From where the next song comes from

[Bob the Builder]

From where the next song comes from

Every single one of us that DJ has had to make a decision every few minutes on what song we want to play next. We have discuss various reasons why you will chose a song and most of the time it comes form how you read dancers on, and off the floor affect your choice.
However when you need to choose a song from your collection you will choose from one of the following:

Your physical collection list, i.e. a list (or even short list) of songs our your computer or just the combined flip book of CDs

Or

A song will come to your mind and you will choose it.


If have to say, one of the weak parts of my DJing lately is that I’ve been relying too much on the first method for choosing my next song.
I tend to think, a healthy mix of using both methods would be what my goal would be. The computer age makes it a lot easier to use the first method only, but from my music point of view; I would believe my DJing would be more organic, if I was to use the second method more often. When I was back on CD’s I use to do it a lot more.

I suppose the latter requires that you know you music collection very well, but hay that just means we have more reasons to listen to our own music.

Any views anyone?

Brian

[Roy]

What I usually do is, I start the night with a big list of all the songs I think I want to play. I sort it in groups of 3 songs that will fit well together and moves the music somewhere. From this big list I decide while DJing which mini set I want to use while DJing. Of course while DJing I often change my mind either based off crowd reaction or the energy is going in the wrong way, or I get a request, (I try to fit in requests unless they would make the crowd unhappy), or I hate the song requested. At times I just throw out the mini-set concept alltogether and just play stuff that loosely fits together.

[Racetrack]

I usually plan my sets out in advance and even burn mixes to CD. (I also bring along my entire collection so I can make course corrections if things aren't working as planned.) In Madison, aside from "does this tune swing?" considerations my sequence is often based on the local tempo preferences: the local crowd seems to like about 40% fast lindy, with about 10 - 20% of that being "super-fast", with the remaining 60% being mostly medium tempo. They will put up with, maybe 10% slow, groove, "fox trot" tempo and blues. Planning this out in advance is important to ensure that with all that fast stuff I don't play three fast numbers in a row and that the other stuff that gives the crowd a breather has decent variety and "fits" with the music surrounding it.

I also try to maintain a balance between "traditional" pre-1950's swing and more modern stuff like Diana Krall, Ron Sunshine, Yalloppin' Hounds, etc. And a mix of "big band" and "jazz combo" stuff on the one hand and the 1920's Charleston sound among the older stuff.

To avoid falling into a rut of playing my top personal favorites too much and improve variety in general (and make putting together my mix sets easier, faster and more fun) I'm trying out a "technical solution" to next song picks starting this week:

Most of my stuff ... even things I've picked up on iTunes is on CD. Yesterday I digitized almost all of the stuff I would consider playing for lindyhoppers (about 21 hours worth of music) into WMA format and sorted everything by artist in the Windows Media Player Library. As I build sets I begin by setting the player to "random shuffle" and keep having it make suggestions until something at the tempo I am seeking for the upcoming "slot" in the mix strikes my fancy. The longer it's been since I've played it, the better its chances of winning the spot.

I am finding that doing this makes it easier to consider all 21 hour's worth of swing music in my collection for each and every song. True, I only generally consider 3 to 10 potential candidates for each "next song" - but each "candidate" is randomly selected from the entire collection. The dice roll often comes up with stuff I that never seems to pop into my head on its own and I like that.

I'll find out tonight how well this REALLY works when I put this mix out on the dance floor at my weekly bar dance, but I am optimistic. I'm previewing the results right now and personally I think choosing "next songs" this way improves my sets.

[Surreal]

Oftentimes I just go to random shuffle and refresh the list until something catches my eye, then drag and drop songs into a list from there, rearranging as necessary. Heck, sometimes I just drag a random one and see how people like it; it's surprising what people will dance to (or more likely I just have no taste in music).

[trev]

I usually prepare a shortlist beforehand of fresh and interesting tracks that i think might work. The shortlist is usually longer than the length of the set.

Then when Djing I peruse that list and other folders i've made (like "150 - 160bpm" or "slow blues") and pick out tracks that grab my attention.

The other thing I will do is to try to hum to myself a rhythm/tempo that I feel I would want to dance to after the current track is playing, and then usually a track that fits that will come to mind.