I set up to play for a company party on board one of the Commodore Line ships that specializes in dinner cruises on the San Francisco Bay. Everything went as planned: I played low-key background music for the dinner, then gradually picked up the pace as we started the party. The people were happy, I was happy, the music was. . .fine; but somehow, for as great a venue as this was, sailing on the Bay under the moon and the beautiful lights of San Francisco by night, something was missing. Read the rest of this entry »

If you have read my other articles on How to Be a Great DJ on my website, you already know that I constantly emphasize the subject of the People, in phrases like “Know Your Client,” or “Listen to the Audience.” If you are ever to reach the elusive goal (and I don’t claim that I have, or ever will) of being a “Great DJ,” you must follow this advice, wherever it leads you. I could give you an example or two of times when I failed to follow this advice, but they didn’t turn out pretty, and I try to forget them as much as possible. Maybe it would make me feel better to give you a positive example: I took a call from a motorcycle “gang” one time, who said that I had been recommended by a friend, and they wanted me to play for a wedding reception of one of the couples in the group, and that the reception would be held on the shores of a houseboat community in the San Francisco Bay Delta.

All my life I have been associated with music. When I was a 12 year old kid, I learned to play guitar on an old Harmony (cheap) acoustic guitar I found in a house my parents rented in Walla Walla, Washington. The guitar was missing three strings, which I used about a month’s allowance to replace, and I bought a book, Harry Reesner’s Book of 1,000 Chords. A whole new life opened up to me. Read the rest of this entry »

Amplifiers, Speakers, Turntables, Disk Players,Computers & Mixers

In Lesson #1, I indicated that a great DJ must have a practical, working knowledge of his client. In Lesson #2, I gave some tips on how to handle music, and Lesson #3 covered a very profitable line of DJ work, The Wedding. In this lesson, I wish to expand upon the few comments in Lesson #2 regarding equipment.

So far, we have covered two main topics DJ’s must learn if they want to become GREAT DJ’s: (1) Know Your Client, and (2) Know How to Handle Music. In this third lesson, we’ll give some tips on how to do Great Weddings.

Let’s be honest: A DJ could go his or her whole life without ever doing a wedding—and they tend to take more effort than the average birthday party or car rally. However, there are two reasons why I recommend DJ’s get into the wedding business; Weddings reward you (1) financially, and (2) emotionally, I might even say spiritually.

In Lesson #1, I covered several general but critical concepts a DJ must master if (s)he is to become a GREAT DJ: I indicated that a great DJ must have integrity–(s)he must put his or her client’s needs ahead of his own needs to make money and have fun; he must have ambition to do well, ability to analyze himself or accept criticism from others, but the most important thing that distinguishes a poor or average DJ from a great DJ is his knowledge of his client. A fair DJ may know little more than what the event is, may show up with his suitcase full of music, and play for hours oblivious of the background, age, family, and music tastes of his client.

I know this is true, because I was somewhat a victim of this very kind of DJ. Read the rest of this entry »

As a DJ I’ve played hundreds of “gigs” over the years, and I’ve watched as a guest while other poor, fair, good, or sometimes great DJ’s ply their trade, and I believe that not all of them knew how to improve their DJ skills. Most of them were probably self-taught, maybe had tried getting together in a dance band that didn’t work out, maybe had some extra equipment, a friend asks them to play music for a birthday party, and Read the rest of this entry »