Hi Velanche,
I live not too far away from you, in Monterey where I have been a DJ at KAZU
90.3 fm for going on 20 years now. My nights are Tuesday, Wed and Thursday
from 8-10 PM. Outside of the radio station I also do quite a lot of
dance/party/rave/chillout deejay work and I have played in Europe, South
Africa and also, obviously, here as well. The mixing I do involves CD's as
opposed to vinyl which some regard as being sacrilegious but I must say that
it works well for me. The techniques for CD mixing are different to vinyl
and I have developed my own style and tricks. The best way to learn how to
do this is to get out there and just do it, there really is no better way of
learning.
One of the things I have learned is that the techniques really come
second to the selections you make and your ability as a deejay to keep the
crowd happy and listening and dancing. There is no way to learn that from
anyone, it is something you develop a feel for, being a good DJ really
involves "feel" as much as being a musician does and there are NO techniques
for that, you either do have it (feel, that is!) or you do not. The
connection you make to the dancers is a vital one and even playing the
latest and hippest groovy sounds will not matter one iota if you cannot
connect to the dancers. In fact, if you have the 'feel' then technique does
not matter a whole lot unless you want to be very involved with
beat-matching, cutting, sampling and doing the other tricks of the dj trade.
Quite frankly, my techniques are relatively primitive since I do not really
beat-match and my mixing is pretty straight forward, my strength lies in the
selections I make and playing them in a tight fashion and relating to the
dancers well since I love to dance myself! I rank myself as a selector of
sounds rather than giving myself the rank of DJ since what I do is very
direct and without much of the wizardry that most DJ's use or try to use.
I would get out and listen and watch other DJ's if I were you. Go down to LA
and find the spinners you like and take it all in, or as much as you can
absorb. Knowing the music you play is obviously essential, I still use some
music that is relatively old because it works and it is good! Obviously that
is a personal call but I stand right behind it, having the very lates and
hippest tunes counts for nothing if you have no idea of building and then
releasing the tension and sensuality of the dancefloor. As someone who loves
acid-jazz and other downtempo sounds, I really like to play a wide variety
of sounds. First of all I want people to have a complete experience
dancewise and to use their entire bodies getting there and second of all I
want to dance to a wide variety of beats and sounds. Just being another jock
mixing the regular 4 on the floor stuff one hears in most clubs these days
does not interest me that much since I find that music largely boring after
a couple of hours. Many DJ's active on the club circuit are locked into the
130 BPM syndrome and they are neither good enough nor daring enough to dare
to play music that is slower and more sensual and deep.
Whether I have helped you or not in what I have said above is up to you
since I have expressed opinions of my own rather than pointing you in the
direction of techniques and styles but then I am not one of the
interchangeable trance/hard/deep/progressive house DJ's plying their wares
lately. Feel free to contact me of you want, I am always happy to talk about
DJ'ing since I love doing it so much.
Cheers,
leslie/The Power of Sound/www.kazu.org
----- Original Message -----
From: Velanche Stewart <vstewart@calpoly.edu>
To: Acid Jazz List <acid-jazz@ucsd.edu>
Sent: Sunday, January 28, 2001 1:04 PM
Subject: ADVICE ON DJing
>
> Hello:
>
> I am a radio DJ who has loved acid jazz and all of its variants for
> years. I have been doing a radio show here for the last four years. I am
> in the Central Coast of California, BTW.
>
> Now I want to break out and learn how to do mixing. I have been
> listening to other shows and marvel how the music blends in, along with
> the beat-matchings. I've always wanted to give it a try, but I'm don't
> know really how to find those that are willing to tutor me on such
> things.
>
> Any advice that the more experienced DJ (radio, club, etc.) can lend
> would be greatly appreciated. I don't wish to lose this desire that I've
> had for a long time to make it happen. Thanks in advance.
>
> Regards,
> Velanche
>
> --
> Velanche Stewart
> Information Technology Consultant
> College of Liberal Arts
> Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo
> Phone: 805-756-7326
> Email: vstewart@calpoly.edu
>
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