How do you deal with DJ nerves?

On the way to the gig, I just turn up the radio and jam to that and when im setting up i have a few Coronas or XX and im good for the night.

When I started tinkering around with being a DJ it was at this club where they had bands and I’d spin in between sets. When the band wasn’t on and it was all on me I could see the reaction of the crowd. I could instantly tell what was and wasn’t working. Never got nervous, I always knew where I stood. Looking back I really did’nt know what I was doing but it was working.

Fast forward to a move out of state then back again I now have a steady gig 3 nights a week at a local sports bar/restaurant. The kind of place where NOBODY dances…at all. They’re drinking or eating but never dancing save for the occasional ass wiggle. I usually get 0 feedback from these people, add to the fact that my sets are each 4 hours long encompassing everything from Rock, Pop, Top40, some electronic, Hip Hop, my nerves can become a wreck. Self doubt, I suck, nobody’s moving (they never move anyway). It’s a slippery slope to start down and can ruin my entire night.

In order to break the nerves I people watch. Much the same way a nervous public speaker knows to single out one face in the crowd and talk directly to that person I find the one group or few friends that are reacting to my tracks (there’s thankfully always at least one group), and I play to them. I keep them in my peripheral and that calms me down. Or if my shit is getting too clustered I stay in one particular genre and really concentrate on the flow, get out of my head for a good 20 or 30 minutes.

Funny enough this is the one time I really don’t care to drink. It leaves me foggy. I need to focus.

I’ve played 3 gigs now and would like to give a lot of credit to digitaldjtips.com and the forums here for a lot of my motivation and breakthrough. The first two went off without a hitch, got a lot of props, made a lot of friends, and now I’m part of a crew of EDM DJ’s and the local scene as well as continue to get gigs for bigger ‘monthlies’ and EDM weeklies in surrounding cities. I still get really nervous. Some days I wonder if I should be doing this still or if I’m really cut out for it but I love it so I continue to push on hoping to block out this negativity. I have a weekly to play this week and had to cancel two gigs because I had some coursework and preparation for a large monthly event this Saturday that I’m playing to do. I’m really still experimenting with how to calm my nerves. I can tell you it’s not overly drinking. My third gig was almost a complete failure because I drank heavily due to nervousness. Tomorrow night, I believe I’ll just have a couple of beers and try my best to relax and be confident.

I should add that on my way to my first gig, I was so excited to be playing an EDM weekly. I wasn’t nervous at all. A few blocks away from the club and I thought I was gonna throw up! It’s pretty crazy how the anxiety can come and go.

P.Chiddy, post: 29270, member: 4036 wrote: I try to sort of enjoy the feeling if that makes sense. I guess it’s a perspective thing, like I can either let the butterflies affect me negatively and clam up or I can enjoy that rush of adrenaline I’m getting, embrace the rare feeling when you’re out of your comfort zone and use it.

This perfectly sums up my way of dealing with it – and after all it doesnt last long, after the first couple of tunes, nerves are gone.

Yeah i think its really hard for us to get rid of the DJ Nerves…I’m still nervous as shit some days…tonight im opening for DJ Icey in a different city and im nervous as shit…lol…but after a few drinks and getting into the groove of the night i am totally okay :D.

I find the most nervous i get is when im playing in a New Venue…it is just crazy on the nerves.

It’s weird, I’m much more nervous djing than I ever was performing one of my classical pieces live/giving a recital. When I’m playing piano, I’ve never worried about whether my music is going to appeal to the crowd or (only whether I had faith in my talent as a composer). I also keep trying to minimize “dj downtime” (time where I`m not touching my controller while a song is playing) without fx whoring, for I don’t want to be viewed as nothing but a human ipod.

I have my first djing gig coming up this friday at a local venue. It’s a mixer that blends punk, hip-hop, and a few other genres of music. I’ve been asked to DJ the event, and I’ve been pacing around wondering whether my EDM collection is going to have any appeal with these crowds. I’ve made it a point to throw in some music that I feel closes the gap between genres (Steve Aoki/Kid Cudi, Afrojack remixes, etc.), but I honestly have no idea what to expect when not playing in a dance setting (don’t know where to begin on how to read a non-dancing crowd).

I’ve been telling myself that it’s merely my first djing gig (I don’t count house parties as gigs), but I still feel as if my daisy-chaining skills are not where they need to be. Good to know that I’m not the only one with nerves around =)

I can’t drink much before mixing in front of people. I don’t hear the music the same way.

Couple of sherbets does it for me 🙂
On a side note, who amongst us has had the DJ Dream? (The one where your record is running out and you cant find the next to put on.)
Cant say I’ve had it in a looong time but when I was doing a lot of gigs it popped up in my dreams quite often, kinda like dreaming of trying to run and getting nowhere.