How do you select musics for your DJ set?

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rktic
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Re: How do you select musics for your DJ set?

Post by rktic »

Kanhestro wrote:
rktic wrote:
Kanhestro wrote:I try to set a "goal" and pursue this goal, that in my head is some sort of motivation.
Hm, since I picked up on Planars thought as well: what is your goal? What are you trying to achieve?
My goal is to be able to make mixes sound as good as my influences. Of course my style is not going to be the same as my favourite DJs, but i find it a good goal. In a more broad spectrum i wanted to live by mixing and producing, that's a goal too.
What drives you to pursue that goal? Where does that need come from? Why music and not painting, cooking or anything else? What are you willing to sacrifice to move towards your goal? Which priority does it have? What value is it you want to give those who are listening to your music or sets?

No need to answer these ones here. You'll need to make up your mind about those either way some day. When you have to make a decision about where you want your life to go. Children? Job? Moving somewhere else?

Planar
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Re: How do you select musics for your DJ set?

Post by Planar »

Kanhestro wrote: I started mixing 6 months ago mate.
6 months is no time at all. Not many people beatmatch now, so the only real skill you need to develop is intuition and that doesn't come automatically to most. So I recommend forgetting your organisation stuff and just picking out some tunes and messing around with them. Play one and think in your head, "what would make sense to go next?", try to hear it in your head, then pick out something and try it. Sometimes it just works, other times it doesn't, but you'll make a mental note of it, then try another combo. Once you've got the hand of picking the next track you can think more in terms of transitions across a mix, "how can I get from this chilled house track to this 200bpm gabber track in half an hour". After that you just pick your mix structure and go for it. Like any learned skill, this might take a while, but eventually, if you have the passion for it, it should come through.

I once read that the work a DJ does is done during the week when they discover and practice, the actual set at the weekend was play. Thats always summed it up nicely for me.

In the end if you practice and have fun with it long enough it just becomes second nature. I think a lot of DJ's tend to pick the majority of their tracks from their newest batch mixed with some oldies or personal classics, so that helps you to keep on top of it once you have a large collection. But you'll be surprised at how many tracks you can learn well.


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