How to DJ Like a Pro - Learn to Read the Crowd and Whip Up a Dance Floor Frenzy

Tune into the crowd. They can feel it when you can. When your heart beats faster and you're excited, they can feel it too. No one knows exactly why, they just can. The key point is, it AIN'T SCIENCE! We don't understand everything in this world. We can only try to feel what we can't understand.

When you whip up the floor, the energy bounces off the crowd back to you and then you bounce it right back. Some people have the natural ability to tune in, others take longer but get it eventually. It's like you're dancing with the audience, reacting to each other's movements.

Reading their vibes and picking up their signals is the first part, knowing how to react is the second part. What's that girl who's dancing away doing? Can you follow up this tune with something even better?

Here are the top tips for reading and reacting to crowds:

1. Pay attention to their reactions

When you play out, you'll have to pay a fair amount of attention to your mix and your choice of music. However, just as importantly, remember to watch your crowd and to try to read their reactions too. By this I mean taking regular looks at your punters, feeling the atmosphere and adapting your music to it. Do you have more girls than boys? Do they look more bling, more rave or more indie? When you try out that new electro tune do they start smiling and perking up, some of them jigging a bit? If so, try more of that style.

The way people react to different styles you try on them is key to knowing what musical path to follow. This doesn't mean following every request every drunk girl makes to play Abba or Whitney Houston, but it does mean that you're playing for the crowd and you should play what they want, not what you want. You're not DJing for yourself.

2. Know your musical styles

Pretty obvious you may say. Not really in fact, you'd be surprised. The best DJs have a wealth of different styles and a back up for anything that may not go as planned. That is to say, do not turn up with just a single musical style in your repertoire. Don't play house and have nothing else to play when you've been asked to play in a place where house clearly doesn't go down well. Experiment with other styles and when you get a positive reaction, it means you're on the path to a better night.

If you're playing in an indie place, don't play techno. You'll get ideas from the look of the people about their musical tastes. Get into the habit of guessing what music people enjoy and trying it out on them. Of course, this all comes down to knowing your music well enough, which you can read our tips on right here.

3. Check out the venue beforehand

When it's possible, check out a venue you've been asked to play in. Visualize yourself behind the decks. See what kind of people hang out there and spend time having a drink, maybe talking to people. Make friends with and chat to the bar staff and bar owners. Bar staff occasionally display a surprisingly good knowledge of music due to the numerous DJs they get to see and hear and the reactions they observe to them. They can also tell you what kind of crowd will be in the night you are programmed to play on.

Get the feeling and vibe of the crowd, see what music they dance to. For DJs who are travelling to another city to play where they've never played before, this obviously doesn't apply. In this case, it's better to talk to the promoter or club owner on what kind of style should go down well.

4. Girls or boys?

Check the girls and the boys carefully when DJing, especially the girls. Why? Because when the girls dance the boys follow. You know how it is. The main hot tip here is get the girls to dance. They lead the dancing, the boys do too, that means (nearly) everyone is dancing. For some reason, it's nicer when girls dance, it gives off a more positive vibe.

So when you get to that point in the night when you have to get people moving (if you're playing in a club or party) then think of the ladies. They tend to favour lighter music with more emotion and with vocals as opposed to harder tunes.

5. Be ready to play outside your circle

If you followed our precious advice on knowing your music for DJing, then you'll be up on this. That means you have everything in your collection, even cheese. "But I don't play cheese" you protest. You don't have to play cheese. You do have to be ready to go outside your realm and play music that you may not like.

I once turned up at a club in Paris and the owner was pretty sure about what he wanted. He explained right away that he wanted well known, accessible tunes. He didn't care for the latest cool Simian Mobile Disco remix and such, he wanted favourites.

Now I didn't do exactly what he wanted, I gave the night my own twist. That meant that I played some cheese, but I used that cheese to get people on my wavelength. At that point, we established a rapport because they knew that the DJ understood what they liked, so they opened out.

Dropping the odd cheese bomb was fine by me, after all, everyone danced in there. Once they got going, they were more receptive to other, different tunes which I could happily drop, confident that they'd continue dancing. Guess what? I got asked back there several times and the owner really insisted I play again. Unfortunately I couldn't make it though as I had other gigs lined up.

The message is: dare to play music you don't particularly like when you're DJing as well. The important thing is that people are happy and dance.

Having the will power to be able do this will get you a better reputation and improved gigs. Who cares if on occasions you drop a cheese bomb, it won't be like that all the time. Remember, it's about what they like, not just about what you like.

6. React to them

When you've been struggling for a bit and people aren't really dancing to what you put on only then they suddenly go unexpectedly crazy to your next tune, make sure you react to them accordingly. When the dancefloor bursts into life, that's a sure sign the last tune you played is right up their street. That means the next tune you play should be a reaction to that; you have to try to keep them on the floor now for as long as you can. Not always easy, but you can do it.

Follow up that last rooflifter with another tune which is in some way similar to the previous one. Not identical, but similar in some aspect, whether it's the style, the energy, the BPM or the key. Give your set some shape and flow and take your people on a musical journey of enjoyment. One last important thing: Have some FUN!

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Written by pro and experienced DJs who've been there and done that, at Total DJ, you'll learn how to DJ, how to become a DJ, find out which is the best DJ equipment and gear for you, get tips on knowing your music, finding the best tunes, learning how to mix properly and of course, how to best promote yourself.

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DJ Equipments To Rock The Dance Floor

Do you know what is the key to becoming a successful DJ? Well it is the ability to produce great music mixes that bring the dance floor alive. And in order to create the right kind of music you have to invest in a range of advanced DJ equipments.

If you are just a beginner to the world of mixing and turntables, you are most likely awestruck by the well-established disc jockeys that have the ability to set the floor ablaze with their highly energetic music mixes. OK so you may not have the same range of talents as these DJs, but you can make up for your lack of experience or talent with the right kind of DJ equipments. Next time you visit a night club or disco, just make a trip backstage to check out the DJ equipments, and you will be amazed at the wide range of DJ equipments that are used to churn out those masterful mixes. Although, a novice in the field requires some time and practice on the turntable to somewhat master it, there are other DJ equipments that are not as difficult to learn. And as you advance as a DJ, these equipments will help you to create better music. As in any business you have to make some initial investment in this world of music mixing, as DJ equipments are the basic tools to give you a head start in this trade.

As a DJ, you can manipulate the equipments in a number of different ways. Not only can you rock the dance floor with beats and rhythms, you can also synchronize the music smoothly from one track to the next.

As a DJ, your goal is to make the crowd come to its feet and rock all through the night. At the same time you have to keep the energy level of the dance floor at a point that it can sustain over a longer stretch of time. You have to maintain a musical consistency throughout. As a DJ it is in your hand to keep the tempo alive without annoying a portion of the crowd.

To accomplish all these goals, DJs must be well versed in the advanced technological features of their DJ equipments. You need to be really familiar with your instruments like the back of your hands to use them to their fullest potential.

In the end, it is your skill as a DJ that will be appreciated by both the crowd uninitiated in the art of DJing, and also by those who do have some idea about the workings of a DJ. So make the best use of your DJ equipments and enjoy the wide appreciation from the audience for making them rock and roll throughout the night.

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DJ Dance Floor Tips - Club DJing - Read The Crowd

Now I break this down some more by giving you DJ dance floor tips on how to read the crowd so you can play like a professional and make them go wild. Remember, the DJ not even looking up from his decks and playing out his programmed bedroom set doesn't transmit the right vibe.

The following DJ dance floor tips are what can really help you learn to read the crowd so you should try to remember to do this when out DJing.

How do your crowd look?

Playing latin house on the dance floor in a rock or hip hop club may not go down too well! Try to picture this now. Look at your crowd carefully and consider the following points before deciding what tunes are best:

1. Where are you? What city or country are you in and how much do you know about the people here?

2. Is this a straight or gay crowd? Use common sense here and adapt your tune selection accordingly.

3. What is the racial mix? Everyone knows that music tastes can differ according to race, but don't generalise. Test some styles, dabble in different tunes and see who reacts to what.

4. What style do they have? Are they scruffy, bearded or sharp and colourful? Are they carrying glow sticks? Long hair or short hair?

5. Do they know their music? Wearing suits and out for a cheesy best hits of the chart night? Many different styles exist.

Use the above observations to adapt and shape your set to your crowd, and test them with different styles of music to see how they react. This is really common sense and knowledge helping you shape your sets.

How do they respond to your DJ dance floor music?

Look up from your super blend of electro and hip hop for just one minute and observe who hits the floor when you play a certain tune. Who is losing it on his or her own in the corner? Who keeps looking up at you? Smile and you'll see how everything feels better.

The best DJ tip I can give you to read the dance floor crowd is to interact. Become one of them. It's the only way to really feel their vibe and get on the same wavelength. You may get some feedback from people who want to dance. Listen to it, because some people know what they're talking about. If you need to step things up a gear, sometimes people can wake you up to that. Really it can happen.

Wake up to your dance floor

Every disc jockey has had his or her off day and has needed waking up. If you see a particular group who dance more than everyone else, then play more of what they like. It's likely to get others on the floor too.

Gays and girls tend to dance more than straight boys, who will follow girls.

This article and many more other DJ tips, reviews, advice and a free guide to getting DJ gigs can be found at The Total DJ Site