How many hours should a beginning DJ practice?

[Afterhour Ali]

Dont spend your'e time just practising.
That crave digging time is imo even more important.
DigitalDj-s probably thinks its all about the practice and how could you can mix. When you got the right music then you have already got it 65% right.
Just spend more time with your music and practice as much as possible.

Amen to that. Get your music library right and you can hardly fail at all.

As a rule of thumb practicing often for a short amount of time is better than practicing let's say once a week for eight hours.

[Serkan Yerdan]

My mentor dj was telling me when ı started this awesome hobby of mine.He told me to make set s and more than sets just make playlists.I make playlist nearly everyday for that day and ı listen and learn those songs like my name and after that mixing seems much more easier and and so does the cue pointing.

I am very new to the forum but if you need advice ı can tell you that more than mixing and stuff , just listen ad enjoy yourself as much as you can then start playing with the tracks and you will see that the time will pass incredibly perfect and joyfull.

Good Luck

[Patch]

You should practice for as long as you can, as often as you can. And when you can't practice anymore, practice some more.

You'll find that you suck less after every practice session.

Spend less time researching and trying to learn how to DJ, and just stand in front of your gear and PRACTICE. You'll learn more from pushingh buttons (and making mistakes!) than you will from reading forum posts!

Trial and error is one of the greatest ways to learn. (I learned this the hard way - I used to research, and research, and research - I've wasted WAAAAY too much time on forums trying to learn when I could have been spending time with my gear LEARNING!)

Preparation is hugely important. The problem is, preparation is boring - so if you spend all of your time preparing, and not actually DJ'ing, you'll lose interest. (I learned this the hard way too!).

Develop a system for preparing your tracks, and stick to it. Spend 30mins/1hr a day digging for tracks and save 'em to a folder. Then, spend a couple of hrs on a weekend going through those tracks and bin the ones you don't like, and tag/prep. the ones you will keep.

Make sure you have FUN. Jamming with a bunch of new tracks is awesome.

Keep a pad next to your gear and make notes when you are jamming of great transitions/tracks that go well together. It's these notes that you will use for creating a killer 70min mix.

Preparation = WORK.
Performance = PLAY.

You gotta work first before you can play!

[brian_johnstone]

Keep a pad next to your gear and make notes when you are jamming of great transitions/tracks that go well together. It's these notes that you will use for creating a killer 70min mix.

this is great advice! i always have a pad with me, whether at home or playing out, you never know when you will pull off an amazing transition that you want to do again. i even have a pad within reach when im watching tv, so many times ive heard a track on a tv ad and its reminded me of it or its a new one that i havent heard. always handy!!

[ZxZDeViLZxZ]

I mix between 3 to 10 hours a week and have been for 11+ years never pre plan always improv because of this I can on average mix any track on beat in phase and not botch it. For the past 6 years I've rarely mess up a mix and the invention of looping makes a slightly off mix easier to make a spot on mix. I also have been a digital dj for many years now but still can go back to vinyl in a flash with no issues.

What I do these days I would not call practicing technique more so practicing the tracks.

Biggest challenge for most was beat matching since about everything has a bpm read out to get ya close this has become almost a not needed skill but can always tell then someone can't because something's usually off.


In closing practice without beatgridding and forget there's even a sync button. Use your jogs if you drop slightly off to adjust.

I set a 32 loop with my x1 at intro of track and mix that in with 2 mins left slowly working the eqs then since most intros are 64 I wait till 64 before the track is going into outro and kill the loop slam low eq when intro ends and outro starts and taper off the ending track. This technique yields a set that's constantly moving leaving very little just percussion time.


This recipe does not work for everything as some tracks only have a 32 intro but adjusting as needed as you get the hang of it....

This is how I mix my transitions keep in mind don't try mashing up every track you mix although fun until you get your basics down it won't sound good. It took me ears to be able to do a 60minute set where there is less then 10 minutes total that only one track is playing. Being able to do live mash with traktor/vinyl/cdjs is a hard skill atleast for me.


In most my sets I try to do atleast one live mash just because I can


Sent from my jailbroken iPhone

[Otacon]

When asked when to practice one phrase comes to mind "You get out what you put in". You practice as much as you want, to achieve the skill level you desire. As much time as you put into it in general is how much skill you will learn in the long run. Just my opinion

[DJ ATX]

So ive been djing for about 2 months now, and im becoming more and more serious about it. So how long should i practice a day? or a week? until i get bored or what? how many hours should i mix to get better? ALSO i find myself getting very bored when putting cue points on almost all of my songs i mix, is this supposed to be not fun? becuase i know it needs to be done to make amazing mixes.

No set hours. Practice smart, rather than hard. Practice all the basics till you get em down.

1) beatmatching
2) phrasing/counting bars and incorporating that with your beatmatching
3) cuts
4) a few basic scratches

Once YOU feel you are comfortable and YOU think you have a built a good enough library. Go out there and do a gig. Find out your weakness. Work on that. (rinse and repeat till you finally retire)

[synthet1c]

how long is a piece of string?

how long is a piece of string... travelling at the speed of light? know the answer to that and you will be ready or really really high

practice until you aren't having fun, when that happens stop otherwise it will become a chore and you will quit... you beginners need to take your eye off the big picture and just have some fun

[Retrow]

I can do 2 hours a day for weeks and then not touch my TT's for a few days. Do it whenever u feel like it, dont feel forced to.

[Samurai]

Thanks for the tips. I appreciate people who are helping define what they mean by "practice" - a lot of time can be wasted doing the wrong thing or not focusing on what needs the most work.

What's a good improv to planning/perfecting ratio? I really enjoy just spinning, but I know I'm still working on the basics and flub transitions. How much time should be spent mixing on the fly vs. really perfecting transitions between two songs for a set?

Thanks again