, boomerangs… I thought that learning more would make me better. In actuality what happened was I made my cuts too busy and sloppy. They were not clean or defined. The time signatures were all similar. Everything was double time. I didn’t understand triplets, quarter notes, using drags to change pitch (if you don’t know what I mean by time signatures use this resource here).
My cuts would get boring because they sounded the same. Something had to change. I needed to be good at less.
I stopped trying to learn more scratches and went back to the foundations. I started using time signatures on just a few scratches, babies, chirps, flares, pick ups, and stabs.
That is it. Drill over and over until you get it. Add one scratch every couple months and build up to 5–6 to rotate through. Over time, you will find yourself not just getting nice, but getting NICE. Next time you turn on your DJ equipment, start off with a cut session. Be intentional, spend 5–10 minutes working on one single scratch. It will test and challenge your focus, but you will be thankful you did it.
Use your ears to blend
Before DJ software that included waveforms, BPM counters, key info, it was all on the DJ to translate that information in realtime to make blends. DJs would write the BPM of the 12 inch single on the record and sort the records based on the order they would perform the track.
Now, we rely on our computers. Almost to a fault. I consider DJing my God space. A place where I can connect to the music on a deeper level. As corny as it sounds, hearing my blends, instead of seeing them, makes the experience that much more enriching.
What do I mean by hearing instead of seeing? Feel the music. Adjust pitch without relying on the BPMs. Understand the energy levels of music as it often will give you indicators of key. Your eyes need to be on your environment, the crowd, NOT glued to your computer. It is safe to say you probably spend a lot of time looking at your library to find your next song. Don’t give yourself more reason to be locked into your computer.
To practice, start grabbing songs within a similar BPM range, you know that cue function on your mixer? Yeah, use that. Start adjusting the pitch until it sits. You may be a tad too fast, a tad too slow, use your ears to know when to push or drag the sound to get it to sit again. At first it will seem impossible to get a blend to work, but it gets easier and more natural the more you commit to the skill.
Lastly, not all information on DJ software is always correct — keys may be off, BPM inaccurate. Specifically when you get into acapellas, the BPM is almost always clocked incorrectly. This is when this skill really comes in handy and your mixes hit that next level.
Understand sound engineering — peaking, decibels, balance frequencies
You know the old saying, you aren’t headlining if you aren’t redlining.
Wrong.
A DJs priority should always be maintaining a clear sound in the venue as well as entertaining the audience with good music. And that “clear sound” comes with proper settings on your equipment.
How you mix is one thing. How it translates to speakers is another beast. I had the fortune of working with a front and back of house team that taught me how to send my DJ signal to their setups so that it would sound crispy. However, most don’t get this luxury. Here is a quick crash course.
The best way to set the volume on your DJ set-up is from the end to beginning, which means starting with your PA system and ending on your software.
On every standard DJ mixer you have a Master Level that controls the entire output of sound from your mixer into the speakers. Then, on each channel you have trim levels.
You will see level meters on each channel, as well as a master channel. Green means good, yellow you’re pushing it, and red means your sound is now beginning to distort. Distortion in your mixes can quickly become an audibly uncomfortable experience for your party.
Trim levels should be used to adjust each individual mix whether one side is a pinch too loud, or perhaps an acapella needs a slight boost. At the conclusion of the blend, it is typically best to reset trim levels to return to a desirable level.
If you do not have a sub be aware of how the highs affect the overall sound without the presence of lows with the bass. It can get tricky, but every so often, step out from behind your setup to assess where you are at.
Clean up and enhance your presentation
We’ve all seen it, and some of us have been there. The messy cord setup. The OCD in me dies a little inside whenever I see cords everywhere.
Having a clean presentation MATTERS. For a closer comparison look at the difference. I tried to find a basic setup that consisted of the same components to keep the comparison relevant.
With no comparison of ability for which DJ is better, which would you trust more for your big day based on aesthetic presentation? I know my answer. Not everyone is a mobile DJ, but even if you’re just setting up your turntables or controller, pay attention to the aesthetic.
Outside of the cleanliness alone, not all of your profit earned from DJing should be spent on lifestyle. When you begin to realize that you are a business, your skill is a business, you realize that a large portion of your revenue made as a DJ should be used to enhance your gear, add new marketing elements to your setups, and purchase more reliable gear. The chains and the cool stuff will come, I promise.
See how my red cord ruined this shot? Also notice the social handle front and center for those in the crowd to connect.
Start brainstorming on what lighting and other elements you can add to upgrade your experience and grow your career as a DJ.
Iman Tucker a proud member of Believe Brand Co.
Believe Brand is a faith based apparel company who exists to allow others to express their faith and contribute to local causes through the proceeds.
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