Identify your audience before you perform. This
doesn’t just mean to find out what they like and
play it — you need to know the size of the room
you’ll be playing in, the number of people who
may be there, and the general musical vibe for
the evening. Know your time slot and what frame
of mind people will be in when you are playing.
Part of being a DJ is sonic empathy: take time to
know your audience and identify what sort of
sounds they might connect with
Plan in Threes
This is a method of organizing music for DJ
performance that I’ve found to work extremely
well in my own experience. When planning a set I
like to find three records that mix well together
at a time. Optimally these three records can all
be played together at once or they can transition
into one another. Next I find another set of three.
Then another. Eventually I have a stack of records
that are organized by how they mix together, and
I start to organize those sets of three into a flow
of slow to fast / mellow to banging. I like to have
60 tracks selected for an hour of performance. I
won’t play all 60 (I usually play around 20 tracks
per hour) and I won’t always play those exact
mixes (spontaneity is still important in a DJ set),
but I have options that go in every direction and I
know that I can find my way from one type of
sound to another while staying deep in the mix
the whole way. Knowing this allows me to be
much more experimental on-the-fly and it always
works better than if I don’t plan.
Be Flexible
As a professional DJ you don’t necessarily have
to take requests, you can stand by your own style
and selection. However, playing more than one
specific style of music is a great way to gain
more opportunities for performance. There are
many different types of clubs and events, and
different types of crowds — try to find selections
from your music collection that will work with
these different groups
