How to be a DJ

Within this tutorial we will discuss a popular among young artists, how to be a DJ. Bellow you will find what are the attitudes to be a good DJ, what makes a good show, what are the style of DJ, and finally what equipments are required.

I have been a fan of DJ, not only because it is they are cool, but rather because they are the unknown heroes of what makes a party successful.

DJ are called to groove in multiples events such as bars, shows, private parties, radio and even televisions. Some of them may be more attractive and lucrative then others, but in general, if you have good rhythm, and style, you can make a lot of money.

Aptitudes and Attitudes

Like all artists, if you have style and attitudes, you will be able to impressed your audience and major record producers.

Especially in the DJ world, promoting your aptitudes is not easy, mainly because you are not in the front line like actors, signers or guitarist. The majority of the time you will be in a dark and isolated place. Thus here are some pointers.

- Set up your equipment in the central stage, therefore the audience will see you are react to know body language.

- Move, feel the music, have charisma, have an attitude. Since you are on the central stage people will have an tendency to look at you (if they are not looking at beautiful people). There is nothing worse but to have a DJ that is boring.

- Play with colors, lights contribute effectively with the mood of your songs, don’t just lighten the room, but have the light highlighting your best side. Make yourself, the center of attentions.

- The key element of making a good DJ is rhythm, it can be express in different ways.

o With the sound level,

o With the variety of sound track,

o Incorporating classic songs with an perfect beat.

o With lights

o Videos displayed on the screen is a good thing, but in my experience, the only way it should work if its projected in the back of you. And when it is done perfectly, your shadow projected on the screen as well.

- Finally, the key of making the people dance is finding the style of the audience (called style grep), and once you found their style. You must keep them at their high level of adrenalin with a good series of songs (call chained reactions).

What a DJ needs

They are thousand of songs out there, with different style, languages, beat, keys and melodies. What make a good DJ is knowing them. Beside loving you, they will wants to respect you knowledge of songs. This can only comes by studying music, you ability of recognize songs and styles. Think of your self has an expert in the history of songs. Because you will need to understand special requests. Also, it helps you in the style grep phase.

Know a days it is easy to find digital music, digital effects. I would suggest also to acquires multiple vinyl Disc as well. This is called munitions. The more munitions you have, the better you will be able to find you ways.

Produce your songs

As you get more and more experience, the next move is to produce songs. Not only it will give you recognitions, but is will allow you to have new revenues.

They are two strategy in producing songs. You can either create a new songs or you can remix classic songs. Personally, I prefer the last one, because, people are nostalgic to old songs. They is no better rewards, when people come up to you and says “…when I eared the melody, it recognize it but could not say what it was. But when the verse started, everything came back to me.”

The structure of a Show

A show structure can vary, by different DJ. They is no standard on how to build a show. Some have a more inspirational approach, and some have a more organize style, which it is my case. This is how I structure all my show.

A show is divided in stages;

1. The intro stage; this tells the audience you are now starting your show. This stage should present you trade mark songs, lyrics, or presentation.

2. The style grep; This is the phase where you are interesting in know what the audience fells like listening.

3. The chained reaction; Once you have a good understanding of the audience, you want to have them dancing.

4. The relax; Not only this gives the audience time to recuperate, but is gives you the chance to prepare them for the next chained reaction.

5. Repeat 3 and 4.

6. The outro; always finish with a bang. It is the last phase they will remember.

The structure of a song

Besides rhythms songs must be able to melt into one and other. My personal preferate, is by following the music scales.

We all know that songs are build in a scale (a series of note keys). If a song finishes in the C note key. Then I will follow the next songs with its intro in the C note key. This is relatively common sense.

The DJ Style

If you are into Electro Pop or House Music the stages and stages are similar. Once again, artists are not defined by following standards.

Besides munitions, you will need equipment and software to produce you first show.

The DJ Equipments

Audio software may vary according to you needs, in general you will be interested in having all you songs in midi format. The main reason is because you want to handle multiple tracks.

Here is a link of multiple track editor and sound effects editor software.

As you get more experience, you will find that songs are never in the rigth digital format. Thus having file converters is an essentials.

Here is a link of multiple music file converters software.

You can even record you own sound.

Here are some sound, music, midi recorder.

Once you have the munitions, you can start by mixing them together. Multiple mixers exist on the market.

Here are some music sound mixers software for DJ.

You can organize you music with specialize music tools.

Here are some specialized music tools.

If you are into video, software are available to combine music with videos.

Here are some specialize audio and video editing software.

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