Showing off your mixing skills is the highlight of being a DJ. You’ve probably had visions of whipping a crowd into a frenzy with some carefully timed beats. Even if you’ve been mixing for years, there are always some new skills you can add to your toolbox. Here are 48 DJ mixing tips to help you keep rocking dance floors year after year.
1. Use the Song Phrases
Beginner DJs frequently overlook phrasing. Most music has natural point where the melody, lyric or idea is completed, and some new phrase starts. Phrases in music are like paragraphs in writing. They complete a thought and provide a natural break.
In pop music, a phrase is a chorus or verse, while a phrase could be a build or drop in EDM. Most phrases run in 8, 16 or 32-bar sections. You can get a feel for phrases without really studying much musical theory. Listen to some of your favorite songs, and mark where each part of the song feels complete, like you could switch to another song at that point without feeling like you are being jerked out of the flow.
Because, that’s exactly what you will be doing with your mixing. Time your mixes so that the end of a phrase in the first song lines up with the beginning of a phrase in the next song. For example, have the outro of one song end just as the vocal of the next song starts. You can even make your own phrases with loops. You could end an 8-bar bass loop when the 32-bar phrase of the song ends. Listen for the end of a phrase to make a change, and your mix will make new music that sounds great.
I put together a short video so you can hear what I’m talking about:
2. Mark Songs that Match Well Together
Any time you come across two songs that mix well together, make a mental note. Or, even better, make an actual note! Use the comment tag or another unused tag in the song file to jot down which songs mix well. Some DJ software will even let you add additional notes outside the file tags. I feel it’s best to write to the tags, just in case you change DJ software in the future.
If you are looking for mix suggestions, don’t forget to enable the automatic suggestions in your DJ software. I’ve found some incredible mixes I never would have thought of using the software AI. I’ve also seen it make some horrible suggestions, so take everything the computer says with a grain of salt.
3. Laidback Luke Challenge
Once you have some songs that you love to mix together, don’t be predictable. Your regular fans will get really bored if you mix the same two songs over and over again. You should challenge yourself like Laidback Luke, one of the best mixing DJs in the world. He refuses to reuse a mix ever. So for the next set, he will insert a new song between two songs that he mixed last time, and then a new song between those next set, and so on. He is creating infinite combinations of music and stretching his mixing skills with every set he plays.
4. Laidback Luke’s 5 Creative DJ Techniques
Speaking of Luke, I’ve included in this list some tutorials from other DJs that have been hugely influential on me. Laidback Luke is my favorite creative DJ/Producer trainer. This video covers some of his big concepts quickly, and gave me great ideas that I applied to my next set. He works through all of the ideas and then plays an example live. His five keys are:
- Experiment
- Use Effects
- Use Cue Points
- Practice
- Watch the Crowd
These ideas sound so simple, but Luke expands them to create incredibly creative mixes. Check it out here:
If you want the full breakdown of all of Laidback Luke’s creative mixing techniques, sign up for his course today!
5. One Person Singing at a Time
Mixes go much smoother with less happening in each track. If you are playing music that has vocals, it’s easier and cleaner to mix an instrumental section into a vocal, and vice versa. Two singers at once can be overwhelming in the mix. You can also time it just right so that one ends as the next begins.
That said, all rules were made to be broken. You can create some real magic if you can find two vocals that don’t overlap rhythmically. For example, the first singer is singing in the first two bars of a four bar repeat, and the second only sings in the last two. You can create some interesting wordplay mixes just by finding two vocals that fit together.
If you have overlapping vocals that you can’t get around, try using your low-pass filter to reduce the vocals and accentuate the bass. You can even go back and forth filtering either track to pull attention from one to the other.
6. Mix Out on Second Chorus
I usually mix out during or after the second chorus on popular songs. The crowd has gotten a feel for the song by this point and I feel like I have satisfied anyone who might have requested it. The second chorus is where most songs start to get repetitive, and therefore boring. I’m definitely ready to move on at this point.
The chorus gives you a great spot to transition. It’s the most recognizable part of the song, so people will notice that you are doing something with the music, not just pressing play. Kill the bass and mix in the intro to the next song, or do a spinback, or hard cut back and forth between the tracks. The options are only limited to your imagination.
Dance music and instrumentals give you more flexibility, but the concept remains the same. Give your audience enough of a track that you get recognition, but don’t bore them with repetition. The music formula of chorus/verse or build/drop gives you an easy structure to chop and splice songs together.
7. Using Software Help Isn’t Cheating
DJ software has made astonishing advances in recent years. Software can now analyze beat, key, phrases, mood and much more. Don’t let anyone shame you into not using all of the tools at your disposal. Sure, you should know how to beatmatch manually and have a basic understanding of what the software is doing for you. But you don’t need to be embarrassed of anything that makes your set sound better to the audience.
Back in the days of turntable-only DJing, guys and gals would sit for hours with a piano and a metronome to figure out key and BPM. They would practice for years to make their beatmatching flawless. I’ve been a singer for decades and my rhythm still sucks. But, guess what? Nobody is going to know that I missed the beat by 80 milliseconds and used the sync button to help my fat fingers. Let the software fix your little mistakes so you can focus on making big musical moves. Use the advanced tools to help you discover things you wouldn’t have known you wanted.
As you progress, you may discover that you want less help from the software, so you can have tighter control over the sound. Whatever your DJ path, don’t let anyone tell you that you’re not a “real” DJ.
8. Practice Your Beatmatching
That said, you should absolutely know how to beatmatch manually. This is a fairly easy skill to learn and one that will serve you well throughout your DJ career.
I learned the easiest way to beatmatch from Digital DJ Tips. To beatmatch manually:
- Turn off autosync on your decks.
- Play a track and load a second one.
- Set a cue point on the second track to the downbeat (beat 1 of a given bar).
- Move the pitch fader of the second track way faster than the first track.
- Hit play on the second track in time with the downbeat of the first track, and listen to how much slower it needs to be.
- Move the pitch fader of the second track a little bit slower, re-cue and play it again.
- Keep replaying and adjusting the second track until the beat matches.
You can learn to beatmatch as part of your DJ practice routine. Take just five or ten minutes at the beginning of each practice session to get in some beatmatching practice. Cover the BPM reading of your screen with Post-it Notes, and load two songs at random. Then use the steps above to beatmatch them. After you think you’ve got it perfect, remove the Post-its and see how you did.
9. Correct Your Beat Grids
Correcting your beat grids is really the first step to beatmatching. DJ software will analyze your songs and do a fairly good job of assigning BPM and key. However, I find that I often have to correct the first beat of a measure.
DJ software uses these beat grids to adjust autosync and display phrase indicators. I’ve seen Virtual DJ do some wacky things when my beat grids aren’t aligned to the beats and bars correctly. And, it’s just plain distracting when I’m playing a song and the downbeat doesn’t match up with the visual beat indicators on my screen.
Check out your software’s specific directions for adjusting beat number and beat grids. In Virtual DJ, you can right-click a track and select “BPM Editor”. There’s a marker for the first downbeat that you can drag to the correct position in the track. Another tip here: you actually have to go into the Audio settings and assign the Preview output to a channel if you want to play a clip in the BPM Editor window. That only took me a few weeks to figure out, so thanks a lot for that Virtual DJ!
10. Update Your Software
Of course, as I’m badmouthing my software, I’ll turn right around and tell you how great it is. All DJ software has made huge advances in recent years. I was blown away when I upgraded from Virtual DJ 7 to Virtual DJ 8. The newer version has better integration for livestreaming, multiple options for DJing with streaming services, more filters, more sample slots, built-in slicer, and much more that I haven’t even figure out how to use yet.
I’m kicking myself for waiting so long to pay for the upgrade and make the switch. If you’ve been putting off getting the latest version of your software, bite the bullet and do it now. You will find a ton of new tools to practice with. Learn them well and you will instantly have new mixing techniques.
11. Key Match (Almost) Every Time
Learning key matching has improved the sound of my mixes tenfold. If you’ve ever wondered why two songs just won’t mix together, it’s probably because they are in different keys. The clash of melodies and chords is just too hard to overcome.
You can learn the basics of keymixing by studying a bit about the Camelot wheel. There are other notations as well, and they all work similarly. The numbers and letters indicate with songs are likely to be compatible. In Camelot, you can go up or down one number (7A to 8A), or change the letter (7A to 7B) and the song should sound really good together.
DJ software is also building in key differences fields. You can add this column to your browser and see if the songs in your list are compatible with song currently playing. Virtual DJ even puts a checkmark next to songs that match well. It’s a very easy way to quickly see what you should play next.
12. …Except When You Don’t Key Match
While key matching is a powerful tool to help your mixes sound great, it is only one of many techniques. Don’t become a slave to key matching. There are plenty of songs that will mix together without being perfectly in tune. AND, there are some songs that are in the same key that don’t go together at all! Use key matching as a guide, not a rule.
In fact, many dance tunes start with just percussion, specifically so the can be mixed into almost anything. One of the easiest ways to mix two songs is a Bass Swap. Kill the bass on song 2 and beat match it to song 1. Then swap: kill the bass on song 1 and turn it up on song 2 when the time is right. You will instantly add a new feeling to the song 1, and you can transition all the way to Song 2 whenever you like. If song 2’s intro is just percussion, this will mix beautifully with almost any song.
13. Record and Listen To Your Sets
I resisted this tip for a while, but I have learned so much from it. You should be recording as many of your practice session and live set as you can. Listen to them while you are driving around in the car, cleaning the house or taking a walk. You will hear new subtle things about your mixes. Your mind will instantly think about what you could have done better. I am even shocked when a mix that I thought was flawless sounds terrible on playback.
A word of caution: this is going to be embarrassing the first few times you do it. I was totally mortified of some of my mistakes at first. But there are a couple things to keep in mind. First, you are your harshest critic, so you will hear every mistake. 90% of the time, no one will even notice a mistake you made. And, even if they did, they don’t care! Keep the music coming and all is forgiven. Second, you can’t improve unless you hear what you are doing wrong. Every mistake is a chance to grow. What’s the point of listening to a flawless mix? You’re not going to learn anything from it.
14. Master 3 or 4 (Subtle) Techniques and Mix Them Up
You don’t need an endless array of mixing techniques to rock a dance floor. If you learn just a few, you can mix and combine them to make a wide variety of music. Even if you used the same technique over and over, you’re mixing different songs. It is going to sound different every time.
There are a few basic mixing tricks that are pretty easy to master. You can find them on YouTube, or I have a step-by-step guide and video to show you exactly how to master basic mixing techniques. You can run your entire DJ career with just these five mixing techniques. I was a successful DJ for over ten years before I learned the last three!
But, adding some solid new techniques really took my mixes to the next level. And, it’s a great way to keep from getting bored behind the decks. Any tricks beyond the basics will just keep you engaged and growing as a DJ. But be sure that you practice and master a technique before you add a new one. Better to have 3 or 4 techniques you can do in your sleep than 10 techniques that you kinda suck at.
15. Go Easy On The Effects
As fun as it is to play with effects, try not to overdo it. Your crowd will quickly get sick of glitches, echoes and loop rolls. Use effects in a meaningful way. That is, use them to make a difference in your sound that is obvious. The more you use effects, the less effective they will be.
You want to avoid using the same effects over and over, just like you want to change up your mixing style. If you are always using a loop roll before a drop, that’s going to get boring really quickly. Use your effects sparingly where they will have the most impact and mix it up.
16. Copy, Then Steal!
If you haven’t seen Mark Ronson’s Ted Talk on sampling, stop everything and watch this! It completely changed my opinion about copyrights and “original” ideas.
TL;DR: Nothing is original. You’ve heard the quote, “Good artists copy, great artists steal.” Realize that this isn’t meant literally. If you just rip of the exact same mix another DJ does, there’s nothing interesting about it.
You have to learn techniques and then find ways to make them your own. But there is no shame in learning another DJ’s method and giving it your style. But step one is to blatantly copy the technique until you can master it. Then you can upgrade to stealing 🙂
Digital DJ Tips has a slew of DJ mixes broken down so you can follow along step-by-step. Find a few that you like and spend some time copying the skills used. Then, experiment and find a way to make them your own. Mess around. Break things. Make mistakes. Find something that sounds cool and repeat it until it’s yours.
17. Practice Smart
You’ve heard the phrase, “Practice makes perfect,” right? Now, lots of people are saying, “Perfect practice makes perfect.” While you don’t have to practice perfectly, you should plan to use your practice time wisely.
Firstly, you have to make time to practice. Carve out whatever time you can in your schedule and practice consistently. You don’t need a huge amount of time to make great improvements. World-renowned orchestra players are only practicing 2 to 4 hours a day, and that is their full-time job.
The secret is to make whatever time you have to practice very effective. Go into a practice session with a specific goal, like a skill you want to learn or a gig you are prepping for. Then, plan out smaller steps you need to accomplish to reach that goal. In my example of learning to beat match manually, you can spend 5-10 minutes “testing” yourself by trying to match two songs without looking at the BPM. For most DJs, you should split your time between learning a new skill and mixing like you were playing live. You can switch to mixing if you get tired of working on one skill, and vice versa.
Don’t forget to record any practice mixes and listen to them later. And, check out tip #32 for a real-life breakdown of how a touring DJ works practice into his set prep.
18. Use the Right Techniques for the Crowd
Your mixing techniques should match your audience. Weddings don’t want distortion effects and endless loops. You’re not going to be doing much smooth fading at an EDM festival. Consider the crowd you are playing for and what mixing style will fit their mood.
Of course, you have lots of leeway to bleed those styles into each other. When I first started as a wedding DJ, it would have been strange to beat match songs. Now I’m doing it all the time because dance music has such a wider audience. So feel free to experiment and see how far you can push the envelope. Throw some hip-hop cuts into a salsa mix. Mess with the filters while playing classic rock. Just be sure to watch the reaction. If you’re getting smiles and hands in the air, keep it going. But if all you’ve got are a bunch of sour faces, tone it down.
19. One Sub-Bass Source at a Time
If you are mixing two tracks with low frequency sub-bass, make sure that you are cutting the bass on one of the tracks. Playing two songs with sub-bass at the same time will make the sound muddy. You can easily do a bass swap instead. That will pull the listener’s ear from one track to another while the mix continues.
20. Remove Other EQs and Add Gain Instead of Boosting
Along the same lines, it’s better to remove than boost. Your output only has so much headroom before you start clipping. You will have more space to maneuver and add new tracks if you turn down the other EQ bands you want less of, and then turn up the overall gain. This will make your tracks sound cleaner as well.
Of course, the only real rule with EQ is: stay out of the red. After that, whatever sounds good to you is just fine. But this will give you another method of getting more sound out of an EQ when you need it.
21. Set Detailed, Color Coded Hot Cues
If you watched Laidback Luke’s Creative DJ Techniques video, you saw how easily he was jumping all over a track with his hot cues. This style has added a whole new level to my mixing. You have to do the prep work though. Here’s Luke’s full breakdown on setting hot cues:
22. Watch Your Time Remaining
Watching your remaining time on a track seems stupidly obvious, but I can’t tell you how many times it’s bit me in the ass. I get all caught up in finding the next song and getting ready to mix, and I forget that I’m playing the short edit of a song and I’m running out of time. Keep an eye on your time remaining at all times and you won’t find yourself coming up short.
Also, check to see if your DJ software has a feature to blink or flash red when a track is about to end. This can be annoying, but it will save you that one time that you got distracted.
23. Autoloop for Emergencies
You can also use a loop to get you out of a jam. Autoloop will build a loop anywhere from 1 to 64 bars with a touch of a button. I have recently switch my autoloop settings to loop backwards for this very reason. If I’m at the end of a track and need more time, I can just quickly hit the autoloop button. You can also create a short loop going forward if you have at least 4 bars left in the song. Keep the loop going while you scramble to get the next track ready.
24. Keep It Moving to Reduce Boredom
You are going to get bored playing the same songs over and over, and by letting them play out entirely. Your audience didn’t pay to come listen to Spotify. To keep you and them engaged, mix it up!
Rotate your set list frequently. Always be on the lookout for new songs. You can easily make this part of your daily routine by following some simple steps. I’ve learned a foolproof way to constantly get new music while I’m doing my day-to-day work.
And, while your playing, don’t get stuck on a song. Play just enough to keep the crowd moving, and move on. Many songs are either too long or just repeat the same thing over and over. Play a minute or two and then do something with the music. Mix in a new song, play with a loop, whatever. Just don’t get stagnant.
This tip has completely revitalized my DJing. I used to feel trapped into playing a whole song because “that’s what people want.” I’ve learned that’s all in my head, and no one is complaining about me mixing songs quickly. Now I’m in control of the mix and staying active throughout my sets, rather than getting bored waiting for a song to play completely. It is much more tiring, however, so I reserve the fastest mixing for my shortest sets.
25. Pick the Next Song Right After You Drop a New One
To accomplish this quick mixing, you need to be prepping the next song immediately after you’ve mixed in the last. The best DJs are like chess players. They get in the habit of thinking a few moves ahead. Cue up that next move so you can be ready, and then start thinking about what you’ll do after that.
26. Know Your Music Well
All of this comes back to knowing your music inside and out. The more you listen to the tracks you are spinning, the more you’ll come up with those magical moments on the fly. Your brain will eventually go, “Hey, this sounds just like _____,” or “I bet _____ would sound great next.”
And, the more you know your collection, the easier you can make connections with new tunes on the fly. If your next song has a 16-bar intro, you need at least that much time in the current track. You can even see some of this visually in the waveform, and won’t have to spend time cueing and listening. “Oh, I see that big hit after the intro, that’s where that song goes like da da duh. I can make that work with the current song.” That extra level of familiarity will pay big dividends in your mix.
27. Practice Your Mix In Cue
While you don’t want to spend a lot of time prepping a mix, it is vital to listen to it in Cue first. You’ll need to adjust Gain and EQ to get the two tracks to come together nicely. And, there’s nothing that screams “rookie DJ” like blasting in a new track and hitting your volume limiter.
Give yourself time in your headphones to blend the sound. Also practice dropping on the beat and check your beat match. Mostly, make sure the songs sound good together before you subject your crowd to a terrible mix. Once the sound is out there, you can’t take it back.
28. Don’t Neglect the Incoming Song Phrases
It’s fairly easy to mix with the proper phrasing feel on the song currently playing, but you need to also think about the song that you are mixing in. You want to know how many bars of intro you have to work with. That way you know when to fade out the previous song. You also want to know the energy level of the new song at that point. Does it go to a drop or an acappella?
I’ve been really bad at this one lately, but I’ve been trying to get better. My goal is to line up the outgoing song’s phrase with the incoming song, so that they blend together seamlessly. I’ve had a couple times recently where I’ve missed my drop for the new song and been 4 or 8 bars off. This seems to happen when I am scrambling to get the next track on, so thinking ahead would help. It’s also a factor of not knowing what’s coming up in new music I’m playing. How long is the outro of the song I am playing? How long is the intro of the new one?
I think I am going to practice using my Autoloop Back feature to save me here. That way I can get a few extra bars on loop if I need to extend the previous track.
29. Crossfader or Channel Faders?
There are two different methods for actually mixing songs together. You can either use the individual channel faders or the crossfader. Search any DJ forum and you will see some strong feelings on both methods. Some channel fader fans even try to shame the crossfader crew, but don’t let that bother you. It’s no different than vinyl DJs thinking they are superior to controller DJs. They are just different methods of achieving the same goal.
Channel faders allow you to make minute adjustments to each track, while the crossfader controls both tracks at the same time. They each have their own place, and I find myself jumping back and forth between the two. I like to use the channel faders to fine-tune a mix, and the crossfader when I want a smooth fade.
A word of caution: you need the pay attention to your crossfader position if you are going to use both. It’s easy to botch a mix with channel faders because your crossfader isn’t in the middle. Some DJs will disable their crossfader if they are only using the channel faders. If you do want to use the crossfader, make sure you know the crossfader curve shape. You can change your curve to be smoother for blending or more abrupt for cutting and scratching. Experiment with the styles and get comfortable with how your crossfader reacts.
30. Use Full Kill Setting
I always make sure that my EQs are set to full kill if I have the option. Full kill completely silences the volume of a specific EQ range. If you were to turn down all three EQs to zero, your track would be muted.
Most high-end mixer will give you this option, as well as most DJ software. I prefer it because I can better isolate frequencies in a track. It’s great for cutting out bass lines. But, the opposite is true too. You can kill the mid to eliminate some of a vocal, or kill the high to remove high percussion and noise.
Your personal taste matters, though. Try both. See if you like the default sound or if you prefer full kill. You are the musician, after all.
31. Learn Some Fader Tricks
Here are some more tips from Laidback Luke (did I mention I love this guy’s stuff?). Here he’s showing you some easy-to-understand DJ tricks you can pull off with just the faders. You can probably master these in a single practice session. Don’t stop there! Learn these tricks to build some fader confidence and then create your own. Don’t be afraid to play with your music.
32. High Pass/Low Pass Filter for Fade Out
I didn’t really see this tip anywhere, but it’s something I’ve been playing with recently. Once I have a tight mix going, I use the high or low-pass filter to fade out the old song. My filter doesn’t quite have full kill, but it’s close enough.
This adds a sweeping effect to the song as it fades away that I rather like. It’s got a bit more oomph than just using the channel fader. I’m thinking I might play around with the other effects to see if there isn’t another I like more. Anything that will effectively mute the track when the filter is turned up.
33. Ending Your DJ Set
Don’t forget that how you sign off is just as important as how you get started. It’s another chance to be creative. DJs use a loop roll to end their sets way too much. Don’t be a cliché. There are plenty of interesting ways to end a set.
You could just fade out that last song. Or, you could get on the mic and thank people for coming. Or, you could run a loop and filter it into oblivion. Or, get crazy with some effects. A bunch of distortion is the audio version of the ugly lights. It’s everyone’s cue that you are done and it’s time to go. Whatever you do, don’t get stuck in the rut of what everyone else does.
34. Practice, Practice, Practice
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. The best new mixing trick is more practice on the tricks you already know. The more time you spend behind the decks, the more of a music expert you become.
I go back to Laidback Luke on this one again. He talked about his practice routine in one of his vlogs. It’s so simple but so effective. The week before a gig, he spends an hour each day mixing with the crate of tunes he will be using. He records each day’s mix, and listens to it before the next practice session. So by the time he goes to play the gig, he’s already performed and critiqued this mix 5 or 6 times. Try it yourself. It will do wonders for your skills and your confidence.
35. Don’t Be Afraid of Bold Moves
I feel like I’ve spent years DJing in handcuffs. I was so afraid to “mess up” that I didn’t want to touch the music. Better to let it play and be boring than make a mistake. How wrong I was…
Now, by owning my mistakes, I finally feel free to make bold moves with my mixing. And, bold moves are all that anyone will notice anyway. Your crowd isn’t going to hear the subtle filter you add at 20% strength. They’re gonna hear the giant cut you make between tracks, or the echo that sounds crazy. Be bold and experiment.
36. Use Gain to Highlight Incoming Song
Most of the music I mix has strong vocals that I know well. I really like to jump straight into a new vocal. The crowd gives you a huge reaction when you drop a song they know and love. But that first drop can get lost if it’s quieter than the outgoing mix. I use the gain to make those vocals come to the front of the mix.
You do have to watch that you aren’t pushing the master output into the red, though. You can also turn down the other track’s gain to highlight the vocal. Couple the gain with your channel faders to find that right level.
37. Learn Tricks From Other Genres
Don’t neglect other DJ styles and genres when you are searching YouTube for inspiration. Much of innovation is just putting together two ideas no one else would think to combine. Lin Manuel Miranda was shocked that no one else saw Alexander Hamilton’s life as a hip-hop saga.
Here’s a great example: 3 old school DJ techniques targeted at hip-hop that will work with any genre.
38. Get Hands-on and Get Dirty
Don’t be afraid to touch your music. To truly experiment, you need to be hands-on. Grab a track while it’s playing. Scratch a bit. Throw in a loop or effect. Feel the music, literally. Push buttons and see what you get.
Obviously, you want to practice this first. Don’t go just mashing buttons when you don’t know what they do. But don’t be afraid to get crazy once you have some experience. You have an automatic bail out with hot cues. If you jump all over a track and make a total mess, pull the ripcord. Hit the hot cue button and you are right back in the mix where you left off.
39. It’s Not a Mistake If You Do It Again
Own every mistake as you experiment. Whatever you just did was exactly what you wanted. Do it again, and you just did it on purpose. Do it a second time, and a third, and a fourth. It’s not a mistake; it’s improvisation!
Sometimes your experiments will be crap, but sometimes you will discover something amazing that you can use over and over again. The only thing holding you back is fear. Make bold moves with confidence, and lean into your mistakes. Also, never, ever react to your mistakes. Just keep going like you meant to do it the whole time. Any reaction you have will only draw attention to your mistakes. If you just keep going like you meant to do it, 99% of the crowd will never notice.
I saw the power of confidence first hand while acting in a high school musical. There was a big kick line at the end of the first act, and the lead actress started her kicks with the wrong foot. She just kept on smiling and kicking like nothing happened. After the show, an audience member remarked, “It was really strange that the whole cast started their kicks on the wrong foot!” That actress performed with such confidence that everyone assumed she was right and the rest of the cast was wrong. That’s how powerful your confidence is.
40. Keep Smiling
Now that you have a boatload of new skills to play with, you need to make sure you don’t lose your stage presence. Someone in the audience will be looking at you at any given point. You need to look like you are having a good time, even when you are thinking. Smile, dance, and throw your hands up. Sing along if you are so inclined. Just don’t get that thousand-yard stare that DJs get when digging through their music. You look like a zombie.
This one is challenging, for sure. I’ve had decades of customer service training and I still struggle with it. Try filming a bit of your next set with your laptop or phone. I didn’t realize how much my smile drooped until I started live streaming. Check your face every time you have a quick break. You don’t need a huge, cheesy grin but you need to look like you are having fun.
41. Stay Connected With the Crowd
You will look like you are having fun if you are connecting with your audience. You want to stay connected with your crowd, whatever you are doing. Be a part of the party. Keep track of their mood and the overall vibe. This will help you select the next song and keep you from looking like you are in your own world. Look up while you play and watch the reaction. If they love it, give them more. If not, try something new.
42. Don’t Neglect The Basics, Less Is More
Don’t feel like you have to bring in every single song with some massively complex technique. Even the simplest technique will sound amazing when executed perfectly. You can learn the basics in about 20 minutes. Check out my full breakdown of fades, drops and swaps, including video instruction here. Practice your timing and nail your phrasing to make these simple tricks shine.
43. Make Your Own Build-Up With a Loop Roll
If you listen to any dance music at all, you’ve heard the build-up that comes before a drop. It’s that kick drum beat that gets faster and faster. You can create your own using either an autoloop that you shorten, or a loop roll. I like to use the autoloop to extend out a prechorus in a song that doesn’t have a strong drop. The loop roll effect will engage slip mode and jump you back into the track when you release the loop. Experiment with both and see which you prefer.
Here’s a quick breakdown of Loop Rolls in Serato, but the concepts apply to all DJ software.
44. You are a Musician, Not a Playlist
No matter your instrument or your skill level, if you make music, you are a musician. DJs use existing music, sounds and effects to create new sounds. Anyone can push play on a track. You are an artist.
As such, you should be constantly looking for ways to make new sounds with the tools you have. The more DJs who do this, the less crap we will get about just pushing buttons. Make yourself interesting and relevant by making music, not just pushing play.
I’ve sung in quite a few choirs, and choir directors are always telling us to be “more musical.” What they mean by that is, “OK, you sang that note correctly, but there’s no feeling. There’s no emotion. Don’t just sing a note. Make music.” I see my DJing the same way. I’m looking for the ways I can heighten the emotion of this moment and the music I am playing.
45. Learn Just Enough Music Theory to Help
You don’t need to have a degree in music as a DJ, but some basic knowledge of musical theory is helpful. You should obviously be able to count beats and bars. You should have a feeling for phrasing. You should know how major and minor keys sound different.
Here’s a great article that breaks down the basics. Don’t be afraid to go beyond the basics, too, especially if you want to start producing your own music.
46. Try Mixing Different Versions of the Same Song
If you’d like an easy energy boost, try mixing a remixed version of a song into the original. Your crowd will immediately recognize the shift, and the two songs should match keys. The remix is probably in a faster tempo with more percussion, so it will definitely kick the energy up a notch.
You can also experiment with original version of sampled songs. Most people don’t know that the hook of their favorite new song is originally from a classic. Blow their minds by bringing back the old school. You can even update the original by adding drum samples from your DJ software.
Examples of these songs are all over YouTube. Here’s a playlist with dozens of ideas.
47. Watch How Someone Else Does It
If you are learning a new technique, or even if you think you know one, make sure you look at how other DJs are doing it. Obviously, you can put your own take on anything. Just make sure you aren’t missing something really big in the execution. Watch how somebody else is doing it first.
I stumbled across this tip with spinbacks. I’d been using spinbacks for years, but they never sounded very good. I was just whipping the jogwheel back and slamming over the crossfader. It didn’t occur to me that I was doing it wrong until I saw another DJ doing a spinback live. He never took his hand off the jogwheel. DUH! By keeping my hand on the jog, I could control the speed and stop the spin anytime. I’m embarrassed to say it took me this long to figure that out. I won’t let my ego get in the way of learning a technique in the future.
48. Know When Not To Mix
Just as important as mixing is knowing when not to mix. If a song is really working and the crowd loves it, let it play. In fact, extend the song. Use your mixing skills to keep the party going.
If you go back to the very beginning of DJs, extending the song was our first job. The original hip-hop DJs would have two copies of the same record and manually loop the best dance breaks. Ride the wave. While you should always try to take the energy to the next level, don’t be afraid to just keep a good thing going.
BONUS: Break Any Rule At Anytime
Like I said, DJing is music. And, music is art. Art has rules and forms that are great to follow, and even better to break. Feel free to take any suggestion here and ignore it. Or, learn it inside and out, and then do the complete opposite of what’s expected for dramatic effect.
Just know that your audience will only stretch with you so far. Be judicious in how far you push them. You can do something unexpected occasionally, but if you do it too much, you are going to alienate the crowd.
Think of it like the rest of the art world. You could be a performance artist who stands in an empty room and screams. That could be an interesting and provocative piece of art with deep social commentary. But not many people are going to like it. Or, you could be a painter who creates a beautiful masterpiece using a completely new brush stroke. That’s much more accessible to the world, even if you know nothing about art.
Remember that your ultimate goal is to make people happy and get them to dance. It’s also to sell drinks, tickets, merchandise and downloads. Don’t let any of these mixing tips get in the way of making great music.
