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dealing with stress

i dont know why i ever thought DJing was a good idea . just got home from my first big gig supporting one of australia's names, and i just stress like a mother fvcker beforehand. its getting to the point where i wonder if the nerves are worth it. maybe getting more gigs and experience will help, but how do you guys deal with it?

anyone else play basketball with the stylus that first time you lay it down? oops uncontrollable hand shakes. i hope im not a lost cause

How long have you been mixing before your first gig?

BTW: Few drinks before hand never hurt anybody.

get these pills called beta blockers perscribed to you. they are commonly used by symphony players to reduce stress and nervesnousss.

quote:

Originally posted by DOOMBOT BTW: Few drinks before hand never hurt anybody.

Yes, but only a few. If you have too many you'll just fuck everything up.

quote:

Originally posted by Mr.Mystery Yes, but only a few. If you have too many you'll just fuck everything up.

True. My first gig the other night I had 2 beers and a shot of tequila and I was good to go!!!!!!

quote:

Originally posted by ASFSE get these pills called beta blockers perscribed to you. they are commonly used by symphony players to reduce stress and nervesnousss.

quote:

Originally posted by Allied Nations

+1

Breathing exercise

smoke a fat binter before u play and maybe one after.

Why worry so much?

Just remember that first thing that should be on your mind is to go out and have fun.

Shit happens. So what if you fuck up? Someone going to take away your birthday?

try being a DJ in a 3rd world country, who once had a decent clubscene and now its a scavenger type thing.

last club gig i had, we had to:

- supply the decks and mixer
- get there extra early for a soundcheck
- figure out why the goddamn speakers sounded so shit (the sound 'tech' [yeah right] guys had plugged the outputs into the speaker's mic inputs rather than line inputs)
- figure out how the fuck to hook up the bigger system, which had been recently unplugged to be moved
- make some cables from spare shit around to adapt everything
- doing all of the above while some people are already inside and talking amongst themselves while there is silence

all for a few bucks and some drinks. i only do it to help my friend, who is in debt and needs to get as many gigs as he can. i don't charge when i spin with him at this club so he can keep all the money. i'd rather be out spinning there than staying home on a saturday night since theres nothing to do in this city, which is the only reason i do it, but this shit gets ridiculous sometimes. try this for a stressful night. in the end, to the people, most of the times even if it's the club's fault, you're the one who looks bad if you refuse to spin. and if the soundsystem sucks, then you look bad because if you were a decent DJ, people expect you to spin at some place with decent sound.

with me starting to get actual paying gigs lately, even tho they are just as stressful, i'm starting to stop this nonsense, because at least there i get paid.

[/rant]

Re: dealing with stress

quote:

Originally posted by pkcRAISTLIN i dont know why i ever thought DJing was a good idea . just got home from my first big gig supporting one of australia's names, and i just stress like a mother fvcker beforehand. its getting to the point where i wonder if the nerves are worth it. maybe getting more gigs and experience will help, but how do you guys deal with it? anyone else play basketball with the stylus that first time you lay it down? oops uncontrollable hand shakes. i hope im not a lost cause

The tough guy from the cOr. lol

Experience will help..

Re: dealing with stress

quote:

Originally posted by pkcRAISTLIN anyone else play basketball with the stylus that first time you lay it down? oops uncontrollable hand shakes. i hope im not a lost cause

HILARIOUS!!

Only because the exact same thing happened to me the first time I played out. It's exactly as you describe it! Basketball... hehehe!

Don't worry - I'm sure it'll get easier the more you do it.....


Jarv

it gets easier, although i still get a little case of butterflies before a big gig

a couple glasses of liquid courage usually calms my nerves

and the fat blunt i smoke beforehand helps too

quote:

[i]Originally posted by EvilTree [i] So what if you fuck up? Someone going to take away your birthday?

haha... I LOL'd kinda hard at this...

quote:

Originally posted by Mr.Mystery Yes, but only a few. If you have too many you'll just fuck everything up.

i went to see plastic angel once and the one guy was so drunk he fucked up pretty bad.. they had to replace him with one of the local djs later

but regarding the original post you could a) take drugs b) (some) alcohol or c) learn zen meditation.

but the best thing would be just convincing yourself that theres not too much that can happen.. usually crowds don't throw things at you when you don#t get the beatmatch 100%, i'd say they hardly notice

quote:

Originally posted by gzf usually crowds don't throw things at you when you don#t get the beatmatch 100%, i'd say they hardly notice

hehe, yeah that all depends on where your playing I guess, not to add to the stress but people do notice.

I just found that you have to be confident of your abilities and get up there and just enjoy it man. My first few sets at Bass were pretty nerve racking, but I just learnt not to put so much emphasis on it and have fun.

You know you can mix, so all you have to do is do it like you always do.

confidence + experience + a few drinks = win

Re: Re: dealing with stress

quote:

Originally posted by Mmanu The tough guy from the cOr. lol

being smarter than the COR collective doesn't mean i dont get nervous when performing.

quote:

Originally posted by j�c� confidence + experience + a few drinks = win

yeah, i hope so! its the stressing beforehand that does my head in. once im up there for a few mixes it gets way easier. dont even know what im worried about, but i still cant help it, haha.

quote:

Originally posted by ASFSE get these pills called beta blockers perscribed to you. they are commonly used by symphony players to reduce stress and nervesnousss.

No don't.
Commonly used by people who have seriously high bloodpressure. The body basically gets fooled into releasing the presure on the outside walls of the arteries to enable bloodflow more efficiently.

One of the side effects of this is that you can get an increased level of systolic and diastolic activity once you are off the betablockers.

Also, with betablockers increased cardio vascular activity can have potentially fatal consequences.

Drop a pill (e) and you will probably have a stroke.

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As you know I have been doing this for years, and for the most part I don't really get nerves unless it's a new venue.
It's all about being cofortable in what you are doing.

What I used to do was to find a group of people and make eye contact with them. Then for the first couple of tracks just imagine that I'm only playing for them and that we are the only people there. (Usually helps if they are cute girls). If you have friends in the crowd look to them and play for them. If they are responding it will feed the crowd and it will open up for you.

Most times now I'm usually more anxious because I want to get on, not for the thought of playing in itself.

Cheers
Dr. Nem

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