What"s It Like To Be A DJ During A Gig?
That ain't a jukebox up there...
How often have you been to a club and wondered exactly what it is that the DJ is doing up there all night? You could be forgiven for thinking that they just switch on their lap top and press play then pick up their pay check at the end of the night.
The fact is that there is a lot of work that goes into each and every performance and a great deal of technical skill that is needed to pull it off as well.
Here is an outline of what a DJ faces on a typical night: While doing a gig a DJ will need to set up the sound system and makes sure it is all working perfectly.
They then have to keep the music going seamlessly all night at a high enough quality that people stay happy all night and on top of this they need to face requests from drunken punters.
Got to get the music right While some DJs are very comfortable delivering a whole night of their type of music, this gets a lot harder when the venue wants more of a variety or if they are a very snobby venue that demand nothing but the most cutting edge music and anything more than a week old will be met with boos and an empty dance floor.
Your DJ will have spent the day stressing and researching new music and different mixes to find something just right as well as working out a path which they intend to take the music on through the night.
If they get this wrong the night won't feel right and they may not get hired again.
Relentless The average track is about 3 minutes long, so on a very basic level a DJ has about 1 minute during each song to rest.
Either side of this minute they need to be searching for their next record, mp3 or CD and then line the right point of the song up so that it is perfectly timed to be mixed in as the current song comes to an end.
Losing a record or track can be disastrous and allow even a wedding reception DJ from top DJ agencies in London to have a momentary nervous breakdown.
Dealing with requests This is a hard thing for DJs to deal with as chances are they have a whole night planned out nicely.
So to suddenly be asked to throw in a random 70s disco cover may be a musical impossibility, but something a DJ feels obliged to do.
Go easy on your DJ; it's not as easy as it looks...
How often have you been to a club and wondered exactly what it is that the DJ is doing up there all night? You could be forgiven for thinking that they just switch on their lap top and press play then pick up their pay check at the end of the night.
The fact is that there is a lot of work that goes into each and every performance and a great deal of technical skill that is needed to pull it off as well.
Here is an outline of what a DJ faces on a typical night: While doing a gig a DJ will need to set up the sound system and makes sure it is all working perfectly.
They then have to keep the music going seamlessly all night at a high enough quality that people stay happy all night and on top of this they need to face requests from drunken punters.
Got to get the music right While some DJs are very comfortable delivering a whole night of their type of music, this gets a lot harder when the venue wants more of a variety or if they are a very snobby venue that demand nothing but the most cutting edge music and anything more than a week old will be met with boos and an empty dance floor.
Your DJ will have spent the day stressing and researching new music and different mixes to find something just right as well as working out a path which they intend to take the music on through the night.
If they get this wrong the night won't feel right and they may not get hired again.
Relentless The average track is about 3 minutes long, so on a very basic level a DJ has about 1 minute during each song to rest.
Either side of this minute they need to be searching for their next record, mp3 or CD and then line the right point of the song up so that it is perfectly timed to be mixed in as the current song comes to an end.
Losing a record or track can be disastrous and allow even a wedding reception DJ from top DJ agencies in London to have a momentary nervous breakdown.
Dealing with requests This is a hard thing for DJs to deal with as chances are they have a whole night planned out nicely.
So to suddenly be asked to throw in a random 70s disco cover may be a musical impossibility, but something a DJ feels obliged to do.
Go easy on your DJ; it's not as easy as it looks...
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