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View Full Version : What do you guys do for Practice? - Methods of Practicing



ZoommaiR
01-09-2014, 06:52 AM
This is going to sound kind of nerdy, but this is how I learn things... Last night I spent the night looking for videos online that I've watched in the past about transitions to use in your mix, watched them back to back, and took notes on them. With my notes in front of me, I started trying out the different transitions, from the most basic spinbacks, slams, and bassline swaps, to some of the more complicated techniques with loop rolls and effects, etc. I have done similar stuff in the past for DJ'ing, as well as my other hobbies and passions, and it seems to work to help me learn.

This is not something I do everyday, most the time I just turn on Traktor, and just start going from song to song with whatever transition feels good at the moment, but once in a while I'll try to slow things down and think more critically, like I was last night.

But that got me to thinking, what do some of you guys do for practice? Do you guys mostly just mess around on your decks? or spend a lot of time working on specific aspects of a mix?

You know they say practice makes perfect. Well, I believe perfect practice makes perfect, so I would love to hear what some of you veterans do, so I'm not just wasting my time doing things that won't really advance my skills. Ya know? :) Or is it all good?

Thanks!

Sigma
01-09-2014, 07:58 AM
I used to do a combination of focussed practicing like you described, and turning on my decks and just doing whatever. Pretty much everything I learned came from trying to emulate things I heard other DJs do, as I was big into listening to mixes for quite a long time before I became a DJ myself - it was wanting to be able to do the stuff that the more creative DJs were doing in mixes that made me want to be a DJ.

I think what you're doing is great. A lot of DJs learn a reasonably basic skill set and stay within that zone, largely because it does the job, but the only time technical skills are bad is when they're over-used, otherwise, it just makes your mixing more interesting. I think these days, with technology making DJing easier, it's more important than ever to stand out.

dj daywalker
01-09-2014, 11:24 AM
biggest thing is don't just stand there waiting for the track play out. If you are practicing transitions either do a transition or fast forward to where you want to do the transition

When I want to learn something new, like an acapella buildup for example I will practice it until I get it perfect every time. Not using the same track and acapella but using different of both. That way it is universal and instead of just being able to do it with one track and one acapella I can do it with anything.

Also record yourself every one in a while and listen to it

JackStalk
01-09-2014, 12:22 PM
^This, if you're only playing for yourself you save many minutes by doing transitions and then fastforwarding through the track to the next one. It is, however, detrimental in some genres because you want to be in the "groove" when you're playing on-the-fly to a room. The single biggest way I've improved my mixing was by starting a podcast and mixing different tracks every single week. When you record yourself, you really scrutinize it and hear where all of your faults are. I've gotten exponentially cleaner and tighter with my transitions since I first started by recording myself.

allensmusic
01-09-2014, 12:52 PM
I never DJ alone.
I try new stuff at gigs.
If i have a completely new setup, for example when I switched from CD's to serato, i took a local bar residency at a place that didnt care about mixing as long as I played human jukebox. I practiced there for 3 nights a week until i felt ready to use it live. It only paid like $50 a night, but I dont see why I should work at home for free when I can get paid to learn somewhere.
I get that todays DJ's tend to learn everything at home, and when they think they are ready they come out of the bedroom and try to get gigs, but i see many of the newer DJ's never learning the art of crowd reading. I feel playing the crowd is also important.

now, I am NOT heavy into scratching, and some of those techniques would need to be practiced in a private situation because if done wrong it could sound really irritating and it has nothing to do with crowd reading.
however, I practice stuff like that during setup and extremely slow times.

I am not saying I do things the right way, and I am not saying others are wrong, I am just giving my observations.

This probably doesnt apply to you, but maybe it will help someone reading this thread.
an example of someone that learned to DJ in a bedroom...
recently a fairly new resident DJ played the main floor of a local nightclub. I was working as a sound engineer that night, so I had to hear the entire nights music. first thing I noticed was autosync. while I personally have never used it, I think it doesnt belong in a club. it was a kinda slow night, and it was early so I had another drink. The songs did mix well, and harmonically matched. I felt the songs themselves didnt match the vibe of the room, but that is just my opinion. after an hour and 15 minutes, the songs started repeating. same songs, IN THE SAME ORDER as what had initially played. now the club is filling up. there are several hundred people. he throws in a few scratches. songs are still playing in the same order as the first time. 2 1/2 hours into the night, the place is pretty busy for being christmas break, and yes, I am now hearing the songs for the THIRD TIME. he is throwing in more scratches and doing some mic work, but he is obviously not picking songs at all, and he is obviously not playing any requests at all.

jz416
01-09-2014, 06:50 PM
Personally, it depends on what im practising.

When mixng top 40 i tend to mix as fast as possible (get in as many transitions as possible), when mixing deep house i tend to mix 3 decks because it challenges my beatmatching skills 1.5x as much as just mixing 2 decks.

Hip hop just a mix of everything, quick mixing, scratching, just doing whatever feels right.

ZoommaiR
01-10-2014, 06:47 AM
I used to do a combination of focussed practicing like you described, and turning on my decks and just doing whatever. Pretty much everything I learned came from trying to emulate things I heard other DJs do, as I was big into listening to mixes for quite a long time before I became a DJ myself - it was wanting to be able to do the stuff that the more creative DJs were doing in mixes that made me want to be a DJ.

I think what you're doing is great. A lot of DJs learn a reasonably basic skill set and stay within that zone, largely because it does the job, but the only time technical skills are bad is when they're over-used, otherwise, it just makes your mixing more interesting. I think these days, with technology making DJing easier, it's more important than ever to stand out.

Could not agree more, which is why I'm trying to experiment more with transitions now. I'm listening and watching youtube videos of people's mixes and trying to pick up what I can, or at least just try to understand how they did certain transitions, even if I can't pull them off yet.





Also record yourself every one in a while and listen to it


^This, if you're only playing for yourself you save many minutes by doing transitions and then fastforwarding through the track to the next one. It is, however, detrimental in some genres because you want to be in the "groove" when you're playing on-the-fly to a room. The single biggest way I've improved my mixing was by starting a podcast and mixing different tracks every single week. When you record yourself, you really scrutinize it and hear where all of your faults are. I've gotten exponentially cleaner and tighter with my transitions since I first started by recording myself.

Thankfully I've been doing that for a while now, the files are starting to take up a lot of hard drive space, lol. Right after I practice, I'll usually listen once, and then listen again maybe a couple days later. I just haven't had the balls yet to submit one for all you guys to critique any of them yet....

ZoommaiR
01-10-2014, 06:54 AM
I never DJ alone.
I try new stuff at gigs.
If i have a completely new setup, for example when I switched from CD's to serato, i took a local bar residency at a place that didnt care about mixing as long as I played human jukebox. I practiced there for 3 nights a week until i felt ready to use it live. It only paid like $50 a night, but I dont see why I should work at home for free when I can get paid to learn somewhere.
I get that todays DJ's tend to learn everything at home, and when they think they are ready they come out of the bedroom and try to get gigs, but i see many of the newer DJ's never learning the art of crowd reading. I feel playing the crowd is also important.

now, I am NOT heavy into scratching, and some of those techniques would need to be practiced in a private situation because if done wrong it could sound really irritating and it has nothing to do with crowd reading.
however, I practice stuff like that during setup and extremely slow times.

I am not saying I do things the right way, and I am not saying others are wrong, I am just giving my observations.

This probably doesnt apply to you, but maybe it will help someone reading this thread.
an example of someone that learned to DJ in a bedroom...
recently a fairly new resident DJ played the main floor of a local nightclub. I was working as a sound engineer that night, so I had to hear the entire nights music. first thing I noticed was autosync. while I personally have never used it, I think it doesnt belong in a club. it was a kinda slow night, and it was early so I had another drink. The songs did mix well, and harmonically matched. I felt the songs themselves didnt match the vibe of the room, but that is just my opinion. after an hour and 15 minutes, the songs started repeating. same songs, IN THE SAME ORDER as what had initially played. now the club is filling up. there are several hundred people. he throws in a few scratches. songs are still playing in the same order as the first time. 2 1/2 hours into the night, the place is pretty busy for being christmas break, and yes, I am now hearing the songs for the THIRD TIME. he is throwing in more scratches and doing some mic work, but he is obviously not picking songs at all, and he is obviously not playing any requests at all.

Wow, I see your point, and it's exactly the advice I got from How to DJ Right: The Art and Science of Playing Records. The authors basically said if you want to become a DJ, you have to play out, and until you do, you're not a DJ. I read it about a year ago and immediately started my mobile DJ gigs after that, haha. I can confidently say because of it, I have grown exponentially in the last year, even just the last few months, because of the practice I'm getting doing these small mobile gigs, even if they are just weddings and office parties.

Though, I still see a need to practice at home aside from my gigs, especially trying stuff out right now that's way out of my comfort zone, like scratching you mentioned, or even just some transitions from songs I think would work in my head, but end up sounding horrible once I try them out together, haha.

ZoommaiR
01-10-2014, 07:02 AM
Personally, it depends on what im practising.

When mixng top 40 i tend to mix as fast as possible (get in as many transitions as possible), when mixing deep house i tend to mix 3 decks because it challenges my beatmatching skills 1.5x as much as just mixing 2 decks.

Hip hop just a mix of everything, quick mixing, scratching, just doing whatever feels right.

This is an interesting approach that I haven't considered... Is there a reason you're rushing through the Top40 stuff? or are you trying to work your way up to a certain BPM? Or is that just how you feel the transitions work best for Top40?

And with Deep House, if you just use 2 decks, do you feel limited to how many transitions you can do, which is why you like doing 3 decks? Or is it just a beatmatching thing?

Thanks for your input, I haven't considered what transitions are appropriate for what genres yet, I've just been trying them all out with all my genres, trying to find what sounds good, lol.

JackStalk
01-10-2014, 10:24 AM
Thankfully I've been doing that for a while now, the files are starting to take up a lot of hard drive space, lol. Right after I practice, I'll usually listen once, and then listen again maybe a couple days later. I just haven't had the balls yet to submit one for all you guys to critique any of them yet....

Just listen to them once or twice and delete them. Their main purpose is to allow you to listen to your own mix. I have 1.5TB on my computer just dedicated to music so I just keep everything until I start to run low.

Sigma
01-10-2014, 10:35 AM
Thankfully I've been doing that for a while now, the files are starting to take up a lot of hard drive space, lol. Right after I practice, I'll usually listen once, and then listen again maybe a couple days later. I just haven't had the balls yet to submit one for all you guys to critique any of them yet....
It's not worth keeping practice sessions long term really, but it is worth keeping your actual attempts at doing a mix, even if you never post that online. Because you hear your own DJing all the time, sometimes you can get the false impression that you're stuck in a rut and not improving, but usually when you listen back to an older mix you can tell straight away that you've got better. That's if you're constantly practicing anyway.

ZoommaiR
01-11-2014, 12:25 AM
It's not worth keeping practice sessions long term really, but it is worth keeping your actual attempts at doing a mix, even if you never post that online. Because you hear your own DJing all the time, sometimes you can get the false impression that you're stuck in a rut and not improving, but usually when you listen back to an older mix you can tell straight away that you've got better. That's if you're constantly practicing anyway.

Thanks man, I always appreciate your input. I'll keep that in mind next time I feel I'm in a rut. :spin:

TIMMBO
01-11-2014, 07:42 PM
I love to watch clips online, if I'm at work or even struggling to sleep (shift work messes your sleep pattern up) I will either whack on one of my mixes (listen at how I'm doing) or listen to loads of new mixes or even old mixes to try and pick up new choons to add to my collection, or secondly I will search the net for footage of djing, looking at how the pros use the eqs or just generally mix using cdj's although a lot of the stuff and trick mixing they do I feel I can't do until I add some 900's (or even 2000's) to my collection.

At home I spend a lot of time listening to my tracks on rekordbox looking at the wave form of the songs and seeing where breakdown and the structure of the choons are at. Getting to know my choons.

Then I practice every day with mixing, getting my beat mixing as tight as possible and also getting my mixes a little more creative as well as putting songs together and creating perfect little mash ups to perform within my sets.
Also messing around a lot with the eqs. But again I've only got 350's so lack with the hot cues and stuff so some of the stuff I hear people doing in mixes and I would love to emulate I obviously can not do.

Looking forward to getting my Rokit rp8's g3 so I can hear my mixes on better sound quality and not just through my 15-20 year old hifi system amp and speakers Lol

ZoommaiR
01-11-2014, 08:07 PM
I love to watch clips online, if I'm at work or even struggling to sleep (shift work messes your sleep pattern up) I will either whack on one of my mixes (listen at how I'm doing) or listen to loads of new mixes or even old mixes to try and pick up new choons to add to my collection, or secondly I will search the net for footage of djing, looking at how the pros use the eqs or just generally mix using cdj's although a lot of the stuff and trick mixing they do I feel I can't do until I add some 900's (or even 2000's) to my collection.

At home I spend a lot of time listening to my tracks on rekordbox looking at the wave form of the songs and seeing where breakdown and the structure of the choons are at. Getting to know my choons.

Then I practice every day with mixing, getting my beat mixing as tight as possible and also getting my mixes a little more creative as well as putting songs together and creating perfect little mash ups to perform within my sets.
Also messing around a lot with the eqs. But again I've only got 350's so lack with the hot cues and stuff so some of the stuff I hear people doing in mixes and I would love to emulate I obviously can not do.

Looking forward to getting my Rokit rp8's g3 so I can hear my mixes on better sound quality and not just through my 15-20 year old hifi system amp and speakers Lol

Now THAT'S dedication! :)

I like how you go through every aspect of DJ'ing, not just mixing, but listening to your actual tunes and analyzing them critically, something I need to do more of definitely.

Catch22
01-11-2014, 09:07 PM
Knowing your tracks is really important for me. If you know you're tracks well enough you'll inherently learn when to cue up and play a track at the beginning of a phrase. Depends what you're using for equipment though, I would say vinyl is the only platform where that's incredibly important, anything else you can get away with semi-knowing your tracks.

TIMMBO
01-12-2014, 04:29 PM
I call it dedication

The wife calls it obsessive lol

I love watching how others Dj
Taking little ideas from there techniques.




I don't use any laptops and stuff in my mix, just USB so that's one if the main reasons I listen to my choons so much.
Would this change is I were to start using a laptop. I would like to think not

jz416
01-12-2014, 08:02 PM
This is an interesting approach that I haven't considered... Is there a reason you're rushing through the Top40 stuff? or are you trying to work your way up to a certain BPM? Or is that just how you feel the transitions work best for Top40?

And with Deep House, if you just use 2 decks, do you feel limited to how many transitions you can do, which is why you like doing 3 decks? Or is it just a beatmatching thing?

Thanks for your input, I haven't considered what transitions are appropriate for what genres yet, I've just been trying them all out with all my genres, trying to find what sounds good, lol.

The quick mixing with top 40 is done for two reasons.
1) I find that whenever im playing top 40 at gigs for people my age (16), a song that had everyone screaming 40 seconds ago, is now boring everyone
2 I just dont enjoy most of the top music as much as hip hop or deep house so i dont really care to listen to it - more just doign as much fader work and eqing and levels and beatmatching in a short amount of time.

3 Decks certainly does allow for more creativity - I find that when Im mixing deep house with two dicks, its sorta feels like Im just standing there for a while, when I'm mixing 3 decks, Im running around keeping everything in sync and always remembering what comes next in a song. I rarely mix 3 decks when im playing out because i can be doing really well for 20 minutes and then i forget to switch layers on my Media players (denon Hs5500s) before throwing hitting the play button or something or i move the pitch fader and get confused and everything just implodes.

My goal is to get to the point of being comfortable mixing 3 decks live.

DJArmani
01-12-2014, 08:15 PM
I find that when Im mixing deep house with two dicks, its sorta feels like Im just standing there for a while


I get you man :lol: :lol: :lol:

Baller95
01-12-2014, 08:17 PM
I get you man :lol: :lol: :lol:

:lol:

jz416
01-12-2014, 10:06 PM
:lol:



I literally just fell over at my computer and im now crying from laughter.

ZoommaiR
01-13-2014, 01:34 AM
I literally just fell over at my computer and im now crying from laughter.

Took me a full 3 minutes to figure out why you guys are laughing so hard.... LOL



:whack: