Practising djing.

[Matthew]

The longer version of this Ira Glass interview is great, too, but the distilled version:



Gist being: You get into something creative because you have taste, and want to make something that satisfies your tastes, but you'll initially fall short. Keep at it!

[momo217]

When I was learning scratching and fader control, I would catch myself crabbing on everything that made a click sound. Come to think of it I still do that. So what I did for a pretty long period of time was I took a crossfader out of an old mixer and I would carry it with me pretty much everywhere (I was dedicated). I actually created a spot in the center console of my car and fitted it with the fader. Every song/beat I would hear I would practice my scratches/fader clicks over it. Of course, now they have bluetooth cossfaders that take it to the next level but doing that helped me incredibly. I always recommend it to any new dj. I might have an old CF lying around if you need one.

[dj matt blaze]

what im wondering is why you waited until the last instance of your usage of the word "practice" , to spell it right???

When I was 7 years old I sat down to write a song because I thought it would be "cool" to write a song. This is how this post struck me that "practising DJing" would be something cool except my friends are making fun of me so I have come to a DJ forum with real DJs to justify what I'm doing so I can tell my friends hey this is what real DJs do. It is diminishing what a lot of us here have been doing for years and still doing. The misspelling of "practising" insinuates that DJing is something that doesn't need to be practiced, that its easy and shouldn't be taken too seriously. Its like the people who want to hire a DJ but want to pay you with "food and drink" or "its great exposure" the don't take what we do seriously or put any value to it. This may not have been the intent of the post, but this is how it comes off.

If you are a musician then you already know about practicing and how to do it. Any musician on any instrument doesn't just sit down and start playing a song. You learn, scales, rudiments, technique, that will shape your playing. You constantly have to keep doing those same things to get better at your instrument. Don't worry how you look, just worry about what you're doing to get better. I'm sure your friends think turning knobs and waving your hands in the air is "practising DJing". Just practice.

[Patch]

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[Stewe]

Hey everyone, im just starting to get into controllerism/djing and i have had a few negative comments on my "practising". First thing i want to say is i already have a musical backround (drums, guitar, piano, saxamaphone) and i really enjoy both electronic music and the art of scratching/turntablism. I plan on getting a sx2 in a couple months but found a Kontrol f1 at a garage sale for $50 still in box! So i bought it and have been messing around with that. However a few of my friends have been saying how dumb i look practising my "crossfading". I sometimes just use the up/down fader to practise "scratch style" crossfading until i get my main unit. How ridiculous is it to practise this? I mean it can't hurt right? (or is it a total waste that will have no benefit in learning how to scratch) i also sometimes practice finger drumming on the pads when off :S am i slightly retarded?

You are not retarded bro, you just want to learn something new, even with out a real tools for that job. What you're doing is thinking outside the box. I like that.

But how do you actually scratch with your F1? One fader sure can be mapped to the crossfader.