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What are the challenges of DJing? What are the toughest parts of being a DJ? To answer this,
we should break the problem up into two categories, the problems of the amatuer DJ and the
problems of the expert DJ.
The Amatuer DJ
DJs who are just starting out have lots of challenges to overcome. Once they have had enough
practice, most of these challenges will cease to be a problem. In the meantime, some of the
toughest things for a beginning DJ are:
- Matching the tempos of two tracks. The DJ will listen to an outgoing
track and try to get the speed of the incoming track to play at the
same tempo. Most often, the DJ will not be able to determine whether
the incoming track needs to be sped up or slowed down. They become
confused as to which beat is coming from which track and cannot tell
whether speeding up or slowing down a track will solve the problem.
- Aligning two seperate beats so that they are in phase. This is
caused mainly by a misunderstanding of musical timing. Many amateur
DJs feel that matching the tempos of two tracks is sufficient for
mixing but they fail to realize that each track will progress and
change on a downbeat. To make the mix sound more natural, one should
follow the rules of musical timing and cause the new portions of the
incoming track to occur on the downbeats of the outgoing track. This
problem can also be caused when the DJ loses count of the beats and
does not know which beat (in the set) they are hearing. They may incorrectly
assume that they are coming up to a downbeat but guess incorrectly.
This can be caused by not pay attention to the outgoing track for
a small period of time, thus causing the DJ to lose the beat timing
of the outgoing track. Often a DJs attention to the outgoing track
will be diverted if they are concentrating on finding the correct
incoming track or even the right portion of the incoming track. Also,
if the DJ becomes engaged in other activites, such as conversations
with friends, they may lose track of which beat is occuring in the
outgoing track.
The Expert DJ
Many people feel that pro DJs are at ease when mixing music. There are, however, a few
problems that even they encounter while performing a set:
- Track selection is always a concern. After speaking with many top
DJs, it was found that the biggest problem for most DJs is deciding
what track to play next. This is a problem that involves understanding
the mood and anticipations of a room full of people (the audience).
The DJ must know what type of music their audience wants to hear.
Will the mix become faster, or slower, harder or softer, happier or
darker, vocals or not? Often musical selection is affected by the
age group of the audience, the decor of the venue, the time of day,
the type of event and the mood of the DJ.
- Mixing melodies is often a problem. When the melodies of two tracks
are played on top of each other, sometimes they do not create a harmony
and can sound quite unnatural. Some professional DJs organize their
music collection by using key signatures. Then they know when one
key will conflict with another and they will not attempt to mix two
opposing tracks. Others will practice mixing their tracks before performing
in front of an audience. Practice sessions will help a DJ learn which
tracks sound nice with each other and which ones do not sound coherent.
Using the equalizers can help in reducing dis-harmonious melodies.
Also, there is a famous unwritten rule in DJing - never mix vocals
on top of each other. This almost always creates two melodies that
do not sound harmonious together. It also makes the audience concentrate
on two sets of lyrics, a task that involves mental effort and takes
away from the feeling of becoming "lost" in the music.
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