Preparing for a Gig/ Your First Gig?

Tips and techniques of the trade

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Mystere88
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Preparing for a Gig/ Your First Gig?

#1 Post by Mystere88 » Tue Jun 07, 2005 4:20 pm

Hey Everyone,

so I've decided to become a Swing DJ. Now there will be three to choose from in this town, and I'm the only one under 30, or 40, or 48. So, once I decided to sponsor my own dance, then I thought I would take on DJing it as well. I've been doing my homework for the past 2 months, and have 2 more weeks. So, I'm interested to ask:

How do you prepare for any DJing gig? >>I've developed a few good databases on my Filemaker System that are getting me toward organized. I found reading the thread about "themes" was very helpful and I've been able to assemble some different themes I hope to touch on throughout the night. I'm having a lot of fun learning about all this great music, and have compiled about 7 hours of good music in my collection to choose from for a 3.5 hour dance.

I noticed that people were publishing their set lists on another thread. Are you just so good you can wing it every time or do you assemble a set list prior to most of your gigs as an "outline" per se?



What was your first DJing gig? How did you prepare? How did it go?

Thanks!

Toon Town Dave
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#2 Post by Toon Town Dave » Tue Jun 07, 2005 6:29 pm

It's nice to see eager newbies :)

First, I would caution you that trying to be THE DJ and THE organizer probably won't work. Both demand a significant amount of attention unless your event is really small (a dozen or so friends). The first and foremost thing in your mind should be what will keep your customers happy and encourage them to come back and bring a friend.

From the DJ side of things, if you have no experience I wouldn't try and do a whole 3.5 hour dance, especially if you only have 7 hours total music to draw from. Start small, maybe a couple half hour mini-sets between more experienced DJs just to get comfortable with the job and you grow your music collection a bit. There's nothing more de-motivating at a dance event than having the music sound like the same stuff on random shuffle week after week.

As far as planning, that really depends. Myself, I never plan a set ahead of time. I maybe get a general idea for a few tracks I'd like to work in to my set and go from there. With dancers, you never know what they're in the mood for until the evening is under way. I believe it's the DJs job to accomodate the dancers, not the dancers' job to accomodate the DJ so you'll ineveitibly adjust your selections accordingly.

My first time DJ-ing was helping out our one and only DJ both to give him a chance to dance and allow me to introduce some new/different music when evenings were getting a little stale. Looking back, I don't think I'd have wanted to dance to 3/4 of what I played beacuse my music collection was small and the quality of my selections was often marginal at best.

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trev
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#3 Post by trev » Tue Jun 07, 2005 6:40 pm

The first time I volunteered to be responsible for the music, I put together a playlist with a friend before the event. It wasn't really "DJing" at all - obviously you can't respond to the mood of the room - But it was relatively risk-free and seemed to go off quite well.

Later I started getting into it and playing off the cuff. I usually put together a shortlist that is twice as long as the length of the set i'm going to play. In other words, I bring at least 6 hours worth of tunes for a 3 hour set, and that gives me a good pool of tracks that I'm relatively comfortable with.

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Choc Wheaton
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#4 Post by Choc Wheaton » Tue Jun 07, 2005 7:47 pm

Totally agree with my buddy Trev here (hows it going mate?)...

I usually keep a spreadsheet handy with a list of tracks that I 'might' want to play for any given set. As Trev said, it usually equates to about 6 hours worth of music! Effectively it means I'm armed for every set with quick reference guide, broken up by tempo, plus whatever else I want to play based on the dancers mood.

I revisit the spreadsheet weekly, add and remove tracks and try to work in things that I haven't played for a while. This also forces me to keep working through my collection so I know it inside and out.

Good luck with it

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trev
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#5 Post by trev » Tue Jun 07, 2005 7:50 pm

Hey man, good to see you on here. Love your work :wink:

Mystere88
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#6 Post by Mystere88 » Wed Jun 08, 2005 12:05 pm

Thanks for the tips advice.

As far as being both Organizer and DJ: at the last event, once we opened doors, it was easy as its a simple space without any problems. I have friends who will work the door, etc. . . in this regard I'm not worried.

I do indeed have more than 7 hours of music total to choose from, just trying to be armed with a good set to react accordingly to the mood of the room. I'm realize I will be accomodating the feel of the room according to the dancers, but also want to create a niche for my events. We don't want to creat the same vibe at our other swing nights. We also want to encourage new ideas, but we'll see how long this lasts.

If anyone will be anywhere near Milwaukee on Fathers Day, you can come spin my first set for me. I don't want to take on the whole night, but I've have 3 other DJs turn me down.

I'm looking forward to the entire experience, and the chance to share some of my passions about this music with other people. The venuw we have is one of the more unique ones I've been two: Second floor with Atrium/ Balcony looking over the first floor, lots of windows and doors for outside air and access, and a great view of the city and a westward portal so we can watch the sunset whilst we dance. I'll let you know how it goes.

Adam

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Bob the Builder
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#7 Post by Bob the Builder » Wed Jun 08, 2005 6:42 pm

I think "short lists" work really well. If you need to play say 30 minutes, ie 10 songs, maybe start with a short list of 50 songs. It will help you choose music quickly, and also allow you to adapt it to the mood of the room.
I still use short lists for some items, eg songs for beginners, some genres I'm not great on and songs good songs I haven't heard spun in a while. It is however important to purge these lists every few gigs (2 or 3) and come up with new lists. Other wise you'll loose the "fresh" sound.
Short lists are great "fall backs". Just make sure you treat them as just "fall backs" especially when you start to get some experience under your belt.

Brian :D
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Mystere88
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#8 Post by Mystere88 » Wed Jun 29, 2005 12:44 pm

So, I guess I should give a small report on how things went.

In order to be prepared to DJ at this event, I had done a lot of homework, listening to up to 4 hours of music a night, and taking notes accordingly - figuring BPM, logging if it was Lindy Music, Charleston/ Shag/ Balboa, or Blues. Did the sound or feel of the music embody what I might be looking for. Are these recordings things we've heard before or is this new music for our dancing public? I was well prepared, and I had fun.

The venue ended up being much warmer than planned. Our whole scheme of having a "Twilight" dance ended up with a very bright sun pouring heat into the room. Luckily, if you weren't dancing, there was a really pleasant breeze if you took a seat by the windows. But, this killed any idea that the crowd might like to dance faster than 150. When I did play such tunes, people might dance one, but not two in a row, as they were dripping on each other. SO, I stuck right around the 120 BPM range, and people were mostly happy. A few Madison dancers arrived, and they just like to dance fast.

I certaily did better than the DJ/ Uberman at the local University who takes his laptop in and simply presses Shuffle.

As the night wore on, I was able to even coax a few things out of my attendance, playing slower and longer tunes - something that is rarely done in these parts (something I like about late night dance at most exchanges). I even got one "silly" song in, and was complimented as the evening drew to a close.

Now I got my first fix of DJing and want to do it again, but I would rather just show up and not have to deal with sponsoring the dance as well. I'll keep plodding on around here.

Thanks for everyone's advice and encouragement, its much appreciated!

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