SwingDJs

Sorry if in wrong forum...
A few years ago when Lo Fi Le asked me to dj for him I said ok sounds like fun. I had never seen a dj board or lugged tons of cds anywhere. My lil' Sis GLassNickels had to show me the ropes of the dj board.
At first I thot djing was just a party you throw for folks. Well it was probably w/in the first 20 minutes that I realized folks had no problem telling you what you were doing wrong. OR what they THOT you were doing wrong.
I used to say.. ok well kids in the old days used to just throw on records for each other and make dance parties.
Cut to 2 years later and I've learned ALOT of lessons about knowing the audience, working w/it, tryiing to move and/or guide it thru a nite. Really hard lessons I think that have paid off. Kinda learning by making mistakes. There's no real way anyone can train you to be a dj, I think, except the mechanics of the machines. But making the music work w/ a crowd has been a time coming. I think the last 6 months or so I've really learned how to read a crowd.....And I think that was the hardest thing..but I really tried to listen to folks, ok and sometimes I foreced folks, but I think midway to the last six months I made good headway in skills....mostly b/c my bookings have been alot better lately. And my emails!
I'm at the point now where I've been getting booked outside of just swing dances and dance studios and I must say my attitude about what a dj does has changed 200% over the last 2 years.
I never thot filling in those few times would really lead me to get as far into it as I have...or to be going with it to where I am lately. I'm really greatfull to alot of the non-scene places that have booked me on word of some scenesters and all the other stuff that has come from it. e.g. stores...malls etc. (hey it's work)
Does anyone have similar experiences? Changes in ideas working w/crowds? Using the music to sway the mood of the room? Or changing what you're doing if folks aren't reacting they way you thot they would? Has YOUR attitude changed? Share some experiences! PLease!

You almost touch on something I was thinking about recently. How much natural skill is involved in DJing. A trained chimp could probably pick music and operate the equipment with the talking parrot providing the inane chatter. Some DJs have been doing this for a long time and others for a short time but that doesn't seem to be a measure of how well they/we connect with the audience.

In terms of feedback from the audience, I think much of it has to be taken with a grain of salt. There will always be a vocal minority very quick to complain about everything. Then there will be a few that would complement you if you hooked up a Casio keyboard and set it to play a Bossa Nova rhythm. Finally there is the big majority that never say boo.

I think the best skill a DJ can have is people watching. Being able to note who is and is not dancing and what people are responding well to. Something more than just how many people are on the floor but do they look like they are into the music. I still gauge response largely by the number of people on the floor but I'm working on paying attention to the people not on the dance floor and trying to speculate if they are dancing because they like the music or because there is nothing better to dance to.

Thx for your reply. I guess other folks have no comments but yours are much appreciated!

As a novice DJ, I hate to say anything that is not necessary true.

But, my situation is that I stumble upon the role of a DJ. I started a venue that ask people what they want. At first, I don't want to bear the responsibilty of reading the crowd. Hence, they can tell me how to run that show, especially I had always promote it as "their dance". But later on, as they got lazy in telling me what they want, I also would like to think that I've gotten better at knowing what they would like to dance to for the night. One opportunity led to another, one mood led to another, and one exchange led to another.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still learning, and I don't think I'll ever stop, as the crowd is growing and changing. One trap I did fell in, and I'm sure I'm not the only one: that of getting bored with the songs that are tried and true. The other would be that to address the feedback from audience. If you don't ask, they won't give; however, they will complain behind your back. The terrible part is that they will still dance to it.

So, hopefully since you're DJing to a non-dancing crowd that it'll be better and easier experience. And no one will say this is too fast to do <fill in the blank>. I'm happy for you to land a great gig, though.

Moonmist wrote: Don't get me wrong, I'm still learning, and I don't think I'll ever stop, as the crowd is growing and changing. One trap I did fell in, and I'm sure I'm not the only one: that of getting bored with the songs that are tried and true. The other would be that to address the feedback from audience. If you don't ask, they won't give; however, they will complain behind your back. The terrible part is that they will still dance to it.

It's definitely easy to fall into the trap of overplaying your best stuff. I try really hard to avoid overplaying anything.

In terms of feedback, I think audience feedback still has to be taken with a grain of salt. In my experience the most vocal people don't reflect the tastes of the entire crowd. Ideally, you should hone your people watching skills to read the room. Short of that, I'm not convinced that directly soliciting feedback from people really helps. Most people are too nice to give anything but positive feedback. The ones that are more willing to complain will probably complain no matter what you play.

BTW, this topic might get some better responses in the DJ Skillz area. Perhaps one of our hard working moderators could move it.