I would add #4, don’t play a song from beginning to end. General crowds get bored easily and have low attention spans, so a 2:30 mark is a good guide for each track. Also don’t use long intros and outros which can cause resets on the dance floor. The crowd wants to hear recognizable tracks or hooks, which will keep a good flow on your sets.
On a cruise ship, on the Yangtze River in China- 2018, my opportunity had finally come- my first DJ gig! The bar/ballroom had nothing scheduled on the last night of our cruise. I was traveling light with my Ipad but with no capacity for previewing music (my split output cable never came in the mail before my departure- but no problem). I was going to show China what the world and electronic music was all about. I got permission to play and entered the sound booth and set up my humble rig. I kicked off my first DJ gig with some nice downtempo music. The crowd was... well... there actually was no crowd. There had been no PR and after a night of Chinese cultural music and dance the night before, the Chinese (which constituted 99% of the passengers) were done with the bar and entertainment for this trip. But that didn't matter... I got a gig! Then it happened... my first fans arrived! A group from England, Australia, and an American- a group of 8 in total came in and sat down and ordered drinks. This was my chance to ROCK THE NATION! I brought music up in intensity and volume. I was rockin' China! Then I saw it... it was a thumb and it was moving. Now there are two kinds of thumbs... thumbs that point up and thumbs that point down. This one... this one was not pointing up. In fact it was moving to the tempo of the music (was he dancing???) but pointing down (no he was not). This was not inspiring first-ever feedback. I poked my head out of the booth to inquire about this most unusual hand gesture and was asked to please turn down the volume. I complied... a bit of wind out of my already small sail. I raised the sail higher and continued with my set then... again... the thumb came back. Again, I poked my head out and was asked to turn it down further. I complied yet again. My vision of throbbing EDM and wildly dancing Chinese was already mostly gone but now with the volume going down to ambient/conversation levels, any vestiges of my vision were all but gone. Suddenly when I thought it could not get worse, one of the guys approached the booth and asked if I had any 70's/80's rock. Now, lets be clear, I love 70's rock but when you are going to China to transform 1.4 billion people with EDM and Afro and Middle East groovin' world music, you just don't bring Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith and Rush. I scanned my collection and found some Crosby Stills, Grateful Dead and some other 60's and 70's rock and rapidly came to accept my role as a walking, breathing juke box and after playing a few more songs called it a wrap. After a bit of time and some deep trauma work with my girlfriend, I began the process of reflecting and realizing the value of this experience and the fact that as you say, "The Crowd is King". Upon reflection, I am so grateful for this educational experience and even more grateful that it happened 6715 miles away where there would be no repercussions on my budding DJ reputation. As my dear friend Suzanne said, "one thing about traveling, the great things are great and the bad things make great stories".
Thank you very much for sharing. It really puts everything into perspective with the things Phil mentioned in this video. To hear first hand from someone that had the "Crowd is king" moment really makes it easier to understand.
Even if you can not get them dancing look closer, feet might be tapping, fingers tapping the bottle in their hand.....they might just be vibing and chilling.
Great tips and I have been passing on my crowd reading wisdom for years. I will bet a paycheck that if you polled everyone in a club the only person that would have been paying attention to the DJ transitions would be another DJ. The average patron has no clue.
Great tips! I totally agree. Especially *the crowd is king*. If you stick to that rule you can easily cover 70% of all your professional dj gigs. Another tip for playing at corporate events and/or weddings is to change the style of music every 20-30 minutes.
Tip number 1 is literally the best advice I would give to anyone starting up as a DJ. Yes, you have your bread and butter style, but trust me nothing teaches you how to be a good DJ more than reading a room and having a great feel for what tracks to play on the fly.
Haha, #3 just hit me. I have just played my 2 first gigs for the company I work in. Did really simple stuff and had cool bangers, remixes and some old tracks but approx nobody danced (expect for a few). But they where atleast a bit drunk and cheered to some tracks I played, But as I knew before agreeing to play is that these guys, mostly lads, are not the "dancing type" of people. Especially not on a corporate event so fortunately it didnt really bother me and I instead took it as good practice. Not to mention I got them to hire a stage and decent PA system and DMX so it was extremely FUN! And when the old guys started to get drunk I just switched to some old rock and stuff on Spotify, no one noticed and just had a good time! xD
Thank you for this! After my first gig I realized how over-prepared I was and ended up changing my set list order throughout the night and it was a huge success! I felt so much more confident because of your videos. Thank you!!
As an actual low level, part time DJ, weddings, bars, parties etc. Everything he is saying is 100% spot on. Very very good advice for people getting in to DJ'ing. Personally my favorite genre is EDM, 99% of what I play is not EDM. Most of the crowds in my area are aged 30's to 60's. So its mod pop, 80's, classic rock, funk, disco etc. Sometimes we go to the bar and play this music and everybody is live and dancing and having a blast. A few weeks later we will play the same bar with the same music and same type of crowd and no one is dancing and your thinking WTF??
Very true about #2, only djs are the ones paying attention to the mixes and transitions. You can do an echo out, volume down and press play as well. Sounds dope no matter what you’re playing next
I actually watched this months ago when I was starting out. And now that I am a few months in, it was a great rewatch as some of the things I hadn't related to yet just kind of swiped by me... the tip about having a low energy crowd is definitely gonna help me...i totally recently did the "no, you WILL DANCE!" Technique...when I think about it...turning down to medium energy music with the highs cut just a bit will actually guarantee that the mood improves in the room enough...just play fairly random songs until a group gets out there, then try to turn up after that...great tip!.
Hi dj Phil Harris I'd just like to tell you I've finished the training I bought of you well worth it, I'm now in resiliencez as part of a team with some top djs and producers and that's all your stuff I bought so I will say thank you so much for your training and say hi to dj emm and again thanks for teaching me on how to mix 😀 and many other things and how to mix without headphones and I'm on vinyl so thank you 💙💜💙💜💙😊
Thhhhaaaaannnnk you so much for this video because i try to explain the same thing your saying to my dj friends and they give me a fight about the crowd not being in the mood some nights no matter what you play
So true... Track selection is the #1 important thing. Other techniques will build on top of it.. but only if after rule number 1.. I played on a wedding of couple of close friends, it was my first actual time playing in real event... Was supper stressed out about transitions. Luckily (and thanks to your channel and some other ones) I did a huge effort on my track list preperation. Did a deep dive on the music I wanted to play, invested in buying the tracks in high quality etc.. And at the end.. no one cared about any transition.. they all cared about the continues flow of the music and track selection. The wedding was a huge success, I played for 6.5 hours, till 4AM.. And some people wanted me to go on and play more.. Got a ton of amazing feedback, non of it about "dude your transitions were something else".. Messed up some transitions but as long as you save those quickly enough, for example: filtering out the outro and hitting play on the next song, it was cool and no one cared.. The worst, mistakes are when the tempo is weird/off than its a bit noticeable and even a 1-2 seconds of silence is better.. Anyway, learned a ton about whats important and whats less important, during this.. And at the end of the day (well, at sunrise of the next one actually) had a blast.. Cant wait to play again in the next event.. Your channel helped me so much during these couple of months starting learning djing for this wedding from 0. Cant be thankful enough... Keep it up :)
Just done my first set, looking forward to #2. Great tips for sure. My tip is - do a proper sound check no matter what your equipment, and make sure someone is on the receiving end to help (or at least go down yourself). When I was playing someone found the "bass" switch was off on my rented PA speakers about halfway through the set!
Last year I started to make party for tourists from India and this is typical plan for it: 1 stage. They arived, light indian music on background. 2 stage. Dancing vibes from bollywood remixes. 3 stage I go eat buffet, because almost everyone just came to you and asking to put their track from mobile than they just do work by themself. Best DJ ever everyone is happy. Always had good feedback, if I gave AUX cabel to that kind of people, so yeah crowd is king =) lol! TAKE AUX ALWAYS if you deal with indian party!!!
Awesome advice. All true. I've experienced every point you made. Was more worried about being the revered, praised, cool DJ and got bummed when no one danced, thinking I suck. Good stuff.
Thanks for sharing the tricks of the trade I have a lot of experience in Pakistan dj has to play for the crowd I remember Dj has to observe the crowd, venue, event for oldies 80s in a ball room i play lounge music intro for couple of hours make with in the loung music move to the bit up tempo make the crowd hungry for the dance music as they just got more hungry then I play the floor fillers. There is a time while playing you play the best song no one dancing and you play the worse song no one stop dancing. Sometimes you make a mistake and play a song and it will work perfectly. sometimes the hot song doesnt work
Brilliant tips! No wonder if been frustrated and confused thinking i needed to learn all the fancy techniques first! keep it simple and play to the crowd!! the fancy stuff will follow! Love you stuff bro!!
Phil, I had to rewatch this vid. DJ Mini stole my heart and I kept looking at her. It was so adorable when she stepped on the cue pads, lol. But great tips. As a somewhat rookie DJ myself, these are very confidence boosting tips.
Heyyy absolutely great ideas!!! Thank you!!! Nr. 1 is clear, DJ playing for himself can stay at home and play for himself 😜 Nr. 2 true true - use only what is good trained, do not try experiments that can end bad (not just transitions, but also effects or dangerous song combinations). Live should be shown skills not chaos. Nr. 3 - heeeeey what an idea!!! Not to try forcely make people move, just let them feel the vibe soft way so it can start to move them just a little and then they can be cached. Another point is, while the music is too loud, non dancing speaking people would rather go in bigger distance, so they can talk easily and are not interrupted by the loud music. But our intension is get them closer 😜😜 So maybe when the music is just going through them and they listen to an interesting song, they might come closer to hear better and enjoy it louder... and that is the point when we are back with nr. 1 advice 🤩 Really thank you, goooood to know and remember it!
Have some strong guys with you! On my first dj gig some assholes crashed the party and one of those pieces of crap hold a beer over my mixer and asked what happens if he spills it there. I started djing when I was about 15 I think. On my 18 birthday we had a party in my mothers garage and I put my dj set there "just in case". The evening started with a bbq and went along with a lot of drinking. Some people then asked and asked and ASKED if I wanted to play a set of dance music. Well I did - just pumping out bangers and the party went totally bonkers. But that was just the vibe of the moment. Then people asked me if I wanted to play at their birthdays, too. A lot of dishearting things happened. One of them I told at the beginning of this comment. At the end I stopped frustrated. But now several years later I am thinking of starting again thats why I subscribed to your channel and others. BUT for me DJing is still some form of art and self expression. I will never play tracks that I don't like and make myself a prostitute. I rather don't do it at all. There is the pool of tracks that I like and there is the pool of tracks which the crowd at the current event would like to dance to or at least listen, too. Tracks that are in both pools get played, nothing more, nothing less.
Read the crowd, always said that and it's very important to talk to the crowd. This guy is spot on. In my younger days I played every club in my town. You learn much more djing live in a week or two than you will in a year in your room. Simply put, if you play what the crowd wants to hear your OK. Effects wise, less is always more. I agree, better to filter or echo or even fade out fast rather than fuck up. Enjoy yourself. If you play the wrong song you'll know. Remember what time it is, warm a crowd up. Take care my man, great content for someone like my just got into digital. It's a learning curve, I was looping an 8 bar loop with a one bar loop to do Buildup, way more complex than it needed to be, it worked but this is really helpful, thanks 😊 your videos are so much more explanatory than most. 💯🎚👍
I like your videos and they are filled with a lot of important information. but I would have to respectfully disagree with you on this one about filter it out then hit play. as you start to filter it out the volume drops down and then it stops they will stop dancing and all turn around and look at you. however if you hit a simple backspin then hit the song they will continue to go with it. or you could take it to the next level and do a backspin with a echo then hit the next song. and the echo effect will layer over your song as you start it for the first 3 to 5 Seconds.
It's about ones own goals. EDM DJing should be clearly distinguished from pretty much any other arena, cuz satisfying a wedding reception crowd isn't what naturally leads to festivals. Those people either came up through the rave scene, or in some cases just by good marketing of their own tracks to labels and online platforms. If you wanna be a party DJ, do you. If you wanna be a radio DJ do you. In any such case you'll be playing for the people first. If you wanna be an EDM DJ, you've gotta figure out how you get in front of the right audience. Playing top 40 will not lead to getting signed to a DnB label. The nature of the scene is and has always been that if you wanna be ahead of the curve, you gotta pay close attention.
This video made me feel better, thank you for that. I'm beginner and have this nights when people just sit and talk (it's not surprise because it's mostly pub/bar not club), but anyway i'm feeling bad and thinking "ehhh the music i'm playing is so boring, shouldn't be dj, i don't have any ideas what can i do more because i have no skill" and it's really disheartened. Also i had some sick nights when i put some good old songs that everyone knows, not mixing them well and they were partyin like crazy. So what I mean by that is that you're telling here 100% truth.
@@sofaking777777 Yes. I had a break during pandemic, but now I'm playing 4-5 days in the week in this place i was writing about in here :) After this time i gotta say, that my stress was unreasonable, i was playing not to well, but when I was thinking about it it was worse. Now I'm a lot more confident, but better skills comes along of it of course.
What a nice dog you have. It distracted me somewhat from your argument. That's why I streamed your video for a 2nd time. LOL. Your tips are not boring at all, as someone here claims. I applied the tips 40 years ago when I was an active DJ. Later I became a club DJ and I chose a club where I could play my music style. Even then I mainly played the music that my regular audience wanted to hear. R&B Disco and later Dance music, but I just didn't start playing other styles. I had my principles. Now I have been retired for quite some time, but can be heard as a radio internet DJ. There I do a lot more concessions on my music choice.
I feel “reading the crowd” doesn’t really apply to some EDM shows though. Like if you have a set during an entire dubstep/riddim show, chances are the crowd’s gonna want to hear that so you can pre plan a set and don’t have to worry about reading them.
Hi Phil here’s the situation I had recently. One person is asking me to turn the volume down and after that another guy comes asking to turn the volume up. One chick is asking to play slower music and after that another chick approached asking to play faster music. What would you do in a situation like that?
As a new DJ, it is my fear: having nobody dancind. In weading I DJed, the crouwd danced 90% of the evening. Althought it's a goog performance for me, the 10% on the time having the dance floor empty seams to me an eternity. After reflexions and after listenning your good advices I think that you can't DJ if your are not ready to accept that you will have to deal with situations in your DJ career. Thanks a lot for those very important advices.
buddy its the crowd some people cant stop dancing while other cant dance if dj cant make them dance still can entertain them with their choice of music
I play ukg and everyone loves it I dont do all these fancy tricks that's bs,im a top selector and select the best garage tunes that work ,and just mix the tracks super tight no fancy shit looping ,or remixing, or shitty effects crap and constantly playing with the eq non stop
Sold advice. On tip 3 it’s happened to me a few times. Around Christmas I was playing after the band at a function. When I arrived I was told that the staff were very behind on serving the food, resulting in the band starting late & I only had a 50 minute slot to play. So obviously I went in with the big hits & for 20 minutes overall people danced & were very pushy with requests resulting in me having to explain that I don’t have much time & have gotten requests before them. Anyway I got payed 😀
hi Phil love the videos and advice! is there a music licence that i can buy to let me stream live on facebook and youtube without getting muted/etc. I don't want to make any money from this its a hobby and i just want to enjoy the music and show others what i can do thank you sean
Great tips and i can definitely attest to them. Going to try that last tip turning the highs down a bit if people are mainly enjoying talking together 👍
Bonus tip: Learn the difference between what it means to play an open, peak and close set and how your energy/performance should change to better suit the time of the event you are playing. No one wants to arrive at peak hour and they find out all the bangers were already played in the first hour because what are they looking forward to then. Similar note, no one wants to keep going like there's no tomorrow at 3am so chill it out a little bit cause people get tired. They aren't robots surprisingly
How can I remove a song track from the default deck of virtual DJ. ??? I can do it on the old deck by right clicking on the stop button but I find that I cannot remove a song track from the default deck. I know that you could just load another song but I want to be able to remove that track. Any ideas or help??
So true: 😂 You're like, "No... You will dance!" (cranks up everything) And then someone comes over to you and says, "Hey mate... Can you turn the music down."
What makes you think people's talking range is in the high frequency? It's mid range mate. You don't like someone singing really loudly while you're trying to have a conversation, then turn down the mids and it will lower the vocals of the track and make room for your vocals (talking) to cut through the music.
I have just few gigs so far and curious to hear your advice. Few nights ago, during the set, I had some moments like you described under #3. Company Christmas party and hardly any female person was dancing while Cindy L (Girls just want to have fun) was playing. Could not believe it. Tried to switch and invite more people to the dancefloor with Chubby C Twist, didn't work. Tried Denny's At the hoop. No reaction. How about country (Ride a cowboy). Nope. Something more recent. Cake by the Ocean. It didn't work. I figured out, I will play something I like to listen... Sweet home Alabama, Play that funky music, Old time RnR...minimal improvement. My question is not related to your #3 advise (people's voice), I am interested to see more people dancing, not talking. Based on your experience, if you see that, let's say, house is not working for the crowd and you want to switch/try with, let's say, EDM. Do you test it with just one song, half of the one song or it is better to try with two or three songs of the same genre before you try/move to something else? I am not sure if I made mistake by trying to switch too quickly with only one song of particular genre and want to hear some advise (if situation like that one happens again). THX!
Good question. I would say watch closely and try a few tracks if each genre. You will see subtle things like people tabbing their feet, standing up. Even just looking at the dance floor. Small things like this could be all you need to know you are in the right tracks!
I would like you to show how you play on 2decks+mixer without software/laptop :) You now, only your ears and experience ;) e.g. pioneer cdj800/850. Greetings!
Another tip is avoid redlining this helps the sound guy do his job, only accept song requests if they fit the theme and mood of the venue or event you are DJing at
OMG that advice of turning the highs down so people can talk i dont know how to take it hahahahahahahah it was funny to hear. Aniway, thank you for the vids they are helpfulll :)
My last experience wit' crowd was so damn lame, it looked like ppl came 2 watch a movie, not 2 dance n chill...I was feelin' so down n after 4 hours of my set, I finished the night arguing n trash talking wit' owners of the club..
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Phil what happened to your voice in the beginning 😱😨😰
Amazing
I would add #4, don’t play a song from beginning to end. General crowds get bored easily and have low attention spans, so a 2:30 mark is a good guide for each track. Also don’t use long intros and outros which can cause resets on the dance floor. The crowd wants to hear recognizable tracks or hooks, which will keep a good flow on your sets.
On a cruise ship, on the Yangtze River in China- 2018, my opportunity had finally come- my first DJ gig! The bar/ballroom had nothing scheduled on the last night of our cruise. I was traveling light with my Ipad but with no capacity for previewing music (my split output cable never came in the mail before my departure- but no problem). I was going to show China what the world and electronic music was all about.
I got permission to play and entered the sound booth and set up my humble rig. I kicked off my first DJ gig with some nice downtempo music. The crowd was... well... there actually was no crowd. There had been no PR and after a night of Chinese cultural music and dance the night before, the Chinese (which constituted 99% of the passengers) were done with the bar and entertainment for this trip. But that didn't matter... I got a gig!
Then it happened... my first fans arrived! A group from England, Australia, and an American- a group of 8 in total came in and sat down and ordered drinks. This was my chance to ROCK THE NATION! I brought music up in intensity and volume. I was rockin' China!
Then I saw it... it was a thumb and it was moving. Now there are two kinds of thumbs... thumbs that point up and thumbs that point down. This one... this one was not pointing up. In fact it was moving to the tempo of the music (was he dancing???) but pointing down (no he was not). This was not inspiring first-ever feedback.
I poked my head out of the booth to inquire about this most unusual hand gesture and was asked to please turn down the volume. I complied... a bit of wind out of my already small sail. I raised the sail higher and continued with my set then... again... the thumb came back. Again, I poked my head out and was asked to turn it down further. I complied yet again. My vision of throbbing EDM and wildly dancing Chinese was already mostly gone but now with the volume going down to ambient/conversation levels, any vestiges of my vision were all but gone.
Suddenly when I thought it could not get worse, one of the guys approached the booth and asked if I had any 70's/80's rock. Now, lets be clear, I love 70's rock but when you are going to China to transform 1.4 billion people with EDM and Afro and Middle East groovin' world music, you just don't bring Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith and Rush. I scanned my collection and found some Crosby Stills, Grateful Dead and some other 60's and 70's rock and rapidly came to accept my role as a walking, breathing juke box and after playing a few more songs called it a wrap. After a bit of time and some deep trauma work with my girlfriend, I began the process of reflecting and realizing the value of this experience and the fact that as you say, "The Crowd is King".
Upon reflection, I am so grateful for this educational experience and even more grateful that it happened 6715 miles away where there would be no repercussions on my budding DJ reputation. As my dear friend Suzanne said, "one thing about traveling, the great things are great and the bad things make great stories".
Thanks for sharing man! That was indeed a great story!
@@alexxwhite4428 Appreciating the kind words, Alexx! Wishing you lots of magic behind the decks!
Thank you very much for sharing. It really puts everything into perspective with the things Phil mentioned in this video. To hear first hand from someone that had the "Crowd is king" moment really makes it easier to understand.
this was a beautiful story. My stomach literally turned just like the thumb.
Even if you can not get them dancing look closer, feet might be tapping, fingers tapping the bottle in their hand.....they might just be vibing and chilling.
Great tips and I have been passing on my crowd reading wisdom for years. I will bet a paycheck that if you polled everyone in a club the only person that would have been paying attention to the DJ transitions would be another DJ. The average patron has no clue.
True agree
Really, really appreciate your “real ness” (for lack of a better term). Thanks for the down to earth approach for amateurs.
Great tips! I totally agree. Especially *the crowd is king*. If you stick to that rule you can easily cover 70% of all your professional dj gigs. Another tip for playing at corporate events and/or weddings is to change the style of music every 20-30 minutes.
Phil Harris: Provides a detailed discussion about some of the fundamentals of djing.
Dog: Does nothing but is still a hero
Tip number 1 is literally the best advice I would give to anyone starting up as a DJ. Yes, you have your bread and butter style, but trust me nothing teaches you how to be a good DJ more than reading a room and having a great feel for what tracks to play on the fly.
Haha, #3 just hit me. I have just played my 2 first gigs for the company I work in. Did really simple stuff and had cool bangers, remixes and some old tracks but approx nobody danced (expect for a few). But they where atleast a bit drunk and cheered to some tracks I played, But as I knew before agreeing to play is that these guys, mostly lads, are not the "dancing type" of people. Especially not on a corporate event so fortunately it didnt really bother me and I instead took it as good practice. Not to mention I got them to hire a stage and decent PA system and DMX so it was extremely FUN! And when the old guys started to get drunk I just switched to some old rock and stuff on Spotify, no one noticed and just had a good time! xD
Thank you for this! After my first gig I realized how over-prepared I was and ended up changing my set list order throughout the night and it was a huge success! I felt so much more confident because of your videos. Thank you!!
As an actual low level, part time DJ, weddings, bars, parties etc. Everything he is saying is 100% spot on. Very very good advice for people getting in to DJ'ing.
Personally my favorite genre is EDM, 99% of what I play is not EDM. Most of the crowds in my area are aged 30's to 60's. So its mod pop, 80's, classic rock, funk, disco etc.
Sometimes we go to the bar and play this music and everybody is live and dancing and having a blast.
A few weeks later we will play the same bar with the same music and same type of crowd and no one is dancing and your thinking WTF??
Good tip Phil about takeing out the highs but keeping a vibe going..Had this at my 50th Saturday
Tip #3 turn the highs down. Great tip!
Loved the tip about cutting the highs, I'm sure that'll come in handy
Very true about #2, only djs are the ones paying attention to the mixes and transitions. You can do an echo out, volume down and press play as well. Sounds dope no matter what you’re playing next
I actually watched this months ago when I was starting out. And now that I am a few months in, it was a great rewatch as some of the things I hadn't related to yet just kind of swiped by me... the tip about having a low energy crowd is definitely gonna help me...i totally recently did the "no, you WILL DANCE!" Technique...when I think about it...turning down to medium energy music with the highs cut just a bit will actually guarantee that the mood improves in the room enough...just play fairly random songs until a group gets out there, then try to turn up after that...great tip!.
UR ADVICE IS WONDERFUL!! THANKS FOR HELPING US BEGINNER DJs!!
Hi dj Phil Harris I'd just like to tell you I've finished the training I bought of you well worth it, I'm now in resiliencez as part of a team with some top djs and producers and that's all your stuff I bought so I will say thank you so much for your training and say hi to dj emm and again thanks for teaching me on how to mix 😀 and many other things and how to mix without headphones and I'm on vinyl so thank you 💙💜💙💜💙😊
Great content…Phil hit on all the most important steps in becoming a successful Dj….👍🏼🤝🏼
Thanks for the tips in all your videos... it's stuff like this that makes me not hate UA-cam ;)
Thhhhaaaaannnnk you so much for this video because i try to explain the same thing your saying to my dj friends and they give me a fight about the crowd not being in the mood some nights no matter what you play
Amazing advice for beginners , thx a mil Phil !
So true... Track selection is the #1 important thing. Other techniques will build on top of it.. but only
if after rule number 1..
I played on a wedding of couple of close friends, it was my first actual time playing in real event...
Was supper stressed out about transitions. Luckily (and thanks to your channel and some other ones) I did a huge effort on my track list preperation.
Did a deep dive on the music I wanted to play, invested in buying the tracks in high quality etc..
And at the end.. no one cared about any transition.. they all cared about the continues flow of the music and track selection.
The wedding was a huge success, I played for 6.5 hours, till 4AM.. And some people wanted me to go on and play more..
Got a ton of amazing feedback, non of it about "dude your transitions were something else"..
Messed up some transitions but as long as you save those quickly enough, for example: filtering out the outro and hitting play on the next song, it was cool and no one cared..
The worst, mistakes are when the tempo is weird/off than its a bit noticeable and even a 1-2 seconds of silence is better..
Anyway, learned a ton about whats important and whats less important, during this..
And at the end of the day (well, at sunrise of the next one actually) had a blast..
Cant wait to play again in the next event..
Your channel helped me so much during these couple of months starting learning djing for this wedding from 0.
Cant be thankful enough...
Keep it up :)
This guy is so real. And i fucking love it ❤. Great job bruh. #Respect
Just done my first set, looking forward to #2. Great tips for sure. My tip is - do a proper sound check no matter what your equipment, and make sure someone is on the receiving end to help (or at least go down yourself). When I was playing someone found the "bass" switch was off on my rented PA speakers about halfway through the set!
Last year I started to make party for tourists from India and this is typical plan for it: 1 stage. They arived, light indian music on background. 2 stage. Dancing vibes from bollywood remixes. 3 stage I go eat buffet, because almost everyone just came to you and asking to put their track from mobile than they just do work by themself. Best DJ ever everyone is happy. Always had good feedback, if I gave AUX cabel to that kind of people, so yeah crowd is king =) lol! TAKE AUX ALWAYS if you deal with indian party!!!
Awesome advice. All true. I've experienced every point you made. Was more worried about being the revered, praised, cool DJ and got bummed when no one danced, thinking I suck. Good stuff.
Cheers bro much appreciated with this video 🙏🏽
Supper helpful I dj my first gig SOON IM EXCITED THANK YOU SIR
Thanks for sharing the tricks of the trade I have a lot of experience in Pakistan dj has to play for the crowd I remember Dj has to observe the crowd, venue, event for oldies 80s in a ball room i play lounge music intro for couple of hours make with in the loung music move to the bit up tempo make the crowd hungry for the dance music as they just got more hungry then I play the floor fillers. There is a time while playing you play the best song no one dancing and you play the worse song no one stop dancing. Sometimes you make a mistake and play a song and it will work perfectly. sometimes the hot song doesnt work
Definitely helping with my anxiety of my first gig coming up. Please keep sharing the knowledge.
You are a very good teacher.
great tips brotha! thank you
Brilliant tips! No wonder if been frustrated and confused thinking i needed to learn all the fancy techniques first! keep it simple and play to the crowd!! the fancy stuff will follow! Love you stuff bro!!
Tip #3 is so underrated! Love it.
Phil, I had to rewatch this vid. DJ Mini stole my heart and I kept looking at her. It was so adorable when she stepped on the cue pads, lol. But great tips. As a somewhat rookie DJ myself, these are very confidence boosting tips.
Amazing lesson sir......thanks
Awesome tips mate! Love it.
Heyyy absolutely great ideas!!! Thank you!!!
Nr. 1 is clear, DJ playing for himself can stay at home and play for himself 😜
Nr. 2 true true - use only what is good trained, do not try experiments that can end bad (not just transitions, but also effects or dangerous song combinations). Live should be shown skills not chaos.
Nr. 3 - heeeeey what an idea!!! Not to try forcely make people move, just let them feel the vibe soft way so it can start to move them just a little and then they can be cached. Another point is, while the music is too loud, non dancing speaking people would rather go in bigger distance, so they can talk easily and are not interrupted by the loud music. But our intension is get them closer 😜😜 So maybe when the music is just going through them and they listen to an interesting song, they might come closer to hear better and enjoy it louder... and that is the point when we are back with nr. 1 advice 🤩
Really thank you, goooood to know and remember it!
I'm new to Djing and I'm glad you come out with tutorials like this one.. great tips and I'll be looking out for more
Great videos, it's really awesome that you take time and make these great videos, I can't wait to show you what you have thought me
Have some strong guys with you! On my first dj gig some assholes crashed the party and one of those pieces of crap hold a beer over my mixer and asked what happens if he spills it there.
I started djing when I was about 15 I think. On my 18 birthday we had a party in my mothers garage and I put my dj set there "just in case".
The evening started with a bbq and went along with a lot of drinking. Some people then asked and asked and ASKED if I wanted to play a set of dance music. Well I did - just pumping out bangers and the party went totally bonkers. But that was just the vibe of the moment.
Then people asked me if I wanted to play at their birthdays, too. A lot of dishearting things happened. One of them I told at the beginning of this comment. At the end I stopped frustrated. But now several years later I am thinking of starting again thats why I subscribed to your channel and others.
BUT for me DJing is still some form of art and self expression. I will never play tracks that I don't like and make myself a prostitute. I rather don't do it at all. There is the pool of tracks that I like and there is the pool of tracks which the crowd at the current event would like to dance to or at least listen, too. Tracks that are in both pools get played, nothing more, nothing less.
you are realy good and your content its very helpful
brilliant advice, Thanks!!!!!
Love that last tip :)
Read the crowd, always said that and it's very important to talk to the crowd. This guy is spot on. In my younger days I played every club in my town. You learn much more djing live in a week or two than you will in a year in your room. Simply put, if you play what the crowd wants to hear your OK. Effects wise, less is always more. I agree, better to filter or echo or even fade out fast rather than fuck up. Enjoy yourself. If you play the wrong song you'll know. Remember what time it is, warm a crowd up. Take care my man, great content for someone like my just got into digital. It's a learning curve, I was looping an 8 bar loop with a one bar loop to do Buildup, way more complex than it needed to be, it worked but this is really helpful, thanks 😊 your videos are so much more explanatory than most. 💯🎚👍
All your videos are very helpful . Thank God I found them 😊
I like your videos and they are filled with a lot of important information. but I would have to respectfully disagree with you on this one about filter it out then hit play. as you start to filter it out the volume drops down and then it stops they will stop dancing and all turn around and look at you. however if you hit a simple backspin then hit the song they will continue to go with it. or you could take it to the next level and do a backspin with a echo then hit the next song. and the echo effect will layer over your song as you start it for the first 3 to 5 Seconds.
It's about ones own goals.
EDM DJing should be clearly distinguished from pretty much any other arena, cuz satisfying a wedding reception crowd isn't what naturally leads to festivals.
Those people either came up through the rave scene, or in some cases just by good marketing of their own tracks to labels and online platforms.
If you wanna be a party DJ, do you.
If you wanna be a radio DJ do you.
In any such case you'll be playing for the people first.
If you wanna be an EDM DJ, you've gotta figure out how you get in front of the right audience.
Playing top 40 will not lead to getting signed to a DnB label. The nature of the scene is and has always been that if you wanna be ahead of the curve, you gotta pay close attention.
This video made me feel better, thank you for that.
I'm beginner and have this nights when people just sit and talk (it's not surprise because it's mostly pub/bar not club), but anyway i'm feeling bad and thinking "ehhh the music i'm playing is so boring, shouldn't be dj, i don't have any ideas what can i do more because i have no skill" and it's really disheartened. Also i had some sick nights when i put some good old songs that everyone knows, not mixing them well and they were partyin like crazy. So what I mean by that is that you're telling here 100% truth.
Still doing gigs?
@@sofaking777777 Yes. I had a break during pandemic, but now I'm playing 4-5 days in the week in this place i was writing about in here :) After this time i gotta say, that my stress was unreasonable, i was playing not to well, but when I was thinking about it it was worse. Now I'm a lot more confident, but better skills comes along of it of course.
What a nice dog you have. It distracted me somewhat from your argument. That's why I streamed your video for a 2nd time. LOL. Your tips are not boring at all, as someone here claims. I applied the tips 40 years ago when I was an active DJ. Later I became a club DJ and I chose a club where I could play my music style. Even then I mainly played the music that my regular audience wanted to hear. R&B Disco and later Dance music, but I just didn't start playing other styles. I had my principles. Now I have been retired for quite some time, but can be heard as a radio internet DJ. There I do a lot more concessions on my music choice.
I feel “reading the crowd” doesn’t really apply to some EDM shows though. Like if you have a set during an entire dubstep/riddim show, chances are the crowd’s gonna want to hear that so you can pre plan a set and don’t have to worry about reading them.
Bro..please tell us how to play new school hip hop...different BPM different drum pattern etc
Dropping the songs on the one work really well with new school but feel free to beat match as well
Thank you Phil for all your help! you are great! Have a good christmas
Hi Phil here’s the situation I had recently. One person is asking me to turn the volume down and after that another guy comes asking to turn the volume up. One chick is asking to play slower music and after that another chick approached asking to play faster music. What would you do in a situation like that?
As a new DJ, it is my fear: having nobody dancind. In weading I DJed, the crouwd danced 90% of the evening. Althought it's a goog performance for me, the 10% on the time having the dance floor empty seams to me an eternity. After reflexions and after listenning your good advices I think that you can't DJ if your are not ready to accept that you will have to deal with situations in your DJ career. Thanks a lot for those very important advices.
buddy its the crowd some people cant stop dancing while other cant dance if dj cant make them dance still can entertain them with their choice of music
Phil Harris is a G! Love you bro! Stay fresh DJ Mini!!
I play ukg and everyone loves it I dont do all these fancy tricks that's bs,im a top selector and select the best garage tunes that work ,and just mix the tracks super tight no fancy shit looping ,or remixing, or shitty effects crap and constantly playing with the eq non stop
Sold advice.
On tip 3 it’s happened to me a few times. Around Christmas I was playing after the band at a function. When I arrived I was told that the staff were very behind on serving the food, resulting in the band starting late & I only had a 50 minute slot to play. So obviously I went in with the big hits & for 20 minutes overall people danced & were very pushy with requests resulting in me having to explain that I don’t have much time & have gotten requests before them. Anyway I got payed 😀
I have had this happen in the past and I felt just like you said phill. 😀 Phill great tip on people's voice and the equipment high's.!
the problem of all the beginner djing is wathe we play
. you see a lot thanx for the help and I'm sorry forthe english is not good
🎵 And I knew if I had my chance,
I could make those people dance...
And maybe, they'd be happy,
For awhile... 🎵
--Don McLean
Great vid. Shine on
hi Phil love the videos and advice! is there a music licence that i can buy to let me stream live on facebook and youtube without getting muted/etc. I don't want to make any money from this its a hobby and i just want to enjoy the music and show others what i can do
thank you
sean
Awesome Tips thank you @DJPhillHarris 🎉🎉🎉🎉
Another great video. I really appreciate you passing on your knowledge.
OMG the dog is sooo cute
Great tips and i can definitely attest to them. Going to try that last tip turning the highs down a bit if people are mainly enjoying talking together 👍
Thanks, Phil for the powerful advice. Dj Minnie is stealing your show she is so sweet.
Great tips
#3 they may not be dancing on the floor but if they are jamming at their tables its still the right choice
Greetings from Germany. Awesome video!
Thanks for the lessons but...do you pump helium into your room?!
minnie melting my heart
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 the look on the poor dog’s face is like: “ O my goodness, he’s lost it completely . . . Talking to himself already...so young, shame.” 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Bonus tip: Learn the difference between what it means to play an open, peak and close set and how your energy/performance should change to better suit the time of the event you are playing. No one wants to arrive at peak hour and they find out all the bangers were already played in the first hour because what are they looking forward to then. Similar note, no one wants to keep going like there's no tomorrow at 3am so chill it out a little bit cause people get tired. They aren't robots surprisingly
How can I remove a song track from the default deck of virtual DJ. ??? I can do it on the old deck by right clicking on the stop button but I find that I cannot remove a song track from the default deck. I know that you could just load another song but I want to be able to remove that track. Any ideas or help??
So true: 😂 You're like, "No... You will dance!" (cranks up everything) And then someone comes over to you and says, "Hey mate... Can you turn the music down."
Why isn't phill Harris higher in subscribers? This is the content you people need to wake the fuck up with
How will I know what songs the crowd likes?
Absolutely correct bro....
What makes you think people's talking range is in the high frequency? It's mid range mate.
You don't like someone singing really loudly while you're trying to have a conversation, then turn down the mids and it will lower the vocals of the track and make room for your vocals (talking) to cut through the music.
I have just few gigs so far and curious to hear your advice. Few nights ago, during the set, I had some moments like you described under #3. Company Christmas party and hardly any female person was dancing while Cindy L (Girls just want to have fun) was playing. Could not believe it. Tried to switch and invite more people to the dancefloor with Chubby C Twist, didn't work. Tried Denny's At the hoop. No reaction. How about country (Ride a cowboy). Nope. Something more recent. Cake by the Ocean. It didn't work. I figured out, I will play something I like to listen... Sweet home Alabama, Play that funky music, Old time RnR...minimal improvement. My question is not related to your #3 advise (people's voice), I am interested to see more people dancing, not talking. Based on your experience, if you see that, let's say, house is not working for the crowd and you want to switch/try with, let's say, EDM. Do you test it with just one song, half of the one song or it is better to try with two or three songs of the same genre before you try/move to something else? I am not sure if I made mistake by trying to switch too quickly with only one song of particular genre and want to hear some advise (if situation like that one happens again). THX!
Good question. I would say watch closely and try a few tracks if each genre. You will see subtle things like people tabbing their feet, standing up. Even just looking at the dance floor. Small things like this could be all you need to know you are in the right tracks!
The dog 😂😂
I would like you to show how you play on 2decks+mixer without software/laptop :) You now, only your ears and experience ;) e.g. pioneer cdj800/850. Greetings!
Hi Phil I’m wondering can you teach me how to beat match on vinyl?
Use your ears
Another tip is avoid redlining this helps the sound guy do his job, only accept song requests if they fit the theme and mood of the venue or event you are DJing at
Yes
OMG that advice of turning the highs down so people can talk i dont know how to take it hahahahahahahah it was funny to hear. Aniway, thank you for the vids they are helpfulll :)
Great tips
Yes thank you absolutely right! Like a dj lifecoach ahah
Love it Cheers!
My last experience wit' crowd was so damn lame, it looked like ppl came 2 watch a movie, not 2 dance n chill...I was feelin' so down n after 4 hours of my set, I finished the night arguing n trash talking wit' owners of the club..
very sorry did you make them happy with the music yes , dancing depend on the venue , event , crowd, set up, age group,......
Tips 4 : Start to distribute XTC ... :D
Totally true 👍👍
Do you need a laptop to dj
#MINNIE 💗
3 tips I live by!!!! Yes yes
#2 depends on your crowd, if they are serious listeners at a certain club they're definitely gonna judge your cheesey 1 second transition...
I'm just struggling trying to find music that is worth it! House. Edm. Rap.