DJ'ing gigs

[emy]

hehehe thanks

[Number2Fan]

:ill:

[jaylo]

there nothing worse than playing out of your comfort zone,i play nearly every week in a local bar close to my house and the bad thing is i have to play everything from r & b,chart and of course classics,in dublin theres not many clubs that play decent music especially trance and its definatly all down to who ya no :wall:

but it pays the bills,playing stuff you dont like

[Briggsy]

but it pays the bills,playing stuff you dont like

I play simply for the love of the music - if I get offered gigs playing something I don't like, i'll decline. I'd rather not play to be honest. I've turned down warm-up sets in the past simply because I don't that sort of stuff - plus the very slowest I play is 135bpm. Most of my sets are full-on 138-142bpm. Thankfully, promotors are now starting to realise that i'm a boshy DJ, and putting me on at 9pm is never gonna work.

[Max Kane]

While I think it's solely down to the promoter to get the flow of the night right I also think it's important to be versatile. I know what you're saying Briggs & obviously asking someone with your kinda sound to play at 127bpm to kick off a night isn't really going to work but within reason I think everyone needs to be flexible & have another string to their DJing bow.

Part of the fun I've had playing out is taking over from someone & not having a clue how they're going to play, what style, speed, vibe, etc & then manipulating the flow of the night to get into my core sound. The last few sets I've played have varied so much & that's been the fun part about them. Keeping my CD wallet stocked to allow for the different kinda sounds I'll be asked to play is what keeps me interested to be honest.

[Judge Mental]

I'd willingly play any sort of style in the right place, whether it was my chosen style or not. I'm a firm believer that there's good music in any style, half the fun is finding it!

I love the stuff I play, but the amount of time I spend on my decks, if I stuck to one thing it would be boring as hell.

Thats why I love Serato so much, I can literally play anything. Had a bbq last weekend with the decks out the back, playing hip hop, northern soul, disco and chill out. Yes the music is the most important thing, but the type isn't imo

Bit off topic lol.

[Number2Fan]

God I used to play anything out, but then I weren't trying to make it as a dance DJ, I just loved playing music to people.

I used to do a reggae night even, lol I had hardly any reggae but everyone had a good time and I could manage most requests!

The only request I have never fulfilled was ' rage against the machine ' I had none, I still have none and I don't even know what they sound like.

I used to like adding a tune here and there that I loved in to a load of tunes that I was meant to be playing! Still got paid well for it! Most of the money went on equipment and music though, but I loved every second of it!!

[Briggsy]

While I think it's solely down to the promoter to get the flow of the night right I also think it's important to be versatile. I know what you're saying Briggs & obviously asking someone with your kinda sound to play at 127bpm to kick off a night isn't really going to work but within reason I think everyone needs to be flexible & have another string to their DJing bow.

I agree about the versatilty - and I would say i'm fairly versatile to quite a degree. I play melodic Trance (albeit a lot less than I used to), Tech-Trance, Hard Trance, and also Hard Techno - I play pretty much everything over 135bpm really. I just rarely venture below that because I just don't feel those tunes.

I've always been of the opinion that for a DJ to give 100% and really get into his set, he needs to be playing the music that he loves. If he's not liking and feeling the music, he won't be able to give 100% - and if the DJ isn't feeling his own set, then the crowd won't either. Mark Eteson is a prime example really - he's not a proggy DJ, and will admit he's not the best warm-up DJ because he's out of his comfort zone. His natural style is more pacier and driving. He gets a lot of negativety about his warm-up sets, put loads of good responses to his peak-time sets.

I think most DJ's have a preferred style and rarely venture outside of that apart from the odd 2 or 3 tunes where they're crossing over from the previous DJ and taking the set into their own direction, or when they're changing their sound slightly to make it easier for the following DJ to play their style. I think it vital for DJ's to have their own "trademark" style = for example, Markus Schulz has his deep, techy-basslined Proggy sound, Marcel Woods has his raw Tech-Trance sound, Above & Beyond have their floaty uplifting sound, etc. There's very few DJ's that are successful at being versatile and suited to playing at any time of the night with any style. In fact, the only DJ I can think of at the moment that is consistently good no matter what time he plays at is Genix.