I just got my first gig at a house party for this friday and i got a beginner's question.
I am primarily interested in trance, though my first love is hip-hop, and i like to spin a variety of genres including dubstep and house against a trance backdrop.
So this house party has a Skins rave party theme (the uk tv show, dont ask, the girls throwing the party are fans). trance isnt big at all here so i dont think i should just jump right into a trance set, so i told them id do a mix of dubstep, house, and trance.
anyone got any tips on getting the crowd into the trance vibe?
Rodri Santos
If you want to play trance i'd play the old eurodance hits that everybody knows, Kate Ryan , Sash ... well known cheesy stuff, if you want to please people specially girls burn the full David Guetta cd and play it, playing for your friends is one of the most disgusting experiences, i've a select group of friends that love what i do but my female friends specially think everything apart from reggaeton, David Guetta and SHM is .
Stu Cox
If you haven't got the right crowd for it, squeezing trance in is never going to be easy. That said, house parties (particularly ones full of people who watch Skins) end up being pretty open-minded environments, particularly once everyone's got pissed and done a load of mephedrone or whatever the kids do these days.
So I'd say leave the trance until quite late on... no one wants hands-in-the-air moments as soon as they walk in the door and are just trying to find some space in the fridge for their cider.
[start of rambling]
There's an idea people have probably heard me harping on about on here in the past which I think can apply to house parties as well as clubs, which I describe as big room: big music, small room: small music. In this context, 'big music' is characterised by long records, long breakdowns, epic leads, things you're more likely to call 'progressive' and records with more thump than groove; while 'small music' is short records, short breakdowns, more frequent changes and funkier, groovier.
I also find it quite interesting to note that people often dance 'bigger' to big music: big hand movements, open stances, head held high etc; while most people dance 'smaller' to small music: a more closed stance, small hand movements near their body, often head dropped a bit towards the floor.
If you're playing to 2000 people in a warehouse somewhere, there's more of a tendency for people to stay on the dancefloor because they can be so far away from the edge, so you can get away with long, epic records. In a small room people can be off the dancefloor in seconds if they get bored and there's often a lot more distractions, so shorter tracks with more changes and fewer breakdowns work better: people hear a track they like the sound of (or even better, they know) and decide to stay on the dancefloor... 2 or 3 mins later when they're thinking of going to get a drink, you drop another track they want to hear and they stay.
It's also worth noting that small music works in a big room a lot better than big music works in small room.
So with that in mind, playing most trance at a house party would count as playing big music in a small room.
Of course you can't just put all music into one or other of those categories and different people will interpret tracks in different ways, but it's a useful starting point.
[end of rambling]
So if you are going to play trance, stick to tracks which will work in the house party environment. I'd recommend short breakdowns, funkier, groovier stuff. When you're playing house, try throwing in a house-trance borderline tune (mau5 or something) and see how well it goes down, then take it from there.
By the end of the night it can be a different story though - when you've got a house full of wasters they'll dance to anything so that's your chance to get away with bashing out some classics.
discobiscuit
Slowly scare the crowd away.... trance is my fav genre but ill prob never play a trance set. Your first gig and ur already attempting the impossible! Im dead serious 99/100 people will hate u, never come see you again, and people will tell their friends u suck and they wont go where you are....
I love trance but most ppl dont. It isnt club friendly... youd lose half the crowd during every breakdown and have a lot of ppl standing there looking bored
Rodri Santos
quote:
Originally posted by discobiscuit
Slowly scare the crowd away.... trance is my fav genre but ill prob never play a trance set. Your first gig and ur already attempting the impossible! Im dead serious 99/100 people will hate u, never come see you again, and people will tell their friends u suck and they wont go where you are....
I love trance but most ppl dont. It isnt club friendly... youd lose half the crowd during every breakdown and have a lot of ppl standing there looking bored
insightful comment, agree.
n3lly
quote:
Originally posted by discobiscuit
Slowly scare the crowd away.... trance is my fav genre but ill prob never play a trance set. Your first gig and ur already attempting the impossible! Im dead serious 99/100 people will hate u, never come see you again, and people will tell their friends u suck and they wont go where you are....
I love trance but most ppl dont. It isnt club friendly... youd lose half the crowd during every breakdown and have a lot of ppl standing there looking bored
He's right.
ThoughtCrime
quote:
Originally posted by discobiscuit
Slowly scare the crowd away.... trance is my fav genre but ill prob never play a trance set. Your first gig and ur already attempting the impossible! Im dead serious 99/100 people will hate u, never come see you again, and people will tell their friends u suck and they wont go where you are....
I love trance but most ppl dont. It isnt club friendly... youd lose half the crowd during every breakdown and have a lot of ppl standing there looking bored
yea im afraid of the same thing, having the song breakdown i look out and see a bunch of confused people. il probably stick with house and test the waters with a trance song once in a while
ThoughtCrime
so any advice on house that can blend well into trance? house is a lot bigger here than trance, and some dubstep suggestions would be nice if anyone here is into that genre
Rodri Santos
This kind of tunes usually work well and are a bit trancey if you insist in playing some trance (yes i know you've said that you are going to play some trance but probably they don't know what trance is)
This kind of prog.house usually work well in the dancefloor, i'd recommend you all the chris reece roster, edx,dinka, leventina, helvetic nerds.
This is similar to SHM but 1000 times better, i like to play this stuff with an acapella to entertain the people (you can play an acapella over a 1/10 rated track and turn into a 6/10 one, people want vocals and don't care at all about the music. Groove + vocals = win.
The Avicii stuff it's quite cheerful and you can't get wrong with it... and well this is the only "trance" track that i've played recently and people reacted jumping, i rarely play trance now so i can't tell you more recent tracks that work.
Well good luck in general you can play trance if it meets this requirements: 130-132 bpm maximum , vocals, groovy bass and supersaws (they're trendy again)
I hope this tips by a frustrated trance dj help you
ThoughtCrime
much thanks, that dinka song is fire, and if u got a good response from that sander track i think ima have to cop that record, sander is awesome
im lookin for some prog house now that would fit well
Ted Promo
trance play Rammstein.
Rodri Santos
quote:
Originally posted by Ted Promo
trance play Rammstein.
haha, once in a house party i played Amerika and all the people became wild, really wild, throwing things and beer cans to each other :P they're such a great band and i am afraid that time they worked better in the "dancefloor" than edm.
