I am classically trained on the piano (11 years) and want to bridge into DJing, trance especially. I have no clue what anything is. Where is the best place to start learning? Are there any books or magazines I should read?

Thank you for all your help!

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Compete with yourself.

awww you're in NorCal... I was gonna say, I'll teach you how to DJ, and you teach me how to Piano!!!




Before you start dishing out hundreds, possibly thousands of dollars in equipment, think about the future and answer these questions...

1.- Is this gonna be a hobby ultimately turning into something I wanna pursue later on? (Bedroom DJ or Club DJ)

2.- What's my budget? (Quality of Equipement)

The following questions kinda go together...

3.- Do I wanna save money now or later? (Turntables vs Other Media)

4.- Do I wanna play with CD's or Vinyl? (End result is what matters right?)

5.- What's my monthly budget for music? (Vinyl vs MP3's, CD's)

The main ones....

6.- IS THIS ALL WORTH IT? DO I REALLY LOVE IT? DO I HAVE THE TIME AND DEDICATION FOR IT? (DJing is a passion, you'll be surprised how many people have bought turntables because they thought it was something they wanted do, but yet, the tables are sitting in their garage collecting dust.)

The best way to answer all these questions and to decide if it's something you really wanna do, is to find a friend who is a DJ. Mess around with his equipment, and take it from there.

are you trying to start producing music or just mixing? you've come to the right place to learn and by listening to the music more and more and reading the master tutorial lists on the production forum and the DJ forum you should start learning the basics of the way things work. it wouldn't hurt to pick up copies of CM (computer music magazine from the UK available in most countries) and to do web searches on sequencing, dj'ing 101, etc. there's a steep learning curve to production but if you're classically trained then you should have a head start in a couple of areas. good luck and welcome to the forums.

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http://www.djandrewgarcia.com

If you really wanna read a book, there's a book that a fellow TA wrote about DJing. I read parts of it at my bookstore. I can't remember the name of it, but I'm sure someone here will post the title. It's a really good book. Go to Barnes & Nobles, it should be on Music section. There's a few books there.

quote:

Originally posted by DjWoody If you really wanna read a book, there's a book that a fellow TA wrote about DJing. I read parts of it at my bookstore. I can't remember the name of it, but I'm sure someone here will post the title. It's a really good book. Go to Barnes & Nobles, it should be on Music section. There's a few books there.

I think the book your refering to is Dj'ing for Dummies It has some good info if your looking into learning to dj.

quote:

Originally posted by the_trick I am classically trained on the piano (11 years) and want to bridge into DJing, trance especially. I have no clue what anything is. Where is the best place to start learning? Are there any books or magazines I should read? Thank you for all your help!

djing for dummies was written by a fellow TA and it's pretty noob friendly. it teaches you the VERY VERY basics and different types of gear out there. i'm sure you could also google different tutorials for free.

Yeah, that's it. Recess wrote it!!!

http://www.recess.co.uk

This is all really good advice. I'll buy the book and read it. I am very interested in production. I have been wanting to DJ for four years now, but always put it off because of the costs. I know I want to do it because 1) my piano melodies basically sound like the chord progressions of trance songs and 2) piano playing simply cannot bring as much of an audience as a DJ can get. Plus, I love trance.

It should be an exciting journey. I am going to buy the book and then set up some frooty loops or another program and get some simple tracks down, then upload them onto a myspace and start investing in better equipment.

Thanks everyone.

___________________
Compete with yourself.

I think youre confusing DJing and Production there.

Are you looking to make your own songs? If so, then you need production guides.

Are you looking to mix multiple(2+) songs together in a set that are not necessarily your own? Then you need DJing

If you're good at improvising a melody live, then you could always take up DJing and playing over some tracks at times- kind of how Jan Vayne elaborated on Serenity at one of the Armin Only shows.

If you end up producing some tracks, you could always play them live like Rank 1 sometimes does (and I'm sure there are more artists that do that).