Dj tips 21

Organise your music into tightly focused
playlists
It doesn’t really matter how you do this.
I do it in groups like warm-up tunes, peak time
tunes, last hour tunes, new tunes I ‘d like to play
but may not (these can hang around for months
while I find the right place to introduce them into
a set), and surefire floorfillers / classics – kind of
“get out of jail” tunes.
Knowing you can happily play half an hour from
any of these playlists means that you can swap
and change as the crowd and the night demands,
while still actually playing a largely planned set.

Dj tips 20

Know the venue and the crowd well
Planning also involves visiting the venue and
knowing the music they play and the type of
crowd they get – if possible, of course. This helps
you with point one above, as you’ve got a picture
of the venue and crowd in your head as you’re
picking or rejecting songs for your crate.

Dj tips 19

Pack your music carefully
Less is definitely more when it comes to
preparing your tunes. Listen to ever single record
you put in your crate for the night, so they’re all
fresh in your mind. I like to pack roughly double
the music I end up playing, giving me two choices
for every eventual tune played – so I can vary the
set but within preset confines. Listening to the
tunes like this helps you to spot the “odd ones
out” too that maybe don’t belong in tonight’s set
after all.