20 Years Of DJ Advice In 1 Email
75 DJ lessons I wish I learnt sooner
Hey there Tempo Tacticians,
I still remember painstakingly learning to mix through trial and error on a pair of horrible Citronic PDQs turntables in early 2000 (yikes).
Since those early days I’ve:
played local clubs and bars
hosted my own podcasts
fell out of love with DJing completely
logged over 530+ hours live-streaming on Twitch
Created a YouTube channel
Started writing this very newsletter
It’s been quite a ride. And I made every DJing mistake under the sun.
Here are 75 pieces of advice I wish I could tell my younger self that would have made the last 20+ years go much more smoothly.
I hope they can help you on your journey too.
Embrace and adapt to technology. You will have more success than remaining a purist
Help others learn. It’ll help you get better too
DJing is part art, part science. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking it is 100% one or the other
Most DJ software is really bad. Try and use it only for what you have to
Learning on vinyl won’t make you any better at DJing than if you had learnt on a controller
But.. it builds up patience which will be a useful skill for the rest of your life
Learn a musical instrument. It will help train your ear and co-ordination and will improve your DJing in ways you can’t imagine
Understand at least basic music theory. Your track selections and harmonic mixing will improve
With the right tracks, long blends still work - in any genre
Never upgrade Rekordbox before a set
Be passionate about your favourite genre but don’t gate-keep it from others
If your favourite genre “Isn’t as good as the old days”, give it a year. It’ll be different by then
Your sets will be better if you know your tracks inside and out
When you can reliably tell if a tune is a banger or not from a 5 second clip you are getting somewhere
You don’t need to make reels or TikToks
Scratching is hard but it can add so much to your sets
Pioneer isn’t the best. Denon isn’t the best. They all just allow you play music to people
Sync is fine, use it. Just be able to not use it too
Don’t waste time looking at reviews of gear you have no intention of buying
Learn to get better at DJing in a format that works best for you. Newsletters, YouTube, Courses. There is no right or wrong way
You won’t use 80% of functionality on your decks
Rely on your ears more than your eyes. Grids can be unreliable
It’s ok to just want to DJ for your own enjoyment
Don’t overplay tracks. They become like a safety blanket in your sets - push yourself to play something new
Prepare your tracks - always. But only as much as you need to to be able to play a coherent set
Always have a backup USB. Or two. Or three
Get some time on CDJs even if you don’t want to play in clubs. They will test your resilience, adaptability and patience
Wear ear plugs. Trust me
Live streaming is fun and a good way to practice. But it is exhausting
Just because a tune is popular doesn’t make it suck
Genres change over time. Stay on top of how the sound is shifting
Don’t try and be a master at anything. Get ‘good enough’ and then learn something new that can make your sets better
Trainwreck - often. Then try and understand what happened and fix it next time
Plan the end of your set first
Watch and listen to live sets. They teach you how DJs think on their feet, especially when things go wrong
Have a rough plan for where your set is going, but then follow your gut
Making people dance is an amazing calling. But don’t over-inflate your ego about it
Regularly delete things from your library
Have a robust vetting process before tracks are allowed into your library
Experience the music regularly as a raver, not just as the DJ
Go to daytime events whenever possible - sleep is cool
Try and help the next generation of DJs whenever you can
Record your mixes. Analyse after what went well and what didn’t
Improvise, even if it means there’s a high chance of messing up
Delete social media apps from your phone
Take time to listen to your really old mixes. You’ll be amazed at the improvement
There will always be haters and they can’t be reasoned with - ignore them
Find people to talk to about music. Do it online if you have to
Share as much music as you can with other DJs
Playing on terrible gear is great practice
Regularly backup your music library (ideally in several places)
Understand signal chains
Spend more time crate-digging than anything else
Dabble in production. Even if you never make anything worthwhile you’ll learn a ton about music
Don’t just listen to one genre. There are gems everywhere. Even Tech House 👀
Build a music collection you own. Having all your music on streaming services is extremely high risk
Get familiar with keyboard shortcuts. They will save you a ton of time
Sometimes a cut is the most effective transition
Learn from good wedding DJs. They have to cater for the widest audience and music spectrum
Don’t over use FX
Use the 3-band waveform in Rekordbox
Get more accapellas
Learning to control energy is the single most important concept to understand
Dual layer control is horrible and confusing. Save up for a 3rd deck if you want to try more than 2 channels
Spend more time learning about how pro-DJs prepare their tracks rather than how they do their transitions
Automate as much of your music library as possible
Don’t double drop everything (even though it’s fun)
Don’t be afraid to play older tracks if they fit the vibe
Find two tracks that shouldn’t go together. Then find a way to make it work
Every set try at least 1 new thing
Make setting the gain correctly your top priority in a transition
Learn at least a few techniques to mix between different genres
Always check your crossfader assignment switch before you start playing
Echo out is your friend
One day you will figure out how to mix Hip-Hop
What DJ lessons would you go back in time to tell yourself? 🤔
➡️ Reply to this email or drop it in the comments
Other news
As you may know, it’s possible to add stems to any Rekordbox controller via midi mapping. The downside? You have to sacrifice some buttons.
One of our HotCue readers, Gary, shared with me how he used a midi-mapped external macro-pad for stems on his DDJ-400 without losing any buttons. Neat!
Have your say
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A small request
If you know any DJs you think would enjoy HotCue DJ I would love it if you’d share it with them 🙏
How do I get AutoTag
I watched and used your rekordbox stems mapping on your channel and I am wondering how can I use rekorbox stems on djm s11. Do I have to do mapping for it or is it any other way? Thanks