WOW!! 1st gig!! - Digital DJ Tips

This topic has 19 replies, 1 voice, and was last updated 13 years, 4 months ago by Richard Driver.

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 19 total)

1 2 →

Author

Posts
September 11, 2012 at 8:02 am #1011996

Terry_42
Keymaster

Congrats on your gig! Let the crowd feel the love and you will have zippo problems.
And most important: HAVE FUN!

September 11, 2012 at 12:32 pm #1012020

Fxn-L
Member

Congratulations! It’s a great feeling. The first time playing out will undoubtedly help you identify other areas to improve. Keep doing what you’re doing, man!

September 11, 2012 at 1:18 pm #1012022

J-Zed
Participant

Congrats! Landing that first gig was one of the greatest feelings of my life, best of luck and have fun!

September 12, 2012 at 5:04 am #1012056

Rocky
Member

Thank you all!! I am going to go a little early at the bar before the dance starts so I can set up. I am going to keep it simple w/ the transitions and allowing the music to play, and most of all I am going to have fun!!! 🙂

I think for a DJ name I am just going w/ Rocky. My name is Raquel and my nickname is Rocky 🙂

Any inputs??

Mahalo!!!

September 14, 2012 at 12:01 pm #1012154

Bunyip
Member

Good plan Rocky.
And I think this is a great name. It makes good sense to go with a nickname, it’s part of who you are. No need to make up a new one that has no true meaning. Raquel is good too. And both work great without the DJ in front.
Have fun and rock it Rocky!

September 15, 2012 at 10:32 am #1012179

DJ_Dave
Member

Well done and good luck. Get there nice and early so you have time to set up, check out the sound and (hopefully not have to) overcome any problems before the crowds arrive.

September 18, 2012 at 3:18 am #1012283

Rocky
Member

Thank you all!!

Yes, I agree w/ you Bunyip. 🙂

That is my intention Dave, to get to the bar a little early prior to the dance. I may even actually go this weekend to take a quick peak on their DJ booth setups. 🙂

ROCKY 🙂

September 24, 2012 at 6:56 am #1012494

Phil Morse
Keymaster

Glad we could get you to this point (it’s our mission statement! 70% of readers are still onlyDJing in their bedrooms)… and please come and let us know how you got on.

October 17, 2012 at 10:20 pm #1013887

Rocky
Member

Update: Looks like I am going to be DJ’ng on Oct 27th instead. The ladies found a much better bar w/ a nice big dance floor and an awesome sound system!! I already did a sound check last Saturday!!

So sweet to hear my mix in such a big place!!! I was so nervous even though there were only a few people in the bar since it was lunch time. What struck me, was the handful of patrons that was there were all bopping their heads and tapping their feet while eating….that really put a smile on my face 🙂 YAY!!

Based on last Saturdays sound check, I learned that I need to check my MIDI controller’s volume so that I will hear it on the speakers!! OMG I was so nervous!! Anyway, a great mistake even for just messing around for about an hour!!! So stoked that the manager allowed me to play around!!

I will let you all know in a couple weeks how the dance goes!! All I know for sure, it is going to be a BLAST!!! WOOHOOO!! 😀

October 18, 2012 at 8:16 am #1013911

Rob Francis
Member

Good luck Rocky!

October 23, 2012 at 9:31 pm #30652

DJ Menno
Participant

If you’ve got as much talent as you have passion and energy for DJ’ing it’s definitely going to be a blast.

You go girl ! 🙂

October 28, 2012 at 11:06 pm #30930
Rocky
Member
Finally did my 1st gig last night!! It was awesome!!! I danced the entire 4 hrs while paying close attention transitions/blending of the tracks.

At one point in time, some of the women said looks like the DJ is having way more fun up there than us…LOL….

With just a few hiccups from last night:
- VDJ froze on me in the middle of my set. So I calmly got on the mic and said please give me 10 secs as my software needed to be restarted. And 10 secs later I had the crowd jumping again!! I was calm and kept my cool…kept smiling the entire time 🙂
- I also learned that I need a little light for my controller.
- I also learned to answer nicely to the patrons when they ask me to play something for them that I did not have. “Sorry, I do not have it right now. Next time, I will try to make sure I have it” 🙂
Based from last night’s experience, I realized that I can not make everyone happy. Regardless of what kind of music I am playing. I stuck to my set and I got lots of feedback from friends and other patrons. Most of them really enjoyed the evening! None of them knew it was my 1st time ever playing and when they were informed they said they would not have known…that was a nice complement. Sweet!!

So in a nutshell, I have this gig once a month for the ladies of San Diego to let their hair down and dance!!
I had such a great time!! I was jumping up and down on the dj booth…I could not contain myself!! I really LOVE this!!! WOOOHOOO!! 😀
October 29, 2012 at 12:04 am #30931

Dominic Souza-Larimore
Participant

Rocky, post: 28462, member: 3020 wrote: Mahalo!!!

From Hawaii?

Anyway congrats on your first gig, i still get the same feeling everytime I play out somewhere new. Especially since the expectations keep getting higher, but you’ll soon realize 95% of people don’t care about transitions or whatever else the dj does… just that you play the songs they want to hear lol.

also your doing it right, keep having fun! even if its a dead crowd and only a handful of people show up, HAVE FUN PLAYING MUSIC AND DJ’ING! last night i was getting kinda down on myself and dj’ing because nobody showed up to this new venue I was playing at and it was supposed to get a big turnout, so my expectations were high. but after a tsunami warning scared everybody away there were only like 20-30 people tops all night. after an hour of dj’ing in cruise control and still playing warm up songs to practically nobody, the switch flipped and I said “fuck it i might as well have fun”. I started to turn up the energy, dance a lil bit, smile and have fun. totally expecting to make an ass out of myself, but really not giving a shit about that either lol. after about 20 minutes i had people coming up on stage dancing, requesting songs, and changed the whole mood of the club into party mode, even if it was a small party! We had a blast, I met some new cool people, the bar staff was happy, people started to drink, and I think I got myself another gig in the near future =)

October 29, 2012 at 3:04 am #30934

EpicDJ
Member

Congrats! I totally know how how the first gig nerves can be. I actually played my first “big” event last night with about 200 people at a large halloween fundraiser. About 1.5hrs into my set my midi controller completely stopped responding. My music was still playing through the controller because the soundcard is internal. Luckily it was right when the MC was doing announcements for games and such. I was able to swap out my RCAs and plug in my iPhone backup in so I could restart and barely had a hickup. Congrats on getting what sounds like a regular gig!

November 25, 2012 at 7:14 pm #32538

Rocky
Member

Hey all!! Learning from my 1st gig, I listened to the ladies what kind of music they wanted to dance to. So last night, I had a bunch of music that I know they will all love and for my 2nd gig, it was AWESOME!! The club/bar was packed!!! Everyone was jumping around and dancing and singing!! I was and AM still HIGH from it!!! Then, to top it off, I got this napkin message from one of the patrons….WOW!!!
Author

Posts