Practice:By doing extended mixes or single practice techniques?
Which way is better to practice (for a bedroom dj) mixing for extended periods of time or watching/reading techniques and practicing them repeatedly?
DJ NIKNAK
In my opinion, you can’t really get as into it without the vibe of others around you. So you may practice all you want, but if you don’t get as into it as you would performing for others, you may be selling yourself short.
So I would consider mastering techniques and performing extended mixes live.
Ok, that is what I will try to do, finding friends to listen to me play for a while is hard, because all my friends are into top 40 and I get really bored mixing it, but I am adding more top 40 to my library, (and hopefully getting new friends).
Also I was wondering how to mix based on musical structure (I get the 4,8,16,32 theory) but can’t figure out how long a chorus will be in advance so that I could logically mix out of a song by bringing in verse of song 2 immediately after song 1. (ie. song 1 chorus + song 2 intro (snare or something low key, then fade to song 2 verse at end of song 1 chorus). I will visually look in traktor or use the bar counter over the main waveform, but often these result in me mixing in 1 or 2 beats too late, sounding lame, due to the different tempo of the tracks, using a visual measurement of the beatgrid isn’t very accurate.
Thanks,
DJ NIKNAK
I started writing and doing production (hip-hop) long before I started mixing and this help me immensly. There are typically 16 lines to a verse and 8 lines to a hook/chorus and the occasion bridge. 4 lines if the artist loops his chorus twice. And each line is 4 bars.
If you aren’t sure how long the chorus is in advance then you need to familiarize yourself with the song more, and or use hotcues to let you know when its time to fade. Its all a matter of personal preference but I have had success setting markers on “snaps” and “claps”. Unless the verse doesn’t start until one bar after the snap, then I move all my markers one bar. This way if I choose to jump around with hotcues, the lyric is the first thing you here and not a bar of silence.
You shouldn’t have an issue with being off 1 or 2 bars, if you decide to mark a clap, snap, or snare, as most music has this commonality.
I use a foot count when I’m about to fade also, starting with a clap for example. Right before the 5th bar comes in thats when I cue the adjacent deck. The snap is actually the zero bar, but for me its easier to count (in my head) as 1, 2, 3, 4 instead of 0,1,2,3. If that makes any sense.
For me the best practice is the hands on so i usually take about an hour a day and just practice mixing and at nights before i go to bed i read up on tips and stuff and then the next day i try to use those tips and stuff in my mixing
This website will help you, don’t forget the old articles. As far as practicing, make sure you understand the structure of each genres. That is the most important. The techniques read them, watch them and ask for them. From there, you will develop your technique.
i mix for about a hour to 2 hrs every other day the other times i am on here, then i do like 2 house partys a month.
but the bedroom is spent learning the songs and techniques the parties are for seeing how the crowd reacts, then i take it to the club.
but also look for some top 40 house songs and throw em in your sets i play top 40 also people actually dig edm they just don’t know it, cause they are not familiar with it, but give them a familiar song thats a house remix they will be in aww then go into what ever edm you play then head back to top 40.
I think that any kind of practice is good practice. Mix music for an hour, or find individual songs that work well and perfect them. I don’t think you need people in front of you to practice, but you need to think of a crowd as you do it.
I think practice is a combination of learning HOW to mix in the rote, theoretical sense, and then understanding how those mixes translate to a dance floor.
So if you’re still a bedroom DJ and you want to practice, make mixes for people and ask their opinions. This way you get the time behind the station, and you get feedback from people at the same time. And you don’t need to force your friends to stay in your room and listen to you.
Alright, I will definitely post up some old mixes tonight, they are like 10 min
I think music theory is important, half my week practice I do it by just listening to music, counting phrases and trying to mix tracks only with EQ’s.
The thing with all of those that have started mixing only in digital (like me) is that we kind of forget the theory and structure of music. I started to do this only after about 7 months I got into mixing.
It’s a bit confusing right now and I regret it, the beggining was just too much fx and not much technic.Once you get in to using phrases and that stuff the use of fx becomes secundary, at least for a while.
what are you mixing with? cdjs? traktor? vinyl?
my personal start is to practice single techniques while practicing extended mixes. which at the moment involves making a 1 and a 1/2 hourish mix and going crazy with the effects, the more you use everything the beter you will understand it, and with understanding will come new knowledge
both practicing long sets (without stopping if you mess up) and focusing on certain techniques are going to help your game.
it sounds like your just getting started so focus on the things that you find most difficult and soon they will feel like second nature with enough practice. Then you’ll find yourself not having to count out measures etc. as you’ll just know - it’ll be ingrained into your psyche ! 
I’m at the point where I know enough about music that I can mix most any song with any song, especially with the help of Traktor. Naturally I’ve been getting more and more into controllerism techniques, after assigning my FX levels to my faders to start. Same with cue point juggles, you just have to set up the appropriate cues beforehand. With those sorts of things, I practice them for fun over and over (because it never gets old ) and to the same token, I would never perform them live unless I was comfortable doing so.
If you’re still not super confident in your basic mixing ability, don’t get ahead of yourself and become overwhelmed with looping, cue points, beatjumping, FX, and so forth. Just mix and record, and listen to yourself and see how you could get better with where you drop songs and your EQ’ing, what works and what doesn’t. It’s hard work but building a solid foundation is essential.