Best methods of practice

[djalexlaine]

well, my first question is, are you practicing or preparing mixsets/podcasts. you will need to come at them from different angles...
just practicing, just play stuff, mess around, just go from track to track with no agenda, strive to improve your technique and learn what sounds good together. learn how to build or release energy during a mix and different ways actually mixing the tracks.
if you are preparing a mixset or podcast... before you start, you need to have an end goal (if you are making a demo for a promoter, you may need to demonstrate that you can restrain yourself for an opening slot...), what sound do you want, what big tracks do i want to play. think about what you want it to be before you make it, make sure you are giving a good mix of older and brand spankin new tracks (or even promos/unreleased stuff, although be careful what you put into the public. i have some friends that send me new and unreleased stuff and i never put them on a downloadable mixset. save them for the club)

the biggest tip is to record everything and listen to it. be super critical, take notes and send it to some people who are better djs then you are. i still send all my mixsets and demos to a dj friend of mine for him to listen to before i post them, i know that im not the greatest thing since sliced bread and hes been djing since i was in primary school.

[Ciar2001]

That's a very good pointer from Alex send it to someone you know is critical but also a friend who will be critical in a positive way, on soundcloud depending on the style of music that i am mixing i pick a select 4-6 friends to take a listen before I publish anything just to make sure they like it.

[BradCee]

if i plan on recording a mix i hit juno for 10 tracks that make a feasible playlist, grid em, have a tinker. go back the next day and throw down with them and whatever takes my mood at the time to pad it out to the 20 or so i like to hit in an hour.

pretty much most of mp3 shopping is done like that actually, buy tracks that make sense together, not just because i like them. have mini playlists within playlists then. i don't bother reordering my playlists just leave them as i drop them in. organisational nightmare, but i'm never more than 3 or 4 tracks away from the 'perfect' track.

[minimal]

I find that over-preparing never works for me, kills the spontaneity & tension.
I try to build a set of stuff I think will work but then I just wing it.

You gotta be on the edge to get good results. If you're just going through a preplanned list list it just kills it, in my experience.

Needless to say I never use a playlist live.

[cutflow]

Hey guys,

So I've been hitting a brick wall lately (always) with my practicing and wanted to reach out to see if anyone would have helpful tips / perspective.

Goals for my mixing usually entails getting in an hour's mix and/or coming out with a good idea for a future podcast.

Usually I sit down, find a song I want to start with, and then start shuffling through my library and try to find something that mixes well with that song. I REALLY try to make my first mix strong (by my standards) and find myself never really finding that perfect that to mix in! I'll try 10 songs, which I usually have to stop and grid, and then get frustrated and quit.

So I'm wondering what you guys will typically do when you sit down to make a mix.....any helpful ideas would be great.

you know what i have discovered is that there are many styles/ways of mixing. first you need a style and then you find the tracks. and the way you can go about this mate, is first, find your favorite dj's, someone you like, and watch a 1 hour video of them mixing on dancetrippin. and i promise that every time you watch the video over and over, you will always learn something. and then once you see a style that they use and you like it, then integrate it with your own songs. for example, there are 2 dj's i rly like and i'm going to combine both of their styles into one with my favorite tracks. you will also learn things like, how long should you turn off the lows for and give the people a break, and when is the right time to turn of the lows. because you don't want the base running 24/7 then people will get tired eventually. idk man this is so complicated and so complex to explain. like i would have to write an essay. the best solution is just watch one of your favorite dj's spin for an hour. and then repeat the video 3-4 times through out the whole week. and i promise that you will always learn something every time you watch it.

hope this helps

[Jester]

*takes notes*

[djalexlaine]

one of the best ways i learned most of what i know is by hanging out with other djs and playing together. not like in a club, just in your house or whatever. just watch how other people do things. when i was first starting, i was chatting with a friend on the phone and he was giving me some feedback on a mix i had sent him. he was describing a way of eq mixing so that you can barely tell where the new track is... for some reason i could not get it to work properly until i was hanging out with him a couple months later and i saw him do it.
there are a couple key things to learn though
learn to beatmatch (even though you are using a digital rig). this is super key, if your grids are off, you need to be able to adjust it properly.
learn to control your volume, VU meters arent enough, learn to do it the old fashion way with your ears.
learn to read a crowd. this comes from playing out, start with house parties. they are more forgiving. there are a couple things to look for when you are learning. 1 is to look for what element in a track is causing people to dance. you will sometimes see like no one is dancing until a particular element comes in. look for that element and play more of it. keep an eye on peoples faces. huge key there. on the inverse, what made people stop dancing? house parties are great because they are a bit more forgiving and generally you know at least some of the people there.

[bumtsch]

Some good advice there. Although I'm leaning towards full improv I'll definitely give Damien1138's approach a shot.

[dodge]

Haven't read all the responses as there's far too much to read just to put in my advice, which is this; you said in the title you have problems practicing, then you went on to say you have problems lining up your shit for potential mix tapes. So which is it you're having problems with? Practicing or putting together mix tapes?
Anyway, putting that aside, I would say try learning new shit, try learning to scratch or drum rhythms with a controller. Basically practice something that will separate you from the other DJ's. Any fucker out there can mix now so you need to be doing something the others aint. Scratch, juggle, drum, mix super super quick, 4 deck mixing, what ever. But just practicing mixing is kinda lame in my opinion, you gotta take it to the next level. And try this... do something you don't require speakers for, something you can do in the headphones. This way you have no restraints on sound levels and it's something you can potentially do anywhere. On an aeroplane? Fine, plug your VCI into your laptop and practice scratching. On a bus? Fine, plug your midifighter into your laptop and practice drumming. In a cab? Fine, write beats. The way I see it is if you can't practice unless you got speakers (which also means you're restrained to one place) you're only half the DJ you can be.