Unprepared DJ's

[tokenasianguy]

How do you think we all learned when we were starting out? ok, fair enough i bought a pair of techs and played hand-me-down vinyl from a mate, Who showed me basically how to beatmatch, i still had to go home and spend hours and hours learning how to do what and how to do it right, how did i learn to use CDJs? good/bad habits? i went into the club and watched a guy playing, for weeks, i knew the basic principals of DJing but watching other DJs nurtures you. Plus theres half a million youtube vids these days on how to dj, go watch them.

When I started DJ'ing YouTube didn't exist.

I didn't have anyone to teach me either.

Videos might be good for technique, but if someone is interested in becoming a mobile DJ, there's a lot more that you need to learn about being prepared, that you can sometimes only learn through trial and error. I DJ'd in the club scene for 7 years before I started doing weddings and events. I felt like I was basically re-learning everything after being a house specialist in a club and moving to mobile DJ.

[IrishBlaggard]

ah sure its like jumping into the deep end in the pool before the invention of arm bands... if you couldn't swim you were f@@ked...

but now having sync buttons as arm bands , everyone thinks there and olympic swimmer

[Jason Cerna]

When I started DJ'ing YouTube didn't exist.

I didn't have anyone to teach me either.

this ^^^

even though i had dj friends, the closest thing i had to them teaching me, was me watching them occasionally mix at their gigs.

but, i never asked any questions. i did all the learning on my own.

it can be done, it will just take you longer.

[Cook]

When I started DJ'ing YouTube didn't exist.

I didn't have anyone to teach me either.

Post was aimed at wanabee djs,
Its here now, and is a useful tool, so they should take advantage.

[Threefeet]

It used to be decks 15 years ago .. I used to be selling about 20 - 30 sets of Kam or Gemini boxsets a week alongside 10 backorders for techs.

Yep but it was to be guitars before that!

In seriousness though at least there was an initial outlay for your vinyl and equipment so you had to be either stupid, rich or save your pennies which there just isn't anymore.

You're right, the cost of entry was a lot higher back then, but surely the lower cost now is a good thing? How is allowing more people to try their hand at DJing negative? Obviously the kids with equipment and talent will beat out the kids without either, in the long run. Of course there'll always be the "who you know" element, but overall I think talent wins out.

Totally off topic, but this phrase is one of my major bugbears ... something is either unique, or it's not.

Apologies, I'll grab a brush and start cleaning the bits of your head off the ceiling and walls To go even further off topic, my pet hate is the misuse of "your/you're" and "there/their/they're". I swear I can almost hear people saying "your" instead of "you're" when they speak

being knee deep in the digital age, these same kids will get bored and move on to some other flavor of the month "hobby."

Some will undoubtedly move onto a new hobby but more will stay with it than before due to the lower entry barrier swelling their numbers.

since most of them have never started on vinyl records, they have no real appreciation for their consumption of music as a dj. so much is available at a mouse click, they lose that connection with actually searching for a track that they think will really be hot. their mindset is quantity over quality.

I think people are focusing on the negatives. While I agree that of course quality trumps quantity, the fact remains that exposure to a higher quantity of tracks equals more quality discoveries.

many kids think everything will be handed to them and all they have to do is jesus pose and profit.

Really like that line, "Jesus pose and profit". Throw in the hot girl from biology class and I think you just described half of teenage male dreams right there

Ok I'm going to try and stop multi-quote-arguing with everyone at once

[Nicky H]

Well when i started DJing things were different

Yep you used these

[dj stifffy]

I think this quote is somewhat true and ive read it in many books, " you will learn more in an hour playing out then you will in a year of bedroom dj'ing" but yeah most peeps want gigs to be able to call themselves the magical dj name, and for theee bitchesssss.

[sobi]

don't dare say anything about it or you'll be labeled as unfriendly and unhelpful.

Thats another pet peeve for me... at least around here in this forum. I seriously doubt you would try to go start a job you really have no idea about and then troll the internet looking for people to tell you how to do it. It's really mind blowing.

[PartyMcFly]

Anyone remember when it was cool to have a guitar? Now it's decks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_j8BG-ybng

[sobi]

If you don't have training or at least someone mentoring you, how else are you supposed to learn?

Quite simply by staying in the bedroom until you feel 100% confident you know what to do for a night you've been asked to play at.

Sometimes people think that they're ready, only to realize they missed something.

And that's the way it should be. Go out ONLY when you feel 101% ready and knowledgeable on your shit. That's when and where a DJ's "on the job training" should begin. Idealistically, it should be at the beginning of a gig with someone else who knows what they are doing. That, or in an opening/closing slot with no one in the club, so you don't test drive your Lamborghini DJ skills on clubbers, only to find out it's really a toyota prius, and your about to wrap it around a telephone pole that is the listeners ears.