I think I'd be a good DJ. How do I get a gig?

[TheMetetron]

I've decided to move my post to the ElD forum and turn it into an ask me thread. Link below:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showfl...=0#Post10691616

[mason55]

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Yeah, and this thread title makes me laugh. What exactly do you mean by DJ? As in a club DJ? The skills required for that are fairly minimal but will still take you some time to learn

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Seriously? If we're talking electronic and not top 40's it takes years of practice to be able to throw down a good mix. I guess if you play the same records every set you could mix OK but I would laugh any of my friends off stage if they played the same records every set.

If you're really going to try to play trance (lol I haven't seen a respectable club with a trance night in years) or hip-hop out you better be able to mix on the fly, which is going to take some practice. I guess you could play weddings and frat parties and clubs that get 30 people. If you want to get anywhere in the hip-hop world you had better learn to scratch and beat juggle at the least.

I say this having been in the house/jungle/electro scene for 10 years and DJing for many of them.

Like I said though, depends on your aspirations. If you only want to play Top 40s it's going to be a completely different path to the top than if you want to be the next "World's Greatest DJ"

[TheMetetron]

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Yeah, and this thread title makes me laugh. What exactly do you mean by DJ? As in a club DJ? The skills required for that are fairly minimal but will still take you some time to learn

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Seriously? If we're talking electronic and not top 40's it takes years of practice to be able to throw down a good mix. I guess if you play the same records every set you could mix OK but I would laugh any of my friends off stage if they played the same records every set.

If you're really going to try to play trance (lol I haven't seen a respectable club with a trance night in years) or hip-hop out you better be able to mix on the fly, which is going to take some practice. I guess you could play weddings and frat parties and clubs that get 30 people. If you want to get anywhere in the hip-hop world you had better learn to scratch and beat juggle at the least.

I say this having been in the house/jungle/electro scene for 10 years and DJing for many of them.

Like I said though, depends on your aspirations. If you only want to play Top 40s it's going to be a completely different path to the top than if you want to be the next "World's Greatest DJ"

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Electronic is a lot different than what I assumed he was talking about. I figured Top 40 type stuff. Beat matching wouldn't take more than a few months for someone dedicated to get down perfectly and at most mega clubs that is all that is required. Sure, you have to be able to do it on the fly, but song selection was SOOOOO much more important.

I had a friend who was well known by DJs in the area as by far one of the worst technically. For a long time he couldn't even beat match properly. But he was a much bigger success as a night club DJ than I ever was because he rocked the crowd so well it was almost ridiculous. He had no problem stopping a record mid-song if it wasn't working (and sometimes even when it was) making some joke to the crowd and throwing on a new song with no mixing whatsoever. And somehow the people ate it up. He had huge mic skills and knew exactly what the people wanted. I was lightyears ahead of him technically but I could never have been half the night club DJ he was. It was almost a year of doing the night club circuit at mega clubs before I finally taught him to beatmatch properly on a consistent basis in under 30 seconds. For him, it wasn't important and just scratching in the next big song the crowd wanted was enough... and it really was.

[SuperUberBob]

Dear Lord that girl is hot.

[otnemem]

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Meh. She's average at best...

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I think you need to take another look...





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So what's her name?

[Quanah Parker]

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I had a friend who was well known by DJs in the area as by far one of the worst technically. For a long time he couldn't even beat match properly. But he was a much bigger success as a night club DJ than I ever was because he rocked the crowd so well it was almost ridiculous. He had no problem stopping a record mid-song if it wasn't working (and sometimes even when it was) making some joke to the crowd and throwing on a new song with no mixing whatsoever. And somehow the people ate it up. He had huge mic skills and knew exactly what the people wanted. I was lightyears ahead of him technically but I could never have been half the night club DJ he was. It was almost a year of doing the night club circuit at mega clubs before I finally taught him to beatmatch properly on a consistent basis in under 30 seconds. For him, it wasn't important and just scratching in the next big song the crowd wanted was enough... and it really was.

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this is where the success is.
1-bring the people to the bar
2-keep them there, and keep them coming back

pleasing a crowd is much more important than technical proficiency or deep knowledge of obscure artists.
if the girls don't dance, you got no chance.

[z28dreams]

OP,

As far as generating business, there are several sites out there that can give you "leads" that you can go after.

Respond.com is one of them - typically you pay something like $5 per lead, though you'll be competing with 1-4 other people.

Other services include leads.com, decidio, freedjamerica, discjockeys.com, etc.

Remember, it's more about marketing yourself than anything if you want to do it to make good money.

Also, from what DJ's in the industry have told us, it's becoming a very cutthroat business with lots of kids coming in with super-cheap quotes that just want to setup a laptop and get going.

Average wedding gigs go from $500 to $2000, depending what you want. As far as clubs, I have no idea.