I feel you man. Trance fans are far and few here in alabama. But here's what i've discovered as far as playing at hosue parties. I've decided that actual musicians that play guitars and drums, etc, get interested in watching people play with turntables. I played at a house party this past weekend, where electronic music was unheard of.. it was a bunch of alternative and metal fans. i don't think anyone really cared too much for the music, so i stuck to hard trance and nu-skool breaks, but everyone was just interested in the turntables cause they had never seen anyone up close spinning. I let the owner of the house fuck around a minute just so everyone could see that it's actually harder than it looks.

Granted, the friends that i brought were the only ones REALLY dancing, but i still had people looking at me. Defianately good for experience. Good intimate atmosphere where the musicians were asking me technical questions, some people were dancing, and some had glow sticks, and plus they paid me in beer I stopped playing every once in a while so they could start up the stereo, just to keep the vibe good.

Other than that, when people bitch.. be friendly. As the dj, it's your job to set the mood. Especially at a house party, you can't constantly make people listen to stuff they don't want to hear. Play some cd's and take a break, get a beer and mingle, then go back and kick it up again.

well, in my experience, there isn't really that much experience to gain at just any random house party. unless there is a crowd that can actually give you any constructive criticism on your spinning, it's only the same as having some peeps over at your bedroom... even worse, cuz the peeps at your bedroom at least know what you're doing and know when to tell you you've fawked up.

sure, you should do a couple just to know what it feels like being in front of people, other than that, don't expect to be allowed to be creative and actually play a set without someone coming up to you (probably the house owner) and tell you to stop playing this shit and put on some Nelly (yeah, Nelly, everyone said 50 Cent, had to be a bit different )

now, you can do what i've done. branch out and find some musically enlightened friends at all costs. it took me a while, but now i have a crew i hang with, go clubbing with, and even if it's completely unrelated to music, we still get together to chill out. if you're still in high school, then it'll be a bit harder, as i'm 16 and my youngest friend is about to start his first year of college. you may find a decent individual or two in the senior class. the point is, you gotta make some friends with good musical tastes, if i did it, here on my little tropical island, dominican republic, where the biggest events are 3000 people at max, you can do it too (i hope).

eventually, we all get together for sessions, and you gain a lot more experience than you'd think from having a group of friends that are all DJs sit down with a beer and listen to you mix for an hour or two, and then criticize you. these little gatherings get to be really fun too, after we all got to a point where our skills were presentable to the general public, we started inviting people to come over for them. before we knew it, we'd have a gathering every wednesday with 5 DJs, 10 buddies, and about 10 hot females too

so, go to a house party or two to test the waters if you want, but for the most part, they are a bitch if you want to work on playing EDM. if you don't mind playing some commercial music, pop, shit-hop and such, then by all means.

my $0.02

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check out my guest mix for OndaSonora Podcast (aug.2009)

quote:

Originally posted by skream I feel you man. Trance fans are far and few here in alabama. But here's what i've discovered as far as playing at hosue parties. I've decided that actual musicians that play guitars and drums, etc, get interested in watching people play with turntables. I played at a house party this past weekend, where electronic music was unheard of.. it was a bunch of alternative and metal fans. i don't think anyone really cared too much for the music, so i stuck to hard trance and nu-skool breaks, but everyone was just interested in the turntables cause they had never seen anyone up close spinning. I let the owner of the house fuck around a minute just so everyone could see that it's actually harder than it looks. Granted, the friends that i brought were the only ones REALLY dancing, but i still had people looking at me. Defianately good for experience. Good intimate atmosphere where the musicians were asking me technical questions, some people were dancing, and some had glow sticks, and plus they paid me in beer I stopped playing every once in a while so they could start up the stereo, just to keep the vibe good. Other than that, when people bitch.. be friendly. As the dj, it's your job to set the mood. Especially at a house party, you can't constantly make people listen to stuff they don't want to hear. Play some cd's and take a break, get a beer and mingle, then go back and kick it up again.

well said... and a nice little story too.

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Are you a DJ of the people, or a DJ for yourself?

While I'm spinning my favorite house tracks, people constantly come up to me with hip hop requests. So I play some hip hop, and everyone goes nuts. As long as they have fun and I can play SOME music I really like, everyone wins. I don't expect them to love all of my music.

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Play the cheese hop if you have to.
You can still learn all about crowd dynamics in these situations. You also get to play on a loud system and the DJing out experience wont be so bad once you get to play that gig when you can play your style.

Cheers
Nem

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https://www.mixcloud.com/Calvin_Karass/

quote:

Originally posted by Nemesis44 Play the cheese hop if you have to. You can still learn all about crowd dynamics in these situations. You also get to play on a loud system and the DJing out experience wont be so bad once you get to play that gig when you can play your style.

True. Very True.

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Originally posted by Trance Nutter When someone asks for 50 Cent, do a Sasha and throw a vinyl into the crowd, hope it decapitates a few people - that'll quickly teach them to only ask for GOOD MUSIC (50 Cent is neither good, nor music)

Ahahaa

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