How to be a DJ is a skill that, if asked, most guys would want to learn. There’s the whole idea of ​​the girls’ lifestyle, the partying and the music that makes it similar to the rock star life. Well, learning to be a DJ isn’t just fun and games!

Those things may be there, but learning to be a DJ takes hard work and persistence, only then do you reap the rewards.

I started DJing when I was in my teens. I grew up in a small town and it seemed like everyone was DJing at the time, as there wasn’t much else to do there. The good thing about it is that I had a lot of people around me doing the same thing, which is not something I can say about a lot of the hobbies I’ve taken up. I feel like this is really invaluable when learning a new hobby as it keeps things fun and motivating. However, if you don’t have that, there are things that can help you that I’ll talk about later in this article.

To tell you the truth, it took me a long time to learn to be a DJ. Even though these guys around me were all DJing and hosting free raves in the woods, I was more interested in smoking weed and just hanging out. Why do I mention this? Maybe because I want a shoulder to cry on for my wasted youth, but other than that, it’s to tell you that you have to WANT to DJ and have a passion for it or else what’s the point? So at that point in my life, I wasn’t very interested in DJing and as a result my skills were shoddy and practically non-existent simply because I didn’t care too much and hardly practiced.

So what is the next piece of advice I give you? Yes, yes, I know you’re sick of hearing it, but it’s what separates the amateurs from the professionals, it’s PRACTICE. I quickly saw my friends who throw parties get ahead of me in their skills, as they would love to practice and go to each other’s houses many times a week to mingle. So yes, the motivation comes first and then the practice. I, on the other hand, still wasn’t worried about my DJ work and was happy to see them improve their skills (albeit secretly a bit envious) as I sat back and enjoyed what they were spinning.

Fast forward a few years and I still had my decks, but I had moved to a new city and new friends. After taking a break from DJing, I got back into it once I found some friends who liked to MC. It was a bit of a different scene here as where I lived before everyone was a DJ with hardly any MCs but now it was the other way around. There were a lot of MCs with not a lot of DJs. So I became the main DJ for my group of friends. We would often come to my house for a mixing session, much to my father’s dismay, and the evening would be blissful.

This time he would practice more and enjoy the practice. This is another main point. To maintain it, I think you have to enjoy it, which is easy enough when you have a passion for the music you’re playing. DJing can be a great feeling when you really get into the flow and are following the beats in the mix, which brings me to my next point…

One of the most important skills you are going to master in learning to be a DJ is learning how to beatmatch. Beatmatching is the core skill of any budding DJ cos without it, all other fancy skills like chopping scratching or even simple fading will sound worse than a barrel of apples falling off the cart. For those who don’t know, beat matching is all about matching the tempo of one track to the next and bringing them together in the mix so they sound harmonious.

Even if you’re not a DJ, you’ve heard a sloppy, out-of-time mix in a club before and know it sounds bad. I think this is the main skill that really lets a lot of GMs down because it really seeps into your other skills if it’s not strict.

So how to beatmatch? To be honest, I think it was a tough case when I learned how to beatmatch. I literally felt like it took me 5 years to learn but to be fair looking back I didn’t really apply myself like I could have. That is why I am writing this article to encourage budding DJs to avoid the pitfalls I faced.

One of the main things you will find when you learn to become a DJ and learn how to beatmatch is that at first you will sound like total crap. The thing about beatmatching is that until you get good at it, your mixes are going to sound like total rubbish and if you’re like me, you’ll be embarrassed to play in front of anyone else with your ‘lazy’ mixes out of time. This is the critical time for patience and persistence because beat matching is so important to making a mix sound decent that you need to master it before moving on to other skills. Once you learn how to beatmatch, all other techniques will flow from there. Once I learned how to beatmatch, I found that my confidence to DJ in front of others really skyrocketed and that’s when I really started to enjoy it.

The thing is, though, it’s going to be really frustrating at first because not only can’t you mix, but you’re trashing your favorite songs as they sound more out of tune than a drunk grandma who lost her walker.

So here I really want to stress the importance of patience. Lock yourself away from your friends if necessary while you learn it. Become a DJ monk by entering a period of deep meditation. It won’t matter if they wonder what happened to you because once you learn how to beat, they and the girls will run to your side and want your attention with your new skills. PERSIST PERSIST PERSIST. Little by little you will see the progress and the good thing about that is that it will motivate you more and more, inch by inch. Learning to be a DJ is a process.