I got 1 year till I can get a gig. What should i do to prepare?

I think you answered a lot of your own questions. keep on practising is in my opinion the best thing. I think learning to beat match till a point were you are confident in that skill is a very good idea.

But I don’t think it is a good idea to take a month or so and only focus on beatmatching. Just have your regular DJ sessions and beatmatch some tracks and then a few tracks with sync. This way you can avoid being frustrated. It’s not that it is bad idea to focus on one particular skill by the way. But try to blend it in with your normal routine. I think the same goes for samples and effects.  But I think you can’t really use samples to their full possibilities on the hercules Instinct. But I am not sure of that. Another important tip; record your sessions. You probably read that a lot here so you might already know this. Especially when you do you things like using effects, samples and hotcues. Get a listen from the audience perspective. Going nuts on the effects can be fun but for the people on the dance floor it can be annoying if you do it to much.

As far as you music collection goes. Are you happy with the tracks you have? Do you find that you have enough to play different sets? If so there is no need to spend all your money on new music. You know I think the best thing is to buy new music if you like those tracks. If you think I have to buy 50 new tracks or so you might end up buying music you don’t like in the end. So be careful with that. Remember this is all is just my take on your  questions. Do whatever you are comfortable with. And I hope you get a nice present this Christmas 😀

Hi I’m new too but i regurlarily get to play both at private parties and clubs..
My 2 cents…

There is no reason you cannot do a gig.. Clubs are far from the only gigs that exist.. If I was you i would check out school parties, a local town festival, maybe your uncles workplace want’s some music t their next party Look for options not limitations. and if u arent sure of the local legislation on playing  a club – go check it! when you get to it you will want to know such stuff.

Being new and never played in a club before might be the biggest reason you do not trust your beatmatching skills yet.. and to put it simple – you should not you should only trust your ears..

So to recap:
Go get some gigs, even if they are cheap
Even if you get to just backup someone more experienced – you will learn a lot more a lot faster by putting yourself out there, then standing in your bedroom.

About the music you like to play look at it as a warriors weapons..
There is preferably 1 weapon (genre) you prefair and you know you fight(work/impress) best with.
But one day you may stand and have no other way to defend yourself(earn money) then using a way different weapon…

I’ll even add some experinces the past year of my career that i made that made me push myself, my limits and LEARN and improve! (ofc I cheated and got help, asked ppl who were more into those genres, and found great compilations albums and compared to see what was hot .. and listend and put in my own style.. but.. I DID IT!)

I took a job for some students “getting their degree party” – I was asked if I could fetch some music for their dinner..
I said yes.. and knew I had 2 weeks to come up with something I did not have any clue what was.. It was challenging and thrilling and i was dead-afraid I might get it wrong..
But I found some instrumental dinner music, with pianos and then som frank sinatra, and then some elvis presley..
– Ppl were very happy for my playlist for their dinner and then in the end when i walked in at the end of the dinner to put on my headphones take over control and play some party music i was already getting tomups and ppl telling me I was great.. (at this point I had never played this kind of music or structured a playlist in such a way before)

The other story was semi-big club’s manager who called me out and asked if i could play in 8 days. I just needed to warm up for the resident, and I had to play Deep-house/Tech-house and slowly pull more mainstream into it..
I said yes and this time i found a lot of tech and deep house compilations and listen to some on the internet.. and chose a lot of songs.. and made a playlist and i just did it.. (today I love to warm up with this stuff, that I barely have heard before that point) I got a great response from the manager cus i was able to pull off exactly what he had asked for and nothing more. and got invited to play a whole evening some months later at another club he had moved too.

I hope I have inspired you or anyone else to never backdown from a limitation in genre or so on and go and learn from the experience 🙂
Good day!