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View Full Version : Bomb Dropppin Freestyle DJ's


Sophistik
07-16-2003, 11:47 AM
How many of you out there are freestyle DJ's, or mingle styles out of your base genre(s) to an extreme?

I have this problem where I don't wanna drop bombs, I wanna drop nukes, ownin shit left and right. Unfortunatly in a 1 to 1 1/2 hour period this really can't be done every time.

Well, I have the tendancy to leave a show wishing I had done more. Not necessarily because I didn't do enough, but because I just couldn't possibly represent what I wanted to do within that time frame.

I tend to mix on the fly, but build a sort of flow-chart of how I want things to go. I guess what I'm saying is when you want to do 1 million things in one night, drop your fave's, act like a crazed mad man/woman, and do your best: Do any of you find yourselves looking at 500 different ways of doing it and having trouble on the best route?

I tend to run in circles and to always want to do the best I can, and sometimes it's difficult for me to destress, knowing if I go one route, I can't go antother. For instance say I'm planing on opening up with a turntablism clinic, move to nuskool breaks, then into the crunchiest electro I can find. But at the same time I really wanna go at it from a different angle and drop maybe the funkiest house, and garage, then move on to breaks. Or perhaps I want to play trance, and breaks, and move to nuskool. Just some examples. And I tend to let my mind run in circles deciding on how I want to take it before it even happens and I sorta just go mad, knowing there's so many possiblilities and wanting and being able to do them all, but knowing I can only do so much within one night.

Do I just say lets pick one and shut the fuck up and run with it?

I guess I'm looking for a mental exercise on what to do, and how to overcome this barrier. It's like looking at 3 dope ass cars on a dealers lot and not being able to decide on what to do. Any ideas for this confused SOB? :confused: I always go one in the end, but this stalling makes me counter productive and I tend to just sit and think about it too much rather than go and just do it.

Aside from the point but yet another factor that contributes to this is that us as DJ's at least some of us have completely different prespectives on our OWN stuff merely because it's ours, never being able to see it from an outside angle. I'll never be able to hear my own material as someone on the dancefloor wouldelse would.. It's kinda like how you go buy a cd and your favorite song on it sounds different to you now that you've heard it 300 times, only it's the same song... hmm...

James Capricorn
07-16-2003, 01:16 PM
Originally posted by Sophistik

I tend to run in circles and to always want to do the best I can, and sometimes it's difficult for me to destress, knowing if I go one route, I can't go antother.


I would worry less about doing you best, and instead make sure your having as much fun as possible. If you're not having fun, it's gonna show in your sets. And if your worried about whether or not your taking your set in the right direction, your not gonna have that much fun. Of course you will still have to read the crowd,......

Remeber this: You're not the message. You're just the medium.
It's ok to just let it flow.....

Recess
07-16-2003, 01:57 PM
Some say it's all about the music, I say it's all about the FUN. Couldn't agree more with James. Yet every so often it's nice to be reminded...

Go get 'em Sophistik!

Sophistik
07-16-2003, 02:04 PM
I couldn't agree more with the fun part. hehe. :) I always have fun I suppose I should just let if flowz0rz. :D Everytime I get somewhere I usually end up doing something else than I had thought I wanted to do.

Hmm... Yer right. I should just shut up an jam. hehe.

Tronic
07-16-2003, 02:57 PM
I can appreciate the problem you speak of as another DJ that plays a lot of different styles.

Most of the time you don't have time to work it all in.

I don't pre-program my sets at all, I do it all in the mix.

HOWEVER, one important thing to keep in mind is the flow of the event itself. A good promoter will book DJs and put them in the order that he/she would like to build the night. A lot of people do it like a bell-curve, starting out more mellow, then peaking around 1 or 2am (at a show that goes until 6) then bring the energy back down a little to end the night.

I think it is important to know who you are playing before and after, so you can better flow in and out of their styles, while still playing the sound you want to play.

This way, you can at least have a better idea of which styles of records to bring with you for that set.

It's also good to have somewhat of an idea of how you want your set to progress. Do you want to have a mellow intro, then build up to a peak? Or do you want to grab the attention of the floor right away with something they may know or something that has a lot of energy. It is often good to plan for multiple scenarios, as you can often not predict the turnout of an event, or how the DJ before you will leave the crowd.

Sometimes I think of DJ-ing like one of those choose-your-own-adventure books we read as kids. With each new record you put on, it can take the crowd several different ways, depending on the crowd. It's your job to read the crowd, choose the right records, and walk away with a very happy ending!

:)

- tronic

corbettfields
07-17-2003, 09:58 AM
er....

i think a good idea is to look UP and watch the dancefloor.....

then you'll have a better idea what to play next.. maybe... well its a start

and James... did you call me a b%$&^^???????

iammay
07-17-2003, 10:32 AM
I'm deffinatly feelin' what your saying here.
Though I play many styles of music at home, i generally just play House or Trip Hop/Hip Hop out. However I still experience the what the "what the hell should i play" sindrome especially with house. There are so many sub-genre's of house that i get into, as well as the fact that I've been doing this for 6 years now and have never goten out much. I have so many records that i feel people need to here. Yet i can only play so few. What the fuck do i bring for them when I do get to play for peeps?
I don't worry too much about it though.
I know my trax are hot, or I wouldn't have them. So I just pack up a little bit o' this and a little bit o' that. Hed to the show, and rip it off the cuff. It doesn't really ever matter what i put in the box, because about 15 -20 min into the set, i'm in that groove, and the recs are playin' themselves. Always good and always fun, never planned.

JD-Funk
07-27-2003, 04:51 PM
Hmm dave well you know my ansers to these questions, being that I started doing this a little while ago I think the best tricks to mixing genres is learning cheats as people sa alot of djs wanna mix on the fly wich is fine by me.

But personally I do to many different things to fly mix I always pre program something and go off it when doing radical genre mixes I look for points in records and mental not them like switching from drum n bass to hip hop or hip hop back to house even if I throw in alot of on the fly stuff I still kinda stick to a pattern I want to use for when I do a set, but I think if you can learn little tricks and records that go with other you can mix different genres for days and days ;)

SoulKid
07-29-2003, 07:55 AM
Damn dude, I got excited for a minute since I thought you were meaning the genre of Freestyle :D

Sophistik
07-29-2003, 11:35 AM
Bwahahha, Sorry Rod. I think i meant "Free-form" ;)

Sophistik
07-29-2003, 11:36 AM
Corbett:
I couldn't agree with you more. I think I look at the mixer and tables 10% of the time i'm up there. Most of it IS focused on the crowd. I will preach about crowd interaction and reading a crowd like it's the bible. But now i'm spilling over into other things bringing that one up because i'm talking about two different things... But my original post was in no means about either of these topics... more about confusing yourself as a result of having too many good tunes and not enough time.

James:
Good thinking. Everytime I play out I usually take about 5 to 10 minutes before I come on I will actually sit down and watch the crowd to sort of take a "temperature" reading of what they might be wanting. Whenever I play something I think they're not grooving on, I'll move on to what I think they will... if i am on the right track (no pun intended) I will let it play out a little longer and so forth, and keep the vibe going in the right direction. If they get tired play more breakdowns or chill out the energy a little. I really like the post!

iammay:
BANG. You hit the nail on the head with what I was trying to say. :)

Jeremy:
Go lick your own butt. hahahha :P J/p man. Yeah I'm not concerned with how to make the switches, i'll make em happen. But yeah sometimes when I'm doing some kinda radical super jumble of genre's I would like a blue print to follow, a road map per say. My confusion is multi-faceted in this sense, because it contradicts going free form, but at the same time still alows you to be as free as you can be within that "map". Good ideas too.

Over all I think what i'll do is fly by the seat of my pants and keep reading them crowds because it seems to work rather well and keep them there infront of me for the most part, which means i'm on some sort of right track.