Be a Good DJ at a Dance

Have you been asked or volunteered to DJ at a High School, Middle School, or Elementary dance? Are you worried about making sure people have a good time dancing?

This article will explain some of the basic principles behind spinning at a dance. This article will focus on theory and will touch little on techniques such as mixing.

Steps

Music Selection

  1. Amount of Music : Before you can even begin to play music at a school dance it is important to have a large selection of music prepared ahead of time. If you are not taking requests the general rule of thumb is to have at bare minimum enough music to play the event, plus an additional hour or two so if certain music is not working well you have enough additional music to fall back on. (NOTE: One Hour = Approx. 12-20 songs).
    • If you will be taking requests it is important to have enough music to make the odds of you having the requested songs pretty good. One way of doing this is taking the Billboard Annual Top 100 charts for the last 3-5 years and trying to obtain all of the songs listed plus at least one other single from each of the artists.
  2. Type of Music : When you accept the gig be sure to ask the event coordinator what type of music has been played at these events in the past as you want to ensure you have appropriate music for the venue and the crowd.
    • For example: If you know the dance is a Ho-Down themed event it is important to be well stocked on Country music, if the event is a Valentine's Day dance extra slow songs may be in order, etc.
    • Make sure to bring a variety of musical styles however just in case the crowd becomes tired of a certain genre or you start getting requests for something different.
  3. Radio Edits : Always ask the event coordinator how much tolerance there will be for objectionable language. Many schools will allow a small amount of inappropriate language, others will allow for none.
    • Search out songs that have (Radio Edit), (Radio Mix), or (Clean) in the song title this will tell you that the inappropriate content has been censored or removed.

CDs, Vinyl, or Computer

You will need to decide if you will be using CDs, Vinyl or a Computer to DJ.

  1. CDs
    • Pros : Readily available in stores and online, can be burnt at home with music from iTunes or Napster.
    • Cons : CDs are heavy, you will need at least two CD players to easily transition between songs, It can be time consuming to find a single song somewhere among 300 CDs.
  2. Vinyl
    • Pros : Sounds richer on louder sound systems then CDs, has better bass definition.
    • Cons : Vinyl is also heavy, most record cases can only carry 75 records, you will need two turntables which are quite expensive, a lot of newer music is not available on vinyl except from specialty stores.
  3. Computer
    • Pros : You can carry a lot of music on a single computer, it is easy to search for songs, and you can always insert a CD if someone brings one for you.
    • Cons : If your computer crashes the music will stop until you get it restarted.

Crowd Reading

  1. The art of reading a crowd is something that will either come to you naturally or you will need to develop over time. The basic principle is this: If you play a song from genre x and the dance floor fills, then you play a song from genre y and the dance floor empties you know that to keep the dance floor packed you need to play more of x than y.
    • This concept is important! Watch your dance floor! Many DJs fail to impress the crowd because they fail to notice when they clear the dance floor for long periods of time and they don't know what type of music will bring the people back when they finally do notice.
    • It is also essential to also take note of the type of crowd you are dealing with! Students, parents and/or grown-ups!

Set Composition

The job of the DJ is not only to play music and keep people dancing. Part of the job of the DJ is to take the crowd on a journey with the music. This means taking the crowd higher and lower at special intervals so that the crowd gets lost in the music and comes under your control so they will just keep dancing.

  • Set Composition is the art of arranging music based on speed, genre, and key so that it flows well and takes the crowd on that journey.
  1. Basic Set Composition : The most basic set composition used by a lot of High School and Middle School DJs is the triangle composition. For this method the DJ will play three similar songs, followed by three different songs. Always sticking to groups of three to allow the crowd to enjoy the change. Here is an example:
    • First set (Hip Hop): Eminem - Shake That, Akon - Smack That, Kanye West - Stronger
    • Second set (Dance): Daft Punk - Harder Better Faster Stronger, DJ Alligator - Blow my Whistle, DaRude - Sandstorm
      • Notice how Kanye West transitions into Daft Punk as Stronger uses samples from Daft Punk.
      • Use a point where the third song is slower and you do not have an easy transition to insert a slow song, then right after the slow song start bringing them up with something in the middle and moving faster again.

Dealing With Requests

There are a couple rules every DJ should follow when it comes to requests.

  1. No Repeats : It is never a good idea to repeat a song twice in a night, this is lazy and unprofessional. Be sure to save the more popular songs for later in the night when there are more people there.
  2. Don't play everything : You can't blame a cleared dance floor on the person who requested the song, you can only blame yourself for playing it. Use your crowd reading to decide if a song will work and when it will work. Although you should try to play as many requests as possible, if you keep everyone dancing and having a good time they will remember you as a good DJ even if you don't play everything they requested.
  3. Play it when it's appropriate : If you are planning to do a set of dance music in 30 minutes save the request for Sandstorm until you do it. Don't feel you need to play a request as the very next song.

Tips

  • Music
    • Use charts and radio to tell you what is popular. Billboard is one of the most popular music charts and has a different chart for each type of music plus an all encompassing chart.
    • Unless you know inappropriate language is okay, use only Radio Edits.
    • CDs like the Much Dance, and Big Shiny Tunes collections can help you build a varied selection of music.
  • Danceable vs. Popular
    • Just because a song is popular does not mean it's danceable. Songs like "Crank That" by Soulja Boy or "Earned It" by The Weekend may be very popular in your school but play it some time and try to dance to it the way you would normally dance to music.
    • You need to make sure you are playing things people want to hear but at the same time, make sure the song is something people can dance too.
    • If you use iTunes to DJ a party, download the newest version. There is a program called iTunes DJ where, if you allow people to, they can make requests with an app on their iPod Touch/iPhone. Go to www.apple.com for more information.
  • Do not be overly anxious and have a good internet connection.

Warnings

  • This guide is to help you out with School Dances, this advice is not adequate or appropriate for Night Clubs or Raves.
  • Purchase your music - use of copyrighted material that you did not pay for is illegal and unprofessional.

Related Articles

  • Be a DJ
  • Master a Hard Song for Your School Band
  • Become a Rockstar and Become Popular in Middle School
  • Go to a High School Musical Dance

Sources and Citations

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