Preselecting playlist

Some DJs assemble their playlist for a dance ahead of time, especially if they play their music from their laptop or iPod.  Others plan out their general rotation of dance types but wait until the moment to select the song itself, watching the dancers' energy to see what the perfect tune for that moment will be.

Both approaches are equivalent to creating a lesson plan for teaching a class, so therefore my advice is the same as on my teaching tips page, for the same reason.  I recommend creating a good plan, then improvising on it at the moment.

When you assemble a playlist in the quiet of your office or home, you can try to guess what the mood of the dance will be at each moment, but you can never be sure.  It's easier to accurately guess the rotation of dance types... a calmer tango after a fast exhausting swing, for example.  So you can draw up a playlist of dance types.  But the variables for selecting the best tunes are so complex that it's far better to use your intuition, in watching the energy of the dancers at that moment, to choose the perfect song.

Have you ever pre-assembled a playlist of tunes then thought, "It seemed like a good idea when I wrote the playlist, but that tune just didn't work very well."  Yes, that will happen at least once every night, and more likely several times.

You can say, "oh well, that's good enough" if you want to be a "good-enough" DJ.  This page is suggestions of how to be abetter DJ, maybe a great one.

An ideal compromise is to plan out your playlist ahead of time, including the song titles, then re-evaluate your choices right before you get to each one, during the dance.  "Was that really the best choice for right now?"  You'll probably find that most of your preplanned list is okay, then occasionally you'll make a substitution when you feel that your first guess wasn't really the best choice for this moment, or if you come up with a better choice which didn't occur to you during your prep time.

Here's a specific suggestion to help come up with the perfect tune for the moment.  Have second music player (not the one playing music for the dancers) with headphones, to hear your possible song choices during the three minutes when the previous song is playing.  Our memory of our music collection is often sufficient, but actually hearing the next tune, in the real context of the moment, is usually better.  (This method works better with CDs and MDs than with laptops and iPods.)