To become a Disc Jockey you must love and have a passion for entertaining crowds.
Decide if you’d like to be a disc jockey who plays for medium crowds or would you like to be a world renowned crowd pleaser who is booked for the top venues?
Charm and a cool personality is essential to your success as well as a great mix of tracks and great equipment for smooth transitions between tracks to keep the party pumping.
If you're already great on the tracks, work on your 'DJ persona' become notorious for something and be adaptable aswell as developing a good business mentality.
Step by Step
Determine who you want to be. Pleasing the crowd is about playing the music that a larger number of the crowd will enjoy; A music specialist would entail you playing your own mixes and hoping the crowd will enjoy them just as much.
Always have your DJ equipment. Having vinyl records is the preferance for most DJ’s but the other option are cd’s. Vinyl are larger so they’re easier to scratch on. Have your laptop ready to connect to the base setup of the major events who are ready for DJ’s.
If you’re focusing on small corporate events or small gatherings and parties it’s ok to use the CD spinners.
As a basic equipment set, invest in your turntables and a mixer. $800 will get you a decent mixer and a pair of Technics. It’s best to have a brand new mixer and second hand turn tables.
Live and Learn. Go out and experience and watch other DJ’s; explore what the job entails at a real level, learn the basics and evaluate if this is really what you want to do day in day out. This profession is not cheap so be sure you have allot to invest.
Have an extensive knowledge of current music trends. Make sure you know all the hit songs of the moment in most of the genres and crowds you’ll be playing to. If it’s predominantly a tecno crowd, you should be familiar with the known songs of the moment for that genre.
Some genres to explore are: Trance, Techno, Electronica, House, Hardcore, Downtempo, Breakbeat, Dubstep. You can create unique mixes with other genres like r&b and classical or hip hop and jazz depending on your tastes.
Play suitable music and be charismatic. Be a fun personable DJ but don’t over exxert yourself in the obnoxious department, it’ll make people uncomfortable and this is the opposite of what you want; you need people relaxed and vibe-ing to your mixes. Also, choose the appropriate music for the occasion. A wedding can differ from a kids party so know the order and tempo of the songs you’ll play to either fit a romantic setting or a fun up beat event.
Gather Experience. Start by playing to small crowds if you don’t have that much experience. Volunteer or play small payed gigs at nursing homes or kids parties. You can also ask a friend to DJ at their hosted party.
Tips
Arrange the song’s lyrics or the song’s titles to tell a story. Mix and match your songs and mix them great.
Create your own mixes and become a master of one genre, it should be your speciality despite having a broad knowledge of other genres and generally, musically knowing your stuff.
Notes
•Don’t sell yourself cheap. Build a reputation for being good at what you do and valuable, there’s nothing worse than becoming the ‘cheap DJ’.
•DJ’s use a stage of some sort to keep their equipment from any spillages in a party above shoulder height.
•Be friendly with a fellow DJ, they may be your ‘in’ for other gigs when bookings are slow.