Any suggestions on making practice time more productive?

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
1

Any suggestions on making practice time more productive?

Just like the title of the thread says, I’ve got plenty of time to practice and everything, but I’m not sure what I should do in order to make the time I invest more productive.

Should I just be mixing and discovering tunes, while fooling around with effects and all the other features of Traktor (what I use)?

I’ve just been mixing and trying new things in order to see what kind of grooves and mixes I can create… If that’s all I need to do then I’ve got no problem with that because it’s so damn fun.

Any ideas?

2

I can’t stress enough that you should spend time setting up and organizing your songs… Beatgridding, setting cues, loops, and making notes. Good planning and song selection will ultimately make you a better DJ than mixing skills alone.

3

Cool, I’ll definitely keep that in mind and will continue to keep organized. (Mixed in Key helps a WHOLE lot.)

Any other ideas anyone?

4

all i can say is have fun and experiment my friend :smiley:

5

If I just want to have a fun mix then I’ll just be mixing tunes with no particular aim.

Otherwise what I do is I try and work on something specific. Focus on a specific technique.

Sometimes that requires me to mix music I don’t even like in order to understand why that technique is used.

6

Maybe try setting a stopping point for your mixes, like making 1hr. mixes, or another suggestion is picking a few songs you like and experiment creating different mixes just between those couple songs.

7

record yourself and listen back

8

I usually break my practice time in half. First half mixing and second half listen to it back. This has helped me more than anything else so far.

9

Perhaps release a podcast every fortnight? Make you polish your tricks and gives you more chance to get bookings that will give you practice in a live environment

10

I like to pick a bunch of songs on Sunday…practice putting them together in different ways all week, changing songs out and adding in new ones as needed. Then on Saturday, put it all together and do a recording. I usually listen to it while driving or at work the following week and make mental notes of what worked and didn’t work.

11

if you want to get better at mixing, freestyle your selection and move between genre’s. If you want to make a better “mix tape” select your favorite tracks within a genre and assemble them in a way that gives a shape to the overall mix. Regardless of what you’re trying to get out of your practice time, record as much as possible and take time to listen back to your recordings. Don’t just “spot check” your mix between tracks. Occasionally listen to the entire thing and get a feel for what makes it “groove”.