how do you “practice” your skills
I’ve been Djing for a little less than a year now and aside from a weekend workshop at Dubspot in NYC on the S4, I haven’t had much instruction on mixing. I’ve been reading many of the articles here and watching Ean’s videos oh things like harmonic mixing or transitioning but do you guys have any other things that you do when you are mixing at home or techniques you like to practice?
Mix it up. Try practicing a transition between the same two songs over and over till you get it right. But also practice continuous mixing and try not to stop even if you screw up. Practice creating loops and throwing acapellas on top. Practice manual beat matching. It will all seem tedious at first but pays off after awhile.
Get together with other friends who like to play records, grab a case of beer and tag it out!
practice?
Other than reading everything you can find online I’ve found that the best way to improve or learn new things is to hook up with other dj’s (vinyl, cdj or midi) and share ideas or techniques, all styles hold the same principals, and i know that i personally am very eager to teach newer dj’s everything i have learned. Make sure you record everything you practice, then listen to it after and remember what you liked or didn’t like, and fix it next time. Also YOUTUBE is king of tut’s.
I’ll take 2 songs and try to come up with 3 totally different ways to transition them into each other.
it sharpens your ear to count and to make sure your mix is interesting and surprising.
it takes me about 30mins to a hour to do this if they are new songs to me.
set cue point through all your songs so you can mash up songs quickly without risking a mistake during your mix/set.
have speakers facing you so you can hear what it sounds to your audience as well in your headphones.
make sure you keep the volume level through your set along with eq’s.
I also have many friends who aren’t djs that come over and will give me suggestions and feedback.
+1
Who cares what transition you can do in your spare bedroom. Go play in front of a crowd or just some friends and practice your song selection, when to let a song ride or when to cut a song short, etc. and see first hand what works. I think you get the most out of that.
The best way to sharpen your skills in my opinion; know your music! Listen to your tracks over and over till you know every part of the song. Once you know what and when a track is going to do something, you will be able to mix in different parts of your track flawlessly. Know your music is the most important part of djing, if you ask me.
^^This hits the nail on the head imo.
Only other thing to do is practice what you pick/see up and play anything you want for an hour+ a day a few times a week and you will be amazed at how your skills hone up.
Try new stuff . whether it’s scratching , beat juggling … Don’t be scared to make an error . When your home it doesn’t matter and you’ll learn from it . Try new styles of music .
Look at laidback luke , he’s an edm dj and he uses scratching techniques to enhance his sets.
What i personally do is try all the effects in traktor , juggle with cue points , scratch , use loops …
yeah, get experimental, start mixing in 4 decks, throw loops, worse thing that happens is you miss a transition in your basement. no harm no foul.
but you get WAY better by fucking up then trying again and seeing what you did wrong, then next time you try it when your on the fly, you wont (or not as bad) 
this… i find it really hard to get in the swing of things at home, so at home just learn my music and practice and experiment while im playing out
experiment with literally everything… scrathing.. beatjuggling… effects combos… you name it. I go at it for 12 hours straight. doesnt really matter tho… no can hear it but u so its okay to mess up 
Its the opposite for me, I can pull off ridiculous stunts at home where its my equipment, controlled environment, etc. but those same fancy 4 deck live remixes and monster effect stackups rarely happen the way I want them to in the chaos of an average club. It sounds goofy but I try to mix as much as I can when I’ve been drinking, a healthy buzz at home seems to simulate playing out sober for me haha…
I do it so I’m used to mixing while drinking. Problem is that I typically find it harder to get into a groove now unless I’m under the influence of something.
best way for me is just recording my mixes and improve on what i didn’t like when listening back to it.
I came up with an interesting practice routine that I’ve meant to post for a long time. I guess this is probably a good spot for it.
I start with a scratch record on deck a and an instrumental on deck b. I practice a given scratch on deck a (my dominant scratching hand) while the instrumental plays on deck b. once deck b (the instrumental) is close to running out, I load a different instrumental on deck a, beatmatch it and mix it in.
I then load a scratch record on deck b and practice the same scratch with my other hand. Rinse and repeat.
There are some variations to throw in, like loading the same instrumental on both decks and practice juggling for a while.
That’s not good… music should intoxicate you. Don’t get into the habit of always being under the influence to DJ… it could become self-destructive.
Along with what haze said, I find the best way for me personally to practice is to just do sets in my bedroom as often as I can. I try to do at least one set that’s over 1 hour per week.
DJing is a creative art, and while you’re mixing you’ll come up with some amazing ideas of what songs to bring in, when to bring it in, and the best way to pull it off. I always hit record before I ever start mixing. That way I always have a reference point if I make a mix that I love. Every time I go back and listen to a mix I’ve recorded I’ve found ways that I could have done certain mixes better.
It’s always important to learn from your mistakes, and the more you do this the better you will get.