How To DJ: Knowing Your Tracks

Unless you want to mix as if your head was cut off, it’s important to know your tracks if you want to learn how to DJ.

Blind mixing is often very difficult, you can never quite know what you’re getting yourself into when you don’t know your tracks.

It’s much easier than you think, think of this as a ‘research and development’ session as you learn how to DJ.

crate digging

1. Listen to it without judgement

One you first hear a track, you usually make an immediate good/bad comparison. It’s in all of us, judging music on the first round but as a DJ you need to dig deeper, to find the real soul behind the music.

Your first pass listening to your new track should be a general, “will this work?”.

Obviously if the track doesn’t matches your genre, it probably won’t make the cut but that isn’t to say you couldn’t drop it in to make everyone go crazy as hell.

If a track snares you the first time listening through, it’s probably a keeper. It’s hard to find songs you like on the first listen but they always turn out to be the ones you love most.

2. Listen to it again – for subtly

Now it’s getting a little technical, I recommend listening to your new track a second or third time to pick out some of the effects and sounds.

At this point, I’d suggest listening for sounds and effects you didn’t catch on the first pass. You know those tracks, the ones that have subtle instruments that when listening to gives it a whole different dimension.

3. Will people like it?

Okay, so you think you have a track selected but one very important thing to remember is wither people will love it or hate it.

Just because you have a particular fondness of the track doesn’t mean that others will.

As a DJ, your musical taste may be deeper and more extensive compared to the average clubber or party-goer. Sometimes dropping that unreleased track may not go over so well because some people just aren’t familiar with the artist or sound.

Now, that’s not to say that you shouldn’t be there to open up people’s musical taste with your mixing, but it does say that you should throw in some tracks that people will really enjoy and get them into it.

4. Try it out in your mix

Before you decide to drop the new track into your set, try it out a few times in a mix at home.

Is it fitting well? Does it clash too much?

You can fix it with mixing but remember that a set built with a “story” are ones that are really great, something that takes the listening from one point to the next without breaking that mindset.

Ah hell, just dig through crates

Knowing your music is very important.

It gives you:

  • Better understanding
  • Ability to match it with your set
  • Stops you from mixing blindly
  • Allows you to throw it in at any time

You’re already listening to music most of the day, so you might as well get a firm grip on the ins and outs of each track. This will allow you to mix it in at any time, really blowing peoples minds.

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