I was lucky enough to play my first live gig over the weekend. A buddy put together a birthday party at a new local boutique men's apparel store/gallery (methodkc.com) here in town and asked that I'd help him with the music. At the peak of the night we had around 35-40 folks gathered. I took the first set of the night and queued up some house music for background as everyone shuffled in and hit the bar. As folks got liquored up, the birthday host joined me on his deck and we traded off the rest of the night with some top 40 and hiphop.
All in all, things went fairly well. It was both of our first time playing in public. That in itself can be recipe for disaster, but then we decided to make things a bit harder on ourselves and try to do a combo set where we were playing off of each other. As a way to make sure this was a good learning opportunity, I put together a quick "lessons learned" the next day.
What went right?
- Practice - The night before the event, the two of us got together for a long 4 hour practice session. We were able to work on some of the transitions to use the next night as well working on some signals we'd be using in a loud environment.
- Have a plan - Knowing a head of time who was going to play what type of music as the night progressed allowed for concentration on the task at hand and not constant clock watching.
- No technical issues - I guess we lucked out here, but we didn't run into any gremlins during the night. All the equipment worked as it was supposed to without any.
What to improve on for next time?
- Know your music - I spent entirely too much time searching for the right song to queue up next. Before the next event I really need to spend a lot of time organizing the library in Traktor to make life easier.
- Look up - Because of the item above, I was heads down in the macbook for most of the night. It is hard to get a feeling for the crowd when you don't look at them.
- Have fun - First gig jitters and the feeling of constantly being rushed to get the next track queued made me forget the golden rule - this is supposed to be fun!
A big thanks to all the members here on DJTT for sharing your knowledge and experience. Your commitment to this craft has inspired people like me to take a chance and in just three short months from the day the VCI-100se was delivered, play before a crowd of people.
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