Being a DJ

I've been djing and promoting shows for about 7-8 years now. The idea of DJing is to play music for people. Whether to give them something to talk over, or dance too, or whatever.

First things first is you have to find your audience. Is it your friends? do you want to play house parties? clubs? shows? If casual (as you stated) then your probably just going to end up doing your friends parties. I've done tons of house parties, and they are a blast.

doing something like that entails music, equipment to play (turntables, cdjays, abelton live software), mixers, speakers, amps, maybe some lights (if you want to get fancy).

Also are you going to play the whole night? then either a mix list to just hit play (which isn't really djing) or get some djs to pad the night.

Then you have to figure out what kind of music you want to play. I personally am a Drum and Bass dj (mostly) which is a faster type of music. This comes back to knowing your audience. Are they their to rock out to some metal, or grind to some hiphop? there is tons of music to play and finding the stuff that you love is key. If you love the music you play, people will get into it through you (unless they hate it, which you'll always run into)

I do a Q and A on djing on Guy.com actually (which seems to be having some Database errors right now, so no link, just go and check the forum discussions under 'ask a dj') which will have a bunch of info to help you figure out what you want to do.

Also I'd search for some DJing mixes, to hear how music is put together. ( i have a bunch at http://www.djcubed.com if you like bass heavy electronica)

i hope that helps, :)

no problem. Its nice to be able to offer up advice around here, usually there is someone who knows way  more then I about certain topics.

See being a DJ is so subjective and situational that its hard to help. I started by buying records and going to raves. I met people, bought more records (this is key, lots and lots and lots of music) and between me and my crew of friends, we always had turntables to practice and jam on, and music to share.

If you want to be more then just someone who makes an itunes playlist and hits random (or not) then you'll need something with which to play your music. The easiest way is to just get a laptop and Abelton Live. Its a software program that allows you to mix music together without any Turntables or CDJays (turntables are just as they have always been, cdjays are the same but play cds instead of records). Most DJays will play on 2 turntables or cdjays, and a Mixer (which will play multiple channels at teh same time, as well giving you control over the EQ's and the volumes.)

There are many different ways to play music out, but anywhere you go people are going to want you to know what your doing. Mixing music takes practice. lots and lots of practice. Learning how to beat match, pitch match, selecting the right songs in the right order, learning to feel out the crowd so that you know exactly what track to play at what time so as to either bring the crowd up or bring it down.

I'd recommend watching some DJ videos, and for an interesting history and more thematic description of a DJ's place in the world, check out 'Last night a DJ saved my life'. Great book with loads of historical information on djing.