I've been interested in all aspects of music for a long time now. I play both saxophone and guitar (not professionally, but good enough to hold a tune), and would probably be considered a music nerd by most, as I have very eclectic and sometimes strange tastes in what I listen to. One thing I have always wanted to learn is how to DJ, so that I could share my love of music with others. I don't profess to be an expert, but I can definitely give you some pointers on how to start in the scene, and how to start mixing like a pro.

If you really want to make it as a DJ, you are going to need to put in a lot of time and effort practising. As with everything, the more you do it, the easier it will get, and eventually it will become second nature to you. When you get good enough, you can enjoy the thrills of being a professional DJ, travel around the world to DJ hot spots like Ibiza, meet heaps of exciting people, and best of all, play all the music you love.

A great DJ kit to start learning on is the Pioneer CDJ 400, as it has a lot of the same functionality as the systems that professionals use in the clubs, and it's really easy to use. These systems are capable of playing normal audio CDs and MP3 CDs, as well as handling music stored on your USB stick. These babies also are able to handle vinyl emulation software, so that even though your music is digital, you can scratch away just as if you were playing vintage funk records.

The main thing to remember when starting out is that all mixers follow pretty much the same principle. At their core level, they are designed to mix two separate songs together while cuing up the next track and keeping in control of the master volume. Pretty basic, yes? To commence DJing, this is all you really need to know. Of course, there is a lot of other stuff to learn, but that is basically the icing on the cake, and will allow you to create smoother transitions, and to modify the music you are playing on the fly. When deciding on a mixer, it is important to get equaliser controls such as bass and treble, as this will really smooth out your mixing and ensure that there is no clashing from one song to the next.

How To DJ - Equipment

Before you start mixing, you need to ensure that all your DJ equipment is set up properly. Make sure both the audio and power is plugged into your mixer, don't forget if in doubt, take a breather and have a good read of your user manual. Next make sure that the mixer is turned on and all the connections are working to your amp and speakers. You can use powered monitor speakers that have inbuilt amps, or you could connect directly to your hi fi.

Once you're all connected, you're ready to go. When learning how to DJ, one of the key principles is something called "beat matching". Basically, every song you play will have it's own beat, and to move from one song to the next, you have to have their beats at the same speed, and in sync with each other. This is achieved by either slowing down or speeding up the next song on your playlist. To do this, you will need your headphones (because you don't want your audience listening to you muck around with the next song while they are dancing to the current one). Place them on your head, but only have one ear covered, and place the other headphone behind the ear. This is so you can easily hear the currently playing song while matching the beat with the new one. Now you need to listen out for the first beat of the next track.

How To DJ - Beatmatching

Believe it or not, a good DJ needs to know a little bit of music theory to do their job properly. As far as rhythm is concerned, there are three music theory concepts that you should be comfortable with; betas, bars and phrases. In most dance music, you will have four beats in every bar, and eight bars in every phrase. If you don't understand what this means, the terms "bar" and "phrase" are basically segments of a song. If you listen to the song and tap your foot as it's playing, count the taps in your head as (1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4) etc. Do that eight times and that will be a phrase. You may have noticed when listening to music that you can quite often predict when the song is going to change or when a vocal is going to kick in, and this is because the music follows this pattern or one similar to it. Knowing the theory behind this is really going to help you become a much more adaptable DJ.

I'll be covering some more tips and tricks on how to DJ in future hubs. Stay tuned.