art of the warm up DJ
found this on dontstayin and thought i’d share it
makes for interesting readin, and might be a useful resource alongside the beginner or intermediate dj articles on the site?
That’s a great article
makes me want to just specialise in warm-ups
Honestly, I used to be all ego about opening, and then I realized that opening the night for an hour to 90 minutes could be really satisfying. I always get to play the darker, slower, more tense music, and I get to slowly build it into a dance floor. When the crowd comes together for this I usually find my opening sets indespensible. Granted, it’s usually a thankless post, but it’s much more fun sipping my vodka and dancing around the booth to something slower and funky. heh
good read. makes me nervous to be a warm up 
question is, as alot of ppl tend to buy the ‘big, peak time’ tracks, can you genuinely get away with just playing at a slower bpm than normal? admittedly i have done a warm up where i just hammered big tunes for the first hour and got away with in a big way.
but then where i live is dominated by hardcore and dnb so heavy bassy breaks wasn’t exactly ‘peak time’ material.
But the point of the opener is to build the energy so everyone wants to dance. You don’t want to tire their hips or their ears, or else you lose the room.
I couldn’t imagine a good opening DJ having only big, peak hits. I mean, I have hundreds, if not thousands, of songs under 120 bpm that have great energy to them, of all different eras. That’s the stuff I play for the opening. For the first hour or two, I’d say not only should you get away with it, but you should be encouraged to do it.
This is the issue I have with a lot of DJs around my scene. They don’t understand the concept of energy for a dance floor. They want it all to be huge and pounding all night long, and while that works for some people, the majority need a break, even a well composed on. Two hours of BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM can get really draining on people.
This is, of course, not across the board. If I went to a gabber or hardcore event and heard trip hop it’d be kinda weird. It is all about your crowd.
i was thinking bedroom dj first time in a club. i know i used to only buy the biggies. luckily changed my ways before first (proper) live set. the one mentioned above was because one of the dnb mcs pissed me off
don’t have much under 120 though, but plenty under 126 - with 130 being my prefered peak speed, so that kinda works, talking ploddy proggy stuff that doesn’t inspire a big stomp session, spliced with some funky bits.
i know that sounds childish, but if you’re being taunted by some fake burberry wearing, no clue chav who thinks that dnb created breaks (?!?!) you can’t help but break out the breakfastaz, screwface and dj quest stuff
I do alot of opening and its actually very satisfying, I get to play stuff like minimal/tech/electro house. What pisses me off though is opening for just an hour and thats it. An hour? Seriously? WTF! Soulful music needs at least 2 hours to properly develop. I hate how venues use 8 DJ’s in 7-8 hours. No one shows up when the club opens up so alot of promoters use the first hour as the audition slot, its a sad practice.
Well, but it should be a huge step from being a strict bedroom DJ to a club DJ. Let alone a good club DJ. And a big part of that step is a greater appreciation for the art of the dance floor, beyond spinning songs. You aren’t going to learn anything about dance floor energy spinning in your bedroom, but you will opening up a night club and keeping people tense and energized, waiting for the perfect time to drop that banger.
And, as far as what Animus said, I agree wholeheartedly. I don’t understand the desire to spin for less than an hour. Good DJs don’t need breaks, good DJs don’t get stale and boring, good DJs spin more than 8 songs. shrug Good DJs can open a night, they can take the headlining spot, and they can close it, and bring something different each time.
But that is kinda off topic.
I would glady spin the whole night for cheaper than it costs to book the headliner for the one hour he will spin
I think the biggest problem is that the good DJ who can open, headline and close, is not recognized via a large fan base. Promoters hope that by putting as many people on the flyer as possible that they will attract more people, its an idiotic logic which results in very expensive door costs.
reminds me that i need to buy some more lower energy stuff…
that being said, dub mixes often have significantly less energy which can be really helpful.
dub mixes dont have vocals, thats a true dub mix, so if the original had energy, taking away the lyrics doesnt kill the energy. the less energy bit is a common misnomer.
the lack of vocals is a serious energy decrease. a great example is bodyrox - what planet you on. the energy difference between deadmau5’s vocal mix and his dub mix is significant. driving vocals create energy. think of the difference between the crowd singing along and them not singing at all.
depends on what kind of dub your referring to heh. dub with vocals can go over smooth
I’d love to be an opener (or closer for that matter) dj, a slow building set is my thing.
I’d actually prefer it over headliner. It is definitely an art form.
You have to maintain a balance of something that would make people stick around rather than exit right away and not playing what the headliner would/could possibly end up playing.
good article, maybe things will get a little better out on the dance floors
this is a fantastic article.
i love, love, love warming up a room. playing early on lets you get very eclectic and intimate with what you’re playing… and it certainly does get you respect from the late night touring djs if you have a knack for it. playing from the heart early on in the night, gradually building the groove in the room, and doing it tastefully has opened up some intensely interesting dialogues with dj’s i never imagined i’d have a chance to speak to. doing early sets well does get you recognized by those that matter. club owners are also immensely impressed when they see you can do it right.
i think the most enormous pleasure of warming up the night is being able to play a few heaters to the dancefloor you built at the end of your set. it’s a humble little payoff, but the feeling is phenomenal.
this, to me, is the reason i love djing. i’ve been on both ends of the night plenty of times, but the early sets are the ones which i’m always feeling really proud of the next morning.
Interesting. In my experience, warming up is definitely often more difficult than playing peak hour. It’s easy to just play bangers; subtly manipulating and sustaining dance floor energy in preparation for those bangers much more of a challenge.
I also find interesting the differences between opening for an EDM-focused event and a Top 40-focused event. I’ve spun something like fifteen Top 40 events and only a couple EDM-focused events (all the Top 40 events have been me from opening to closing), and it’s definitely easier for me to open a Top 40 event. (Hell, Top 40 events are easier all around.)
For a Top 40 event, you just have to play medium-energy pop songs the crowd knows and gradually build up the energy (but hell, shifts back and forth in energy work too…it’s fine to play something high-energy like Just Dance and then transition to lower energy song like the Whisper Song and then move back toward higher energy stuff).
For the EDM events I’ve opened for, I’ve been really unsure about what to play. It’s usually been a mixed crowd (some EDM lovers and some normal mainstream music people) for me, so I haven’t really been successful at opening except by playing pop and hip hop, but then it’s difficult to transition into electro without pissing off the mainstreamers. But then do I open with deep house, or funky house, or what? What if people don’t want to dance to that?
I brought a dubstep/ prog dj onto the crew so i didn’t get stuck with the job anymore its always great to play out but sucks when youre little brother gets all the kudos just because he starts later haha