LEARN HOW TO BECOME A DJ: Part 5 – The Professional DJ
Yay! You did it! You landed your first slot. Are you nervous? You should be. There’s a lot that can go wrong. But stick with me, and we’ll get through this together.
The Professional DJ
You might assume by watching big DJs perform that DJing is all fun, music and dancing. That is only half of the story. For every hour you spend DJing live, you will spend countless more hours sourcing and preparing music, engaging with clubs and promoters, promoting the event on social media, setting up gear and packing it down.
At the start of your DJ career, you need to be humble to grow. You need to be able to accept criticism and occasionally bomb out on stage. You need to get bumped from the lineup at the last minute and cry in the toilet. You need to suffer USB failure and hit stop on a playing song. All these experiences and many more will form your initiation into professional DJing and will give you the drive to grow.
Here is a great checklist to follow if your aim is to be professional. Remember, learn the rules before you break them!
Promote Yourself & The Event: Call everyone you know and shout about it online. Post some teasers of your mix. Clubs will love you if you rock up with a small army of fans.
Confirm The Details For The Night: Arrive several hours early to get familiar with the club. Don’t put anything to chance and especially don’t take anything for granted. It’ll make a fool out of you.
Be prepared: Have several sets of USB sticks with your playlists on them. Make sure your equipment is charged and you have backups where practical.
Arrive Early: Don’t walk in 5 minutes before your set. Be several hours early and see if the club will let you do a soundcheck, a good opportunity to stick in your memory sticks and have a quick play.
Take Notes: Listen to the tunes the previous DJ is playing. You don’t want to roll in thinking your God’s gift, then repeat half the bangers the last DJ played.
Act Professional: As tempting as the drink offers will be, turn them down during your first few sets. Being the guy a club can trust will put you front and centre for a second gig.
Hang Around After Your Set: So often, DJs flake out at the last minute and suddenly, your on again. This also gives you a good opportunity to get down into the crowd and say hi, which is a great chance to ask how they thought you went. A crowd might not be technically minded, but they’ll tell you how they felt, which is priceless information.
Follow Up: Check in with the club after the event. See what they thought and if they had any notes for you. Work on those notes. Doing this puts you back on the club’s radar and gives them a perfectly good chance to offer you another gig.
Openers
Chances are, your first gig is going to be the opening act of a night. The dancefloor is almost empty and the few that are on it look like they are on another planet. Don’t freak, almost every night, in almost every club on earth starts this way.
The job of an opener is simple, to attract a few more souls to the D-Floor without stepping on the toes of the headliners. You do this by starting off slow and building energy in a very progressive manner. Save your bangers and massage the crowd with beautiful restraint.
Be 100% sure you know what the headliners set is all about and think of ways of getting there with elegant style. If you can, say hi to the headliner and work out a bit of a game plan.
Playing Live & Reading Your Audience
You are no longer playing for yourself. Your job now is to find out what the dancefloor loves and give it to them. This will keep them happy, dancing, buying drinks, and wanting to come back for more, which is everything a club is about.
You do this by looking up and watching your crowd. Do they slow down and leave the dance floor every time you play a garage tune? Do they whoop every time you cue up a jungle number? Noticing these sorts of things will allow you to tailor your set to the people paying your wages—the audience.
How To Be A Successful DJ – Conclusion
You need to be humble to grow. The DJs that you admire are successful, they’ve already made it and without a doubt, they have stood in your shoes. Be sure to take your time and do your DJ apprenticeship properly. The best way of doing this is by listening to the DJs you play alongside, by taking notes from the club and by playing to your audience.
Always put your best foot forward, and enjoy your new career!
