***Please Note - This entry is mostly about RL, and I only put it here because it is a bit long for a Plurk (http://www.plurk.com) so I just decided to put it here. If you have no interest in reading something a little bout my RL, then I direct you back to whatever you were doing before. :)***
As some of you already know, I am a part time DJ. I do mostly weddings, but I also do school dances, corporate parties, birthday parties etc. I have been doing it for about 4 years now, and I get lots of compliments on my events. There have been up to 6 DJ's total working for the company I currently work for, and I have been the top tip earner for 3 years straight.
When you work alone on stuff like this, it is hard to see what you might improve on, because I don't see other DJ's do their thing. I try and catch other events when I am not working, but it doesn't always work out for me to catch other DJ's doing thier thing. I always strive to improve my work, so most of the time I am left with sefl evaluation only.
This past weekend I was able to help chaperone our local high schools Jr/Sr Prom. My wife was in charge of the event, and even though they decided to NOT hire me for it (mock indignation inserted here), my event of that day ended early enough so I was able to come over and be there for the last 2.5 hours or so. This gave me a very good sampling of how the DJ they did hire does his events.
Without going into too many details, I was not impressed. His setup was not done right. His speakers were too low, so while the base was able to be heard properly, his mids and highs were hidden behind a wall of kids, so the sound was not able to travel very far. This made the music sound very muddled to most of the room. I was able to get a good look at his setup from behind also. All I could say was ...um...really? Are you planning on using those turntables? Are ya gonna scratch for us? *shakes his head.
Even before I checked out his rig, I was listening to him. His presentation was very broken. He did not flow very well on the microphone. Now I realize not many people would notice things like this, but it stood out to me right away. He also had too much dead air between songs. If you are trying to keep people dancing, you want to keep the music flowing.
At one point, the DJ instructed the kids to bring all the chaperone's out onto the dance floor. My wife and I were standing over near the entrance, and about 20 kids ran over and grabbed both of us and pushed us onto the dance floor. We even got the principle to come out and do a fun dance. After we did our cute little dance, things just kinda stagnated. Much to the chagrin of my wife, I asked the DJ if I could have the microphone. He happily handed it over, not realizing what I was up to.
I started talking to the kids, getting them yelling, pumping them up. I got them clapping, stomping, while my wife had the DJ cue up a song for me. Just as I got the kids to a fever pitch, I queued the DJ, and we all exploded into a very fun dance. The dance floor was just going crazy. Wifey and I danced 2 more songs, then went back to our duties. The dance floor settled back down into a steady group of dancers, and kept going for about anothe hour or so.
Overall, I do not think the DJ did a bad job. It was just, nothing special. His selection of music was appropriate for the most part. There were only a few songs that I thought "really? why would you play that". And watching the kids on the dancefloor, I would say that overall they had a good time. I did overhear the DJ talking to one of the event staff afterwards, complaining about how hard this event was, given that the school administration was fairly strick on the playlist. Once again, to myself I was thinking "really? hard? are you kidding me?"
It is not often I get to compare myself to others in my profession, and I would definitly not put that DJ as somebody to try and emulate, but seeing how he did his job, I can look for other areas to improve my work, and not worry quite so much about some of the basic stuff I had worried about in the past.
So not only did wifey's prom go off very well, I ended up feeling pretty darn good about what I do, and how I do it.
Ok, I am done patting myself on the back now.
Happy Tuesday everybody!
As some of you already know, I am a part time DJ. I do mostly weddings, but I also do school dances, corporate parties, birthday parties etc. I have been doing it for about 4 years now, and I get lots of compliments on my events. There have been up to 6 DJ's total working for the company I currently work for, and I have been the top tip earner for 3 years straight.
When you work alone on stuff like this, it is hard to see what you might improve on, because I don't see other DJ's do their thing. I try and catch other events when I am not working, but it doesn't always work out for me to catch other DJ's doing thier thing. I always strive to improve my work, so most of the time I am left with sefl evaluation only.
This past weekend I was able to help chaperone our local high schools Jr/Sr Prom. My wife was in charge of the event, and even though they decided to NOT hire me for it (mock indignation inserted here), my event of that day ended early enough so I was able to come over and be there for the last 2.5 hours or so. This gave me a very good sampling of how the DJ they did hire does his events.
Without going into too many details, I was not impressed. His setup was not done right. His speakers were too low, so while the base was able to be heard properly, his mids and highs were hidden behind a wall of kids, so the sound was not able to travel very far. This made the music sound very muddled to most of the room. I was able to get a good look at his setup from behind also. All I could say was ...um...really? Are you planning on using those turntables? Are ya gonna scratch for us? *shakes his head.
Even before I checked out his rig, I was listening to him. His presentation was very broken. He did not flow very well on the microphone. Now I realize not many people would notice things like this, but it stood out to me right away. He also had too much dead air between songs. If you are trying to keep people dancing, you want to keep the music flowing.
At one point, the DJ instructed the kids to bring all the chaperone's out onto the dance floor. My wife and I were standing over near the entrance, and about 20 kids ran over and grabbed both of us and pushed us onto the dance floor. We even got the principle to come out and do a fun dance. After we did our cute little dance, things just kinda stagnated. Much to the chagrin of my wife, I asked the DJ if I could have the microphone. He happily handed it over, not realizing what I was up to.
I started talking to the kids, getting them yelling, pumping them up. I got them clapping, stomping, while my wife had the DJ cue up a song for me. Just as I got the kids to a fever pitch, I queued the DJ, and we all exploded into a very fun dance. The dance floor was just going crazy. Wifey and I danced 2 more songs, then went back to our duties. The dance floor settled back down into a steady group of dancers, and kept going for about anothe hour or so.
Overall, I do not think the DJ did a bad job. It was just, nothing special. His selection of music was appropriate for the most part. There were only a few songs that I thought "really? why would you play that". And watching the kids on the dancefloor, I would say that overall they had a good time. I did overhear the DJ talking to one of the event staff afterwards, complaining about how hard this event was, given that the school administration was fairly strick on the playlist. Once again, to myself I was thinking "really? hard? are you kidding me?"
It is not often I get to compare myself to others in my profession, and I would definitly not put that DJ as somebody to try and emulate, but seeing how he did his job, I can look for other areas to improve my work, and not worry quite so much about some of the basic stuff I had worried about in the past.
So not only did wifey's prom go off very well, I ended up feeling pretty darn good about what I do, and how I do it.
Ok, I am done patting myself on the back now.
Happy Tuesday everybody!
Post a Comment