5 Practical Tips To Start DJing Today!

No DJ on the planet started by performing on a main stage of a festival or even playing to a crowd in a local club. Beginnings for everyone are often extremely humble and if you adopt the right mind set and work ethic you will never know where things might end up. Here are 5 practical tips to help you to start DJing today!

1. You Just Need To Start

When it comes to pretty much anything in life, you never know what might come of it unless you give it a go! For sports professionals, it’s that first kick of the ball, that first lap of the track and for DJ’s it all starts when you hit play on your first ever track. Unless you start, you will never know where things might end up.

Sure you might try DJing for a month or 2, absolutely hate it and never mix a track again….but on the other hand, you might take to it like a duck to water, end up loving it, go on to produce your own music and be headlining your own sold out events (and anywhere in between of course). The point is, unless you start you will just never know, so stop asking the ‘what if’ questions and just get it started!

2. Consistency Is Key

Now you have started, it’s a case of putting in the reps and over time, you WILL get better. The best DJ’s in the world didn’t gain those skills overnight, it takes years of consistency, practice and patience in order to see improvements.

The more time you put in, the greater your music knowledge will become, the more confident you will feel on your DJ equipment, you’ll naturally get a feel for which tracks mix well together and where to place the mixes. Now the pace in which you develop is completely down to you. Some people want to throw everything at DJing and completely live and breathe it but for others developing is more gradual balancing your new found love with other commitments.

Everyone is on their own path and develops at their own speed but it’s turning up and making time for DJing over and over again (doing the reps) that will ensure that you improve.

3. Equipment Is Not Holding You Back

DJing can get EXPENSIVE very quickly but the key thing to remember is that you absolutely do not need a festival set up to get up and running as a DJ in this day and age. Even entry level, budget controllers can do some pretty complex stuff and you can pull off the majority of tricks and transitions that you can on more expensive units.

Sure some of the lights and displays might not be there and you might be working on a unit with slightly poorer build quality overall but while you are learning you really don’t need to spend thousands. There are even videos of some of the biggest DJ’s pulling off exceptional transitions and wild skills on budget equipment so it’s definitely not this holding you back from becoming great.

If you start, develop some skills and end up loving it, then maybe invest in something more expensive, but it’s just not needed at the start.

4. Quality Important But Quantity First

So many people focus on achieving perfection and there is nothing wrong with this however just like with consistency you need to put the reps in and a lot of them in order to improve. Think of the first iPhone that was released and compare that to where they are today. Apple have had multiple goes at improving their product and making it better over time. It’s only through releasing the product, gaining feedback and making tweaks, that have enabled them to get it to where it is today and it’s the same with DJing.

Once you have mastered the basics, put a mix together and post it or share it with a group of friends and get their feedback. You will learn what was good and where to improve very quickly. The most important thing is to get things out there rather than striving for perfection. If you worry too much about this, you will never progress however you need to also be open to feedback.

5. Always Re-invest

So you have done it! You landed your first DJ gig- well done! Now it’s time to accelerate your career. It’s important to re-invest in order to continually improve and this doesn’t necessarily mean going out and blowing a load of cash on more DJ equipment but think about your music collection- can you invest into increasing the variety in your collection, invest in yourself- perhaps a DJ course? Investing time to practice some new transitions etc. The list is endless however if you are consistent and re-invest in the beginning, great things will follow as a result!

For more tips on how to grow as a DJ, check out this video below!