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becomming a DJ...how to do it??

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
How's the best way to do this?? a friend of mine does it for a hobby, but wants to play at clubs, etc! He plays online gigs+gets paid for them, and he's really good. id dance to his music+it sounds better than some of the stuff they play in clubs. It's mostly remixes and not so much his own material!
Any ideas??? He doesnt know where to start+feels everyone will pay no attention as he's an amateur!
thanx

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    SkiveSkive Posts: 15,284 Skive's The Limit
    What styles does he play.
    Weekender Offender 
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    erm...dance, abit of trance. i think, im not entirely sure. He can remix anything from bon jovi to prodigy to shapeshifters though, and its all good!
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    record a set and start sending it to people!
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    so, would emailing a few tracks to clubs, etc, be ok?? Also, he's thought bout taking a sample cd into local clubs, but there are only 2 near us+he doesnt drive
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    put it on cd
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    ok, thanx for your advice!
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    to be honest id say unless hes really good the chances of him playing a club are slim because theres just too much competition.
    also, might just be my opinion but i thought dance music had died? isnt eveything more harder-edged now? what with the kandy kiddies getting into hardcore and the mainstream lovers getting into drum n bass (due to pendulums influence).

    But then this is just my experience...
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    SkiveSkive Posts: 15,284 Skive's The Limit
    He'll have to end off demo's then to local cheesey clubs. He'd make more money gettign the right gear and hiring out his services for private parties. A mate of mine made £800 on new years DJ chart and dance music.
    Weekender Offender 
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    so, would emailing a few tracks to clubs, etc, be ok?? Also, he's thought bout taking a sample cd into local clubs, but there are only 2 near us+he doesnt drive

    well if he doesnt drive, how is he going to get home from the clubs that might employ him
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    This is what I posted on the thread in entertainment


    Record some mix CD's and send them out to loads of clubs. Although these days the whole world and his wife is a DJ, so try and make them a bit different. Don't just mix a load of obvious bangers and anthems together, try and do something more interesting. Alternatively, start your own night.
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    SkiveSkive Posts: 15,284 Skive's The Limit
    MrG wrote:
    well if he doesnt drive, how is he going to get home from the clubs that might employ him

    Get somebody else to drive obviously. Most of the DJ's I knoe bring 'guests' to drive for them.
    Weekender Offender 
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    icey wrote:
    to be honest id say unless hes really good the chances of him playing a club are slim because theres just too much competition.
    also, might just be my opinion but i thought dance music had died? isnt eveything more harder-edged now? what with the kandy kiddies getting into hardcore and the mainstream lovers getting into drum n bass (due to pendulums influence).

    But then this is just my experience...

    isn't drum'n'bass dance music anymore? :confused:
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    starting your own night ...premises ...approach pubs clubs whatever.
    a friend of one of my sons did something similar in manchester few years ago.
    he picked a back street pub ...tatty and unknown and with a landlord only to willing to try anything to fill the pub ...so it was free.

    for a couple of years it became one the busiest unknown back street pubs in town.
    even on the none nights it was busier cos...a new audience had found a new place to meet and hang out.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Whatever you do don't try and adopt a 'street' personal otherwise it'll seriously come back and bite you on the arse. Just look at Tim Westwood - there's not a man on earth who takes his image seriously.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Whatever you do don't try and adopt a 'street' personal otherwise it'll seriously come back and bite you on the arse. Just look at Tim Westwood - there's not a man on earth who takes his image seriously.

    except the people who pay to see him
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    icey wrote:
    to be honest id say unless hes really good the chances of him playing a club are slim because theres just too much competition.
    also, might just be my opinion but i thought dance music had died? isnt eveything more harder-edged now? what with the kandy kiddies getting into hardcore and the mainstream lovers getting into drum n bass (due to pendulums influence).
    Pendulum have undoubtedly had their effect - their remix of Prodigy's "Voodoo People", for example, I still like that. (the Audio Bullys mix of "Outta Space" included in the same release was dreadful, but let's not get into that) And yes, the hardcore scene is still alive and well, despite all the years. But having been listening to dance music in all its forms for about twelve years now, I wouldn't agree with all of what you say.

    The trance scene's been huge in recent years, and we can't deny the talents of that scene - Ferry Corsten, DJ Tiesto, Randy Katana, newcomers Dogzilla - there's still some good stuff out there. The general trend has, however, been towards more commercial territory, bordering on hardcore. Genre is not as much of an issue now as it has been. Not many records define themselves as 'trance' nowadays, a sign maybe that the scene is temporarily stagnating. As for house, there's some good new talents in the scene now - the "Swedish house mafia" consisting of Steve Angello, Sebastian Ingrosso and Richard Axwell, for starters. Others include the Freemasons, Steve Mac, Lee Cabrera, Mylo, Jacques Lu Contes, Seamus Haji & Paul Emanuel... I could go on here.

    Dance music isn't dead, not by a long shot. What has been recognised in recent years is that the scene cannot stay back in the early days of the late 1980s. I also think the retirement of Danny Rampling, a man I have huge respect for, has made people notice that things are changing, some for the worse, but some for the better.

    As for your original question, the best things to do are make lots of mixes. Loads and loads of them. Don't get out of practice, in a scene with so many people trying to make it, you'll have to persevere a lot. Make mixes and send them out to people you know. Ask friends what they think of them. Patience pays dividends in this game, so good luck to you.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    There has always been talent in the house scene, it's just that you probably haven't heard of them due to the type of house that is played. People like BT, CP, Pole Folder, Digital Witchcraft, Evolution, Deep Space Organisms, Gabriel & Dresden, Grayarea, Hybrid, Fluke, Fretwell, and others like James Lavelle, Dave Seaman, Nick Warren, Sasha, Momu & Way Out West have all been is the house scene for a long time and are full of class.

    Long live the Progressive sound.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    There has always been talent in the house scene, it's just that you probably haven't heard of them due to the type of house that is played. People like BT, CP, Pole Folder, Digital Witchcraft, Evolution, Deep Space Organisms, Gabriel & Dresden, Grayarea, Hybrid, Fluke, Fretwell, and others like James Lavelle, Dave Seaman, Nick Warren, Sasha, Momu & Way Out West have all been is the house scene for a long time and are full of class.

    Long live the Progressive sound.
    I'll admit I haven't heard of all of them. Out of those, I'd forgotten about BT until I got a Gatecrasher Classics album for Xmas. Gabriel & Dresden seem to be closer to trance than house in my opinion. And I'll never forget Way Out West's mix of Subliminal Cuts 'Le Voie Le Soleil'. (1996) But I hate to say this - I don't see what's so progressive about this type of house. Then again, it might be that I pay little attention to labels like that.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    The dance music scene is far from dead. Anyone who saw the queue's at Slammin Vinyl on New Years will agree with me!
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    It'll never die!! :D
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    SkiveSkive Posts: 15,284 Skive's The Limit
    HTID mate! :D
    Weekender Offender 
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    z0ma wrote:
    The dance music scene is far from dead. Anyone who saw the queue's at Slammin Vinyl on New Years will agree with me!

    slammin vinyl = hardcore, not dance.

    I was talking about dance as the genre, like fragma, paul okenfold etc

    i remember the days when people like wamdue project and ian van dahl were highly regarded in the mainstream whereas these days everything seems more underground. Its like a role reversal, hardcore/drum n bass/gabba becoming more popular and dance/trance going underground.
    Personally i prefer the former anyway so i'm not complaining
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Dance as a genre? Eh? Dance is anything you can dance to in my book.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Blagsta wrote:
    Dance as a genre? Eh? Dance is anything you can dance to in my book.

    the macarena? ;):p
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    If someone dances to it its dance music. Even The Macerena.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    music genres never die but ...when your thirty ...forty ...are you going to be as ridiculous as the teddy boys of the fifties ...the hippies of the sixties ,,,the new romantics ...the punks ...till the day you get your bus pass?

    of course all these things die ...except for the train spotters who keep it going into their old age.
    and don't mind looking fucking stupid.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    icey wrote:
    slammin vinyl = hardcore, not dance.

    Nah, Slammin Vinyl NYE = hardcore, drum and bass, old skool, techno, trance and hard house.

    It's not all encompassing fair enough, but there was a damn mixed crowd there.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    icey wrote:
    i remember the days when people like wamdue project and ian van dahl were highly regarded in the mainstream whereas these days everything seems more underground. Its like a role reversal, hardcore/drum n bass/gabba becoming more popular and dance/trance going underground.
    I'm glad we don't have to listen to "King Of The Castle" and "Castles In The Sky" again respectively! I don't think that the scene has gone underground again. The main difference is most of the house records out now are never released in the charts. And all the better I say. Were that logic to apply back in 2000, Spiller's record "Groovejet" would never have been ruined, and we may still never have heard of Sophie Ellis-Bextor. Wouldn't that be a more pleasant world? :p
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    MrG wrote:
    except the people who pay to see him

    Nope not even them - they just like his music, not his plastic gangsta image.
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