Forbes Article - "How Hard is DJing?"

I kinda read that as the guy who paints houses commenting on a beautiful painting and saying anybody can paint, I taught my friend to paint his house in 2 hours. Sorry.

I feel like that would just be cannon fodder.

The truth is, I don't make mixes.

I'll admit that maybe it takes a couple years to be able to play an entire live set perfectly, but mixing itself is fairly simple, especially with Traktor.

I recently taught a friend how to DJ and he had no problem pulling of decent cuts and mixes about half the time, after a couple hours of instruction.

...Or the music you're playing is so similar and monotonous that nobody can tell, or even care.

Don't fool yourself. Mixing two tracks doesn't take that much skill...And I wouldn't call it a skill and a half.

As much as it made the OP angry to read that article, it actually makes me angry when DJ's talk about how much skill is involved with mixing two tracks of the same genre together.

When DJ's get hired, they're getting hired for the whole package, not just their ability to mix two tracks together. Image, service, salesmanship, etc are all things that matter when getting any kind of gig (or job for that matter, even if it's in a corporate office).

For clubs/Touring DJ's - It's a combination of track selection, skill, taste, and most of all, bringing a personal perspective to the table. It's about "uniqueness" and doing something different, because nobody wants to hear the same crap all the time from the same cookie cutter DJ. But how much of that is subjective? I actually stopped going out to hear DJ's because I couldn't stand everything I heard. IMO, nobody has a decent track selection in this city, except me. Case in point, everyone's opinion is like an asshole. Everyone has one and they all stink.

Mobile DJ's - The skill is still necessary, track selection isn't so important because people give you requests all evening and everyone that attends a wedding is just a sheep anyway. You also have to be an AV tech of sorts, and not look like a total douche, showing up with a spread collar, cheap suit, big moustache etc. (which incidentally describes most wedding DJ's). Again, everyone's opinion stinks, but I'll be damned if you manage to convince any of them.

But don't kid yourself, it's not brain surgery, and mixing two songs isn't a skill and a half and doesn't take years to perfect. No offense, but if it takes you years to perfect "mixing" or that's what you consider "a skill and a half" you're in for a world of struggle because there's much harder things in life...And DJ'ing (even if you include manual beatmatching), doesn't come anywhere near being the most difficult, or even moderately difficult.

People pay me to DJ because they need a music expert. Someone who knows virtually every genre of music inside and out, and also knows their way around audio gear...Not because I've perfected the skill and a half of mixing two tracks of the same genre together...

I can hold my own about virtually any genre of music, from any day/age...THAT is something that takes a lifetime of work...But it's still not that hard, because it's my passion.

When DJ's specialize in only playing one genre, and only familiarizing themselves with one genre (not saying this is you because I don't know you. I'm just making a general statement), then say DJ'ing takes years of work, it makes me laugh.

Either that or "How many thousands of dollars of gear do we need to mix two songs together?!?!"

Mixing songs together so that noone can tell that your even changing the song takes ages hombre. Sure u can put the song at the same bpm and start it at an appropriate time. But getting your songs to mesh together perfectly is a skill and a half.

It's one of the simplest parts of DJing, and with just a little bit of practice, most people can pick it up easily. I learned in one day.

Lol @ deadmau5, he so badass he can beatmatch, phrase dj and land a proffesional mix in one hour. He is saying he went from a noob to a pro in one hour. that cocky attitude like he's the best artist who ever lived may work with those blogs but frankly it doesn't mean shit to me or actual proper dj's im guessing.

I was just annoyed because there was almost no discussion of beat matching at all. The article seems to ignore the fact that songs can, i don't know, have different tempos, etc. Even if she was learning on a program with sync, which she wasn't, i would believe you would still address what you do to actually match the tracks. I know its stupid but it still annoyed me.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/natalier...count-to-four/


I know I shouldn't care, but this article came close to infuriating me anyway.

you have to see it as a way to free you up from the mundane tasks of DJ'ing so you can do more complex and unique routines.