DJ 101 for Absolute Beginner: Feeling Overwhelmed!
Hi there,
I have a previous thread in showing my action plan, right now I am just routinely looking for music, which is scoured the web and making mixtapes as I go via soundcloud.com. However, I am a person that requires structure to learn, I don’t like wasting my time looking around the web for pieces. There are many online DJ schools that require payment, which I totally understand, but is there a website that lists step by step for absolute beginners for free. The closets I found are the following free websites, but they are absolutely disorganized. However, I am willing to pay if the anyone has tried any DJ schools that require payment.
I am reading a good book called Beyond Beatmatching, but this book is for those who know how to mix. I barely know how to mix, I am only tinkering with my traktor controller.
I felt the same way at the beginning. I only have been dj’ing for the last 5 months and am getting my first gig this sat. Anyhow, you need to focus on beat matching, phrasing and gain. Pick 2 songs that you like or even the same song and try and beat match. Once you get that down, try to phrase match the song and things will start to come together. I am not the best or even near it, but this is some of the tips I got. Just relax, enjoy, and practice a lot. I spend 2-4 hours a day practicing and enjoying my hobby.
This is still the standard as far as I know. The technology/gear has changed some, but you’re still doing essentially the same things with very similar controls, especially in the beginning.
I’ve been told good things about Skratch Academy as well, and IMHO in-person instruction is going to be better for this kind of thing. But, I haven’t paid for it or felt like I needed it for technique, so I can’t speak directly. I’ve also heard that things like this can help get your foot in the door by meeting people and networking, depending on what you want to do.
Watch this guys videos. He’s a quirky chap but he’s been doing the videos for almost a decade IIRC, if he hasn’t covered it then it’s not worth learning.
However, when you build a set you memorise the bpm of each track so you don’t really need to do this; e.g. you know the track you have on is 126 and the next one is 128 then you know your are pitching 1.6-ish%
Best thing you can do is a bit of youtube and play to yourself, a course wont really tell you much more than what is already out there.
The first thing to do is get rid of this attitude. There is no one right way to DJ. A craftsman must humble himself and dedicate himself to his craft. If you think that researching and experimenting is wasting your time then you are not going to enjoy DJing.
Its mostly about experimentation and digging to find your sound. No one can teach you or give you that.
The mechanical aspect of DJing is laughably simple and can be taught to anyone in a day, and can be proficient in a few weeks. Doing mixing and phrasing smoothly and in a compelling way takes a lifetime.
I agree with Ellaskins videos. If you cant learn from his videos, Im not sure how a course will help. He literally shows you all aspects of DJing as he understands it.
Alternatively just dig for music you like, read the traktor manual, and then practice 3 hours a day. You learn DJing by doing.
Dont be afraid to embrace being a noob and not knowing anything. Dont be afraid that your mixes suck and you have no timing yet. Embrace the journey and practice practice practice.
Seriously tho, if u practice first mixing the same song into itself, for an hour, you will learn half the concept.
And use the jog wheels on that s4 to begin with, I believe the physical mechanics of that is important to grasp at first. Keep them both running… Stay off the stop/ start button.
Study some basic music theory…understanding phrasing and harmonic scales is, in my opinion, the first thing you should learn, before beatmatching. There’s not much point in beatmatching tracks together that are in clashing keys, wrong phrases, and one beat out of phase. Knowing how your music is built means you can deconstruct your tracks in your head much more effectively.
Do NOT just rely on auto detect for your keys, learn to identify a major/minor key by its triads and scale.
Beatmatching is basically a strictly technical endeavor, knowing how to traverse harmonies and melody and steer the emotive direction of the mix is, for me, the creative part.
Also … go out to events that you like the music at. Take notes on how someone does a transition or how certain songs blend together. Experience how the audience reacts to the song selections.
while this is sound advice, i think its bad advice for someone trying to learn to mix since what you are suggesting is more complicated than learning to mix, which adds a bigger hurtle, which will actually take them farther from the initial goal. no offense meant here, music theory is always great to learn, but sometimes it can scare people away from more simple ways of learning.
im sure some will disagree with me, but im sure if i tried to learn to identify scales and triads , and read music etc, before i learned to beatmatch , i would have given up DJing in the process.
