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A Funk (Not THE funk... the bad kind) How do you deal with it?
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| rturn214 |
'allo Everyone -
Lately, as many DJ's before me have experienced, I've found myself in a hell of a funk. It seems like every time I put the headphones on, fire up the old DJM500, and push "record" everything goes wrong... I think it's been over two weeks since I've thrown an hour long mix I was at all happy with...
So here's the question for a few of you out there who have experienced what I'm going through: How did you deal with it? I'm not looking for the answer for me, I'm pretty sure I'm just going to work through it, my desire to spin records hasn't died any because of this. Rather, I'm asking all of you if you personally have a way of jump starting your way out of A funk and back into THE funk :D
Like I said, it's odd that this isn't more discouraging to me, but day after day I'll sit down, record an hour, listen to my transitions, get disgusted with myself, wait an hour or two, then get the itch to go at it again and "Do it right this time."
I've just failed to get the "Do it right" part down lately...
Edit: As I write this and re-read it, another thing I've definitely noticed is that lately my "style" is just all over the place, and it's reflected in what I've been purchasing lately. When some of you were trying to develop your "style" did you go through some similar "growing pains" where the fact that you bought such a varied collection of records affected some of your decision making in track placement for sets?
Just rambled thoughts from a DJ frustrated with his performance (Do they make a pill of DJD (Disc Jockey Disfunction)?
Peace, Cheers,
Rob |
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| Inertia |
ahh, the elusive funk.
things ive done to get out of a funk.
1) get drunk. spin in front of people, even just your friends. suck. don't care. at one point, you may start mixing like a champ, out of nowehre.
2) play a set in front of people. suck. make sure it's an early set. be disappointed in your own skill. at about 4am, when everyone is too ed the up to care to listen to music, get on the decks. many a time, you'll get their attention.
3) mix it up a bit. do something different. i was in a funk once. so i whipped out Technasia - Acid Storm, which is acid techno, at 143BPM on 0%. that's a bit of a stretch, being as i normally playing minimal and electro at about 126-132BPM. but i went with it. some tracks had to go at +12.2% to be able to mix them, but it was fun as . discovered how fun it is to play 3 tracks at once.
4) go out. try to play to a crowd that doesn't get your music. feel them out. i did this, took me about 2.5 hours. it was at the class fashion show rehearsal. they wanted a dj, and i tried out. after the break, when i started spinning, everyone eventually just started dancing and forget the modelling. and no, i wasn't spinning DJ sammy, just some tech-house and electro i felt would go down well.
in any event, stop recording. spin a couple of times for the hell of it, not caring about the long, smooth transition, and just with for fun. do cuts, some crazy effects, backspins, scratch even though you suck at it.
and when i said "suck" in the above solutions, i don't mean suck on purpose. just you WILL suck if you're in a funk, most of the time. |
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| rturn214 |
| quote: | Originally posted by Inertia
and when i said "suck" in the above solutions, i don't mean suck on purpose. just you WILL suck if you're in a funk, most of the time. |
A truer statement I have never heard in my life...
Thanks for the tips Inertia... maybe I should just buy some Psy-Trance and start all over :eyes: :nervous: :crazy: :crazy: :nervous: :eyes: |
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| Zild |
| You can either put your shoulder down and practice through it or take a break for a few days, weeks whatever does it for you. |
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| SgtFoo |
to get out of my junk-funks, i spin a dozen of my favourite tracks to mix. if they go bad.... i wait a week. if they go good.... i stop after the last one and then start recording a decent set. it usually works. cuz you get familiar with what you love to spin.
as for getting my own style... i thought i'd only ever buy trance records.... but i've bought progressive house and even house and much prog-breaks records and mp3s .... and it's developing my style.... definitely dofferent fro mwhen i started out |
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| razzi |
get a good nights sleep and wake up and mix when youre in the mood, but at a time you normally wouldnt mix. (ie i usually mix at night/evening - so id wake up early and spin before class or something) the change + extra sleep always helps me if i have a bad night.
razzi. |
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| DJ 00 Tommy |
| The only time i ever record a good mix or mix well infront of people is if im pumped. If im realy in the mood i can do it realy well, if not im sure you all know what a bad set sounds like, so consider my messing up 10 times worse :crazy: |
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