thats a real masterclass thing, very deep informative! My first experience was that it takes time till the dancefloor is full of people, it made me mad at the beginning till I got to know other DJs who said its totally normal to play for yourself the first 30 mins! ;-)
YES!!!!! Its interactive! A Dj may set things up initially, and the crowd responds - some tracks go down better than others. Its so much about the vibe at that specific time. A good Dj will feel, observe, be aware and use their intuition in tune selection to respond to what the crowd is responding to - result... a unique journey in music for everyone involved. So yes, have a plan, make your mark - all that. BUT be always tuned in, realise its an interactive thing and be prepared to respond.
i dont plan my sets i just play what i think suits the atmosphere of a club. my eyes big crowds are harder to motivate. smaller crowds have momentum. i mix uk hardcore like you said your self you can play say 4 tunes of recognisable tunes to suit the taste and then you depending on the motion u can be more adventures with some darker uptempo stuff. i feed on the motion and the reaction and it gives you the indication
nice one. I once new a bloke, couldn't mix to save his life , yet he could blend the melody like no one else. sounds like you have a good partnership! j
quite offen you find even the hardest of toons will have a diferent feel to others , so by selecting a sertain toon at the corect time can change the whole feel to the set and take it in a new direction. j
by changing the Key, would be one way, noting the feel, up tempo vs darker or even some songs that build up. The crowd may collective seem more into darker deep bass tunes but get amped more with something lifting and maybe not as fast bpm wise, thus a new direction in which to go. Its about like driving someplace, how many ways can u get their? note "mixxed in key" vid! good-luck
to Omarionzz, thats it! you need to have a set , set out in your head, but at any time you need to be able to change it just in case the croud don't like the flow/ last toon . j
Its like anything in life. You can plan, but if you stick to it, thats another thing. A DJ can have what he likes, but like with anything, someone won't like it, someone else will. You can't please everyone! I did a mix set recently, one person moaned because I played the extended edit, not the radio edit. Everyone else was dancing! Also had some girl try and change the music because she didnt like it, but it only she didnt, again everyone dancing. So you gotta be able to deal with that too!
heres a question for j... what happens if only a PORTION of the crowd seems to like the music while the other portion seems to not like it? I think this mostly noticeable in clubs with 2 or more genres...
hey man this is some great advise and makes sense but sometimes the key and bpm don't match with the next song your transitioning how can you be able to mix and match both bpm and the key?
Sounds very complicated :s Would you advocate leaving a request sheet by the DJ booth a la 'Y Bae, Aberystwyth'? or does that defeat the point of having a DJ, when you're pretty much turning them into a human juke-box. On the other hand having a request sheet could be seen as a good idea... the dj wouldn't be obliged to play the requests, but could give them an idea of what the punters were after.
the most important thing i can add to this is know your music which is in your possession currently.. know it's beginning, it's ending and know it's feel or vibe it gives.. do take the time to close your eyes, relax and LISTEN to the whole track.. cos sometimes what you think sounds good can sound better with other arrangements.
as in all things, just comes down to research. if you take some time and focus on the core issue of making people dance. but knowing the crowed is important and what is appropriate to play. but all in all...if you research it and study it ahead of time, as with anything, youll be fine.
the whole ideas is that the dj is in charge. he/ she is the one putting the music on and he/she can watch the croud and take them on a journy, it's almost a two way thing 50/50 , dj and croud work togeather. j
It depends where you are playing and what time. If you are the warm up (House)DJ then you should be playing 123-125 BPM stuff and let the other DJ's play all of the floor-filler stuff.
well... nice explaination :) Sometimes I play at some little parties and people have requests (all in the same genre ofcourse) but sometimes I don't know the tracks (very well). Can you explain how I can make a reasonable mix out of those tracks? (sometimes I am able to work with something like virtual DJ so I can see where the bass starts and stuff like that) Thanks in advance. Faithful regards: DJ Neodar
...or you can move the crowd instead of letting them control you. :) I find my favorite DJs construct a set based 10% on the vibe of the place they are going to and 90% on what they want to play; new-exciting artists, classics the crowd should know, mixes that should be played, genres the crowd should be exposed to, whatever.... Unless ur sticking to one genre and one BPM, it's nearly impossible to do a whole set on-the-fly, even if u can carry ur whole library on a flash drive. Thanks Jon.
I totally agree. I've witnessed horrible DJ's at clubs that never pay attention to the vibe of the crowd. Soon the only one dancing is the DJ himself, or herself. Don't become a crappy DJ. Play your music, but also play for the crowd. It's the reason you love to DJ.
He is just saying learn to read your crowd by looking at your customers. Notice what they are dancing to and what they are not dancing to to take your set to the next level, different directions. Hip Hop, Pop, Country, Disco, House, Rap etc. Visit the clubs you want to perform and and watch what the crowd is into so you can adapt your sets to the bars or clubs customers that you might want to play at. This is why we ask for a playlist at parties we perform at so we have an idea on what to add to our dj sets during the event we are hird for.
Hi Jonahan..Im trying to by a twin Cd player ..Seen a Gemini CDX-2400 for about 150.00. Or else can you suggest a Twin for me please ? Im kind of on a tight BUDGT. Sorry .. amila
I have a basic idea of a start and middle and finish so there are no lulls but otherwise, I read the crowd and kinda make it up as I go along. What works works for that night. I find once u get the crowd biting you are laughing
hahahah your explanations are funny.. =) but yea, the reason why i personally dont spend most of my time creating a fixed set, is because of that... i play what i feel is right at the time, and what the crowd looks like they wants...
Not really. You just need eyes and ears! If you put something on and they all walk off, you've chosen badly. On the other hand if they all cheer and come running onto the dance floor, you've hit the jackpot!
On one side: he can't, because he doesn't have a crowd to react to. On the other side: i'm sure he does this continually on his gigs, check a few gig logs!
The notion that the crowd "may want something different," or "reading the crowd" etc. is garbage. I think people promoting it must not have found a voice or have a strong vision/philosophy for what they want to share on the decks. A crowd comes to dance plain and simple if you're relying on them to inform what you play chances are you're a hack that should just do weddings. Most Djs that show up and improvise everything are either unfocused or monotonous. How much you prep or not is really beside the point - the issue is can you deliver something that makes people want to dance and offers an experience that's unique.
He's not saying to improvise everything just to be prepared to go in different directions, i.e. have multiple versatile versions of the same set. Crowd engagement, size ect. are massive factors that should be adjusted for
Wow you are really full of yourself, This Man is right I've done this stuff for over 20 years and still have a job doing it because its about the crowd and what they want and you feed off them not want you think they want
thats a real masterclass thing, very deep informative! My first experience was that it takes time till the dancefloor is full of people, it made me mad at the beginning till I got to know other DJs who said its totally normal to play for yourself the first 30 mins! ;-)
YES!!!!! Its interactive! A Dj may set things up initially, and the crowd responds - some tracks go down better than others. Its so much about the vibe at that specific time. A good Dj will feel, observe, be aware and use their intuition in tune selection to respond to what the crowd is responding to - result... a unique journey in music for everyone involved. So yes, have a plan, make your mark - all that. BUT be always tuned in, realise its an interactive thing and be prepared to respond.
That is so very true I always knew that. Only the best DJS know that - it's about the people dancing.
i dont plan my sets i just play what i think suits the atmosphere of a club. my eyes big crowds are harder to motivate. smaller crowds have momentum. i mix uk hardcore like you said your self you can play say 4 tunes of recognisable tunes to suit the taste and then you depending on the motion u can be more adventures with some darker uptempo stuff. i feed on the motion and the reaction and it gives you the indication
this applies to all dj's all genres, at the end of the day even a trance/ DnB/ hip-hop dj has toons in there box that will highten/ lower the croud.
j
nice one. I once new a bloke, couldn't mix to save his life , yet he could blend the melody like no one else.
sounds like you have a good partnership!
j
That is probably the best way of expressing both the tree-chaos factor but also the difficulty of DJeing
THANK YOU!!!!
Thank you SOOO much for your videos. You give such great and helpful advice. I am def practicing and enjoying😊.
quite offen you find even the hardest of toons will have a diferent feel to others , so by selecting a sertain toon at the corect time can change the whole feel to the set and take it in a new direction.
j
Lots of knowledge well resumed visually. Very well put, Jonathan!
I can draw trees now!!! No seriously, your vids are a massive help to improving my sets! Thanks
by changing the Key, would be one way, noting the feel, up tempo vs darker or even some songs that build up. The crowd may collective seem more into darker deep bass tunes but get amped more with something lifting and maybe not as fast bpm wise, thus a new direction in which to go. Its about like driving someplace, how many ways can u get their? note "mixxed in key" vid! good-luck
to Omarionzz, thats it! you need to have a set , set out in your head, but at any time you need to be able to change it just in case the croud don't like the flow/ last toon .
j
Its like anything in life. You can plan, but if you stick to it, thats another thing. A DJ can have what he likes, but like with anything, someone won't like it, someone else will. You can't please everyone! I did a mix set recently, one person moaned because I played the extended edit, not the radio edit. Everyone else was dancing! Also had some girl try and change the music because she didnt like it, but it only she didnt, again everyone dancing. So you gotta be able to deal with that too!
heres a question for j...
what happens if only a PORTION of the crowd seems to like the music while the other portion seems to not like it? I think this mostly noticeable in clubs with 2 or more genres...
hey man this is some great advise and makes sense but sometimes the key and bpm don't match with the next song your transitioning how can you be able to mix and match both bpm and the key?
GREAT VIDEO, IT'S ALL ABOUT TAKING YOUR LISTENERS ON A JOURNEY...
Sounds very complicated :s
Would you advocate leaving a request sheet by the DJ booth a la 'Y Bae, Aberystwyth'? or does that defeat the point of having a DJ, when you're pretty much turning them into a human juke-box.
On the other hand having a request sheet could be seen as a good idea... the dj wouldn't be obliged to play the requests, but could give them an idea of what the punters were after.
the most important thing i can add to this is know your music which is in your possession currently.. know it's beginning, it's ending and know it's feel or vibe it gives.. do take the time to close your eyes, relax and LISTEN to the whole track.. cos sometimes what you think sounds good can sound better with other arrangements.
I love this video. Probably watched it upwards of 5 times. It’s old school ellaskins. Hat days.
Up top! ✋🏼
as in all things, just comes down to research. if you take some time and focus on the core issue of making people dance. but knowing the crowed is important and what is appropriate to play. but all in all...if you research it and study it ahead of time, as with anything, youll be fine.
the whole ideas is that the dj is in charge. he/ she is the one putting the music on and he/she can watch the croud and take them on a journy, it's almost a two way thing 50/50 , dj and croud work togeather.
j
how many post-it's do you have above your p.c.! Time for a pin up board!
It depends where you are playing and what time. If you are the warm up (House)DJ then you should be playing 123-125 BPM stuff and let the other DJ's play all of the floor-filler stuff.
so are you sayin keep your options open so that u can guide your set in the direction they need to travel
so touching for an excellent video
You are an incredible teacher
well... nice explaination :)
Sometimes I play at some little parties and people have requests (all in the same genre ofcourse) but sometimes I don't know the tracks (very well).
Can you explain how I can make a reasonable mix out of those tracks? (sometimes I am able to work with something like virtual DJ so I can see where the bass starts and stuff like that)
Thanks in advance.
Faithful regards:
DJ Neodar
...or you can move the crowd instead of letting them control you. :)
I find my favorite DJs construct a set based 10% on the vibe of the place they are going to and 90% on what they want to play; new-exciting artists, classics the crowd should know, mixes that should be played, genres the crowd should be exposed to, whatever....
Unless ur sticking to one genre and one BPM, it's nearly impossible to do a whole set on-the-fly, even if u can carry ur whole library on a flash drive. Thanks Jon.
I totally agree.
I've witnessed horrible DJ's at clubs that never pay attention to the vibe of the crowd. Soon the only one dancing is the DJ himself, or herself.
Don't become a crappy DJ.
Play your music, but also play for the crowd. It's the reason you love to DJ.
I wish you could have elaborated on what constitutes the different branches (directions)
He is just saying learn to read your crowd by looking at your customers. Notice what they are dancing to and what they are not dancing to to take your set to the next level, different directions. Hip Hop, Pop, Country, Disco, House, Rap etc. Visit the clubs you want to perform and and watch what the crowd is into so you can adapt your sets to the bars or clubs customers that you might want to play at. This is why we ask for a playlist at parties we perform at so we have an idea on what to add to our dj sets during the event we are hird for.
What about downtempo/trip hop/acid jazz/Nu jazz or underground hip hop??? Most BPM is 85-105.
Hi Jonahan..Im trying to by a twin Cd player ..Seen a Gemini CDX-2400 for about 150.00. Or else can you suggest a Twin for me please ? Im kind of on a tight BUDGT. Sorry ..
amila
Another one well done Jon.I feel that "Tree".lol
to syntse, i'm on the case . thanks
j
I have a basic idea of a start and middle and finish so there are no lulls but otherwise, I read the crowd and kinda make it up as I go along. What works works for that night. I find once u get the crowd biting you are laughing
I usually try and do my birds at the end of the night lol!
you have it though, this great advice irrespective of whatever genre you play.
hahahah your explanations are funny.. =)
but yea, the reason why i personally dont spend most of my time creating a fixed set, is because of that... i play what i feel is right at the time, and what the crowd looks like they wants...
What r the speakers called that u use on stand
very nice told. i'm inpressed.
Very good thoery, should get it published :)
Speaking of sets, J check my mail to you about chance for bedroom djs to get nice gig in UK.
whenever i plan a mix song to song i always fuck it up, but whenever I just fuck around on the decks I end up making a noice mix..
What I wanna nkow is where you get your gear from! lol
It's all about reading your crowd.
very true! good vid J
well I have another gig tonight.. so it really helps
you're the best ellaskins
nice tree
this was relli helpful!
to kingsleymore, i'm talking about the height of a banana plant in Africa in the early 1900's.
j
I feel like Im in the Tardis with the Doctor..Awesome.
ditto dude!!
j
There are two things to remember if you want to play a perfect set:
1. Play Sash - Equador
2. Play Robert Miles - Children
NICE!!
k thx :)
i had figured you that out :P
but still needs some practice :0
Greetzzz:
Neo
Thanks for this video, Now i have an idea. :)
@ellaskins Hahahahaha what a wicked comeback!
THANKYOU x wISDOM tALKIN
You said construce in the description.
+Connor Anderson Maybe he meant to put that.
You need to spent more time construcing your comments.
@adam4231 Download Rebecca Black and loop the chorus
ellaskin you are what i cAlled a fucking master -greetings from argentina-
tahnks for this hell of a material!
True
how do u get all your equipment? if someone robbed your house theyd be sorted for life...u sponsored?
in a hip hop club??
mmm
j
wow that was a really fuckin great cool and beautiful explanation man...fuckin A
Not really. You just need eyes and ears!
If you put something on and they all walk off, you've chosen badly. On the other hand if they all cheer and come running onto the dance floor, you've hit the jackpot!
4:35 How to draw a tree :)
or bedroom club
"excuse me. i've got a glass of water here as well." *pauses camera*
your off your head ! :)
decent picture of a tree to be fair!
thanks , it's an OAK!
lol
j
: )
WHAT EVER I WRITE ON GOOGLE ABOUT DJing THERE'S ALWAYSE ELLASKINS VIDEO :D
Thats a sexy wicked tree you got there lol
yeah some ppl never seem to be satisfied no matter what lol
ok.can i bring all my vinyls everytime!?no.i had to take a choice!which one...many styles?
On one side: he can't, because he doesn't have a crowd to react to.
On the other side: i'm sure he does this continually on his gigs, check a few gig logs!
haha aussie represent :)
like all those big djs on Boiler room, they really look at the crowd. And 70% of the time the crowd is not even dancing
tru.dat :)
Anyone else watching this in 1943?
i got 8 coming up on friday ;D
did 6 before.. bloody massacre :|
lol 4:36 he made a tree (:
enough sticky note :P
know I know how to draw a tree.
what the fuck is this all about? my crowd isnt blind i dont know wer to take them
@dkvelashvili lol
The notion that the crowd "may want something different," or "reading the crowd" etc. is garbage. I think people promoting it must not have found a voice or have a strong vision/philosophy for what they want to share on the decks. A crowd comes to dance plain and simple if you're relying on them to inform what you play chances are you're a hack that should just do weddings. Most Djs that show up and improvise everything are either unfocused or monotonous. How much you prep or not is really beside the point - the issue is can you deliver something that makes people want to dance and offers an experience that's unique.
He's not saying to improvise everything just to be prepared to go in different directions, i.e. have multiple versatile versions of the same set. Crowd engagement, size ect. are massive factors that should be adjusted for
Wow you are really full of yourself, This Man is right I've done this stuff for over 20 years and still have a job doing it because its about the crowd and what they want and you feed off them not want you think they want
Bedroom DJ advice
WTF IS HE TALKING ABOUT!?