If i’m freestyling at home, and recording the mix, the majority of the time after about the 15 or 20 minute mark, my transitions just start to get dodgy. I have no idea why this happens, or why i lose concentration after that, even with a bit of a break and maybe a drink during every song.
Any ideas on how I can improve my DJ ‘endurance’ so this doesn’t keep happening? It’s getting annoying now, because I can’t mix any more than half an hour without it being really bad.
I’m the same when i’m at home I checking my phone, checking my email after i’ve been mixing for a certain amount of time, but when i go out and play (the one time so far) my level of focus went up and it didn’t go to shit like it sometimes does at home
I break my practice up, granted normally I work 7 days a week, but I consider practice my time even though I’m generally beat.
I set up and if I feel like mixing for a bit, I go for it, if I feel I have more limited time, maybe I practice a weird transition or mash up. I don’t push myself to points where I don’t enjoy it.
I also mix up free vs. structured practices. If I’m in a free practice playing what ever it is I want, and it isn’t working, I take the time to start to develop a playlist, maybe only a couple of songs deep. Structured practices I am usually recording, and often will just move on when failing and take note on why. Sometimes I will practice the parts of a structured mix that are giving me trouble, and consider that my time for the day other times I feel like trying to get thru the hour and see what happens after going over the tough spots.
The beauty of practice sessions is that you can always rewind, go thru the mix again. If it is a phrasing issue, you can count back the beats, know your mark and go thru it again and again, maybe you need to be more on top the eq, nothing stops you from doing it again. No one is there judging you, except you.
I think an important skill to learn is playing on after these screw ups. Everybody does it, but the good DJ’s can keep playing without it affecting the rest of your set.
Usually on a free-form practice it’s new tracks that i’m not too familiar with or tracks that don’t usually pop up on my playlist radar…or something offbeat that piqued my interest at some point in the past. Don’t get discouraged and drive on enjoying the music. Figure out what it is that bothers you about the mix and patch it.
I’ve found that my focus tends to drift in between mixes while the song is playing. When performing that time goes by fast, but when practicing it seems to last forever.
So I just tend to work on the mixes itself and not let the songs play all the way thru when practicing.
loss of concentration and boredom can often be a symptom of digital DJing, but what I did was get new equipment (for eg. the midi fighter), so whenever i get bored waiting for the song to finish, i play with that and mess with the effects on my midi fighter. Keep in mind when your practising its all about you, so if whatever you do or try to do sounds bad, don’t worry about it. Have fun with it
That might be it. Unless you mean a sip during every song, in which case that’s fine.
The suggestions are good. Haven’t tried the girls+vodka thing but playing to a friend, even over ustream, did push my focus a bit.
Keep playing when things go bad to practice recovering.
Try to make your collection management work for you so you have a better idea of what to play, without necessarily going for a fully planned set either. I don’t know what style you play but try to be more subtle, progressive in how you program your tracks. I find the more I get into the zone through the music the more I breeze through the motions of mixing them.
Screw ups happen, even to the best.
Went to the Crystal Dreams event here couple weeks back and one of the djs had a hard time getting a track to beatmatch, after about 30seconds of trying he just did a backspin and continued with the next track not letting it affect him in any way.
idk what else, this works for me.