It’s comforting to think that with the right amount of preparation you can avoid making mistakes in front of other people when DJing. But there’s a cold undeniable truth — you can’t. It’s going to happen, it’s just something people don’t like talking about.
It takes bravery to admit this truth, which is what made Tiga’s Instagram post from 2018 so compelling, memorable, and well-received.
“Here’s something nobody talks about; how about when you DON’T kill it. How about when you are what is actually wrong with the party. Your programming is lazy, your decisions are ill-informed, you vacillate between confidence and cluelessness. Your records sound slow. You can’t maintain a connection. The center cannot hold…And just like that, for a few hours, the magic is gone…”
Tiga
Knowing that everyone makes mistakes can also be liberating, because that means you’re not alone, and you’re not a failure. What is vastly more important is how you handle a less-than-ideal situation when it does arise.
We hope that this article not only normalizes some common undesirable scenarios and gives you some tools to help you recover quickly, avoiding long term blows to your confidence.
So let’s get our hazmat suits on and start digging through some dumpster fires full of train wrecks and shoe-filled dryers, shall we?
It may be a new booking, or it may be the same place you’ve played dozens of times before, but for whatever reason, people aren’t feeling it. This can be very deflating when your one job is to make sure people are having a good time.Often times you can triage the situation by reflecting on how you’re approaching song selection for your set:
How can you tell if the odds are starting to turn in your favor? It can be something as subtle as seeing people start to tap their feet, and getting one more person on the dance floor is definitely a victory. You’re not going to go from an empty floor to a hyped crowd instantly, it’s a hard won battle for each person, moment by moment.
If you’re suffering from TSP —Track Selection Paralysis — you’re not alone. The condition affects thousands of DJs every year, and we totally made up a name for it for this article.
The most important thing is to snap out of the paralysis as quickly as possible. First off, don’t beat yourself up — this happens to everyone at some point and self shaming will keep you from starting to fix the problem.
One final pro tip: don’t be afraid to set a loop at the end of a track during an outro. With a bit of active EQing in time with the track and FX use, you can often a few valuable more seconds out of a track before it expires. This might give you a few more moments to get your next track mixed in smoother – just don’t let that loop run for too long!
Ah yes, the proverbial trainwreck. Your beatmatching isn’t holding up and the rhythm on your two tracks are drifting apart, making that dreaded shoes-in-a-dryer-type sound. What do you do?
First, assess how bad it is. Are the beats slowly drifting apart or are they wildly off?
Now, most of the time the average listener will NOT notice. But clients, promoters, or fellow DJs you may be wanting to impress may hear the sloppy transition. They will also notice how quickly you recover from your mishap. If done quickly and skillfully, it actually may be a net positive experience.
Here’s a few common mishaps that can put you in this category:
The list goes on and on. The Beat Junkies recently did a whole hour-long podcast on DJ fails, starting off with this gem from Melo-D (go to 8:00 if the video doesn’t jump automatically):
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It’s a very uncomfortable place to be in, but if everyone in the room notices that you just stank up the place, the best course of action is to own it with a sense of humor. Embody your inner shrug emoji guy: ¯\_(?)_/¯
Most people appreciate honest vulnerability with a dash of levity mixed in, and it can get you out of a lot of sticky situations. The more you’re down to earth, the more your audience will be able to relate to you, and the more forgiving they’ll be.
Once the awkward moment has passed, do your best to leave it in the past. It may take a bit to get the energy back into the room, but most of the time it will come back if you’re able to keep your head in the game.
Oftentimes there are mishaps that happen beyond a DJ’s control. If the sound cuts out on your watch and it’s not your soundsystem, that doesn’t mean your job of being a DJ is over. Actually, it’s more important than ever.
If the sound cuts out completely, this is where you have to get a little more creative. One of my DJ buddies Pwny leads everyone in a little “Happy Birthday” singalong, silently praying that the issue will be fixed by the time she’s done. Get creative with the vibe that resonates with your “DJ persona” and see if you can keep it going for as long as you can.
Whatever you do — don’t lose your cool and don’t lose your connection with the crowd.
These are just a few of the countless things that can go wrong during a DJ set. Whatever the situation, give yourself a little time, sleep on it, and then get curious. If you recorded your set, go back and listen and see where you need to improve. When in doubt, recreate the mistake as it happened and practice the techniques to fix it.
Also check with your friends or listen to the recording to see if it really was that bad. Sometimes what you thought was a colossal mistake was really just a blip in an otherwise great set. We’re all our harshest critic, and the last thing you want is to get down on yourself for something that wasn’t that bad in the first place. Don’t damage your confidence unnecessarily.
what matters the most is how you react to it
Regardless of what the mistake is, what matters the most is how you react to it. When in doubt, get creative and learn how to approach mistakes with poise and authenticity. Mistakes and failures are signs that you are pushing the envelope and expanding your horizons, so use these hard lessons to your utmost advantage and persevere. DJing requires constant acts of bravery. Keep at it.
Have some hard earned lessons that you’d like to share? Leave them in the comments below.
Author: DJ TechTools
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