Name a surprising skill you need to be a DJ

Iceman… I lost count of the electric shocks i got when i had to take those old belt driven decks apart with them still plugged in, to find out why they werent working…. i remember once trying to shout “unplug it quick” and my voice came out like a Dalek… 😀

I’ve read some great things here. Definately social/people skills, like leaving a good impression. Being good with computers and cables as well.

Things I see as a skill as well: enjoying while djing. I see a lot of djs just djing, but never communicating with the crowd, never smiling to the crowd, never flirting with girls on the dancefloor (by looking and smiling at them from the dj booth). As a DJ you should dance as well, not like a monkey but you can show that you enjoy it a lot yourself, like you would like to join the crowd and dance with them. Smiling is important, and communicating and making eye contact with the crowd as well.

Knowing how to deal with the music and crowd when there is a technical problem and the music shuts down. F.e.: start clapping and singing with the public or whatever, putting on your ipod or mp3/4 while fixing your technical problem.

Also, dealing with people requesting songs is an art itself.

And finaly, knowing which songs match and follow up other particulary songs. Like starting with a particular music genre, and then step by step changing the style of the song a little and mix them up smoothly in a way that no one knows that you’re changing styles.
For example: playing styles like Nu disco, then electro-house, follow up with avici and calvin harris shit, then go to american pop-house songs like david guetta and usher, then go to pop like kate perry, switch to rnb, go back to chris brown 3x yeah, put in a pitbull song, go to latin house, put in a song like bamboleo, shakira rabiosa, mohombi bumpy ride, kevin lyttle turn me on, continue reggaeton, change back to latin house, and go to house again and then dubstep. And that smoothly without the crowd noticing too much that the styles of the music are changing drasticaly.

A good ear and knowing your sound setup.also listen to people that might also no that your sound levels are way to high and all the base bins are clipping and it sounds shit. So many times I have bin told to get lost for pointing out base clipping is I’n real funni the next week when there replacing the base bins though muppets

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That’s called “Grooming” where i come from…

frank morales, post: 15592, member: 1555 wrote: i think its important to beat match then go to scratching then go into more advanced stuff

I guess you could call beatmatching a suprising skill these days.

For me it’s having a good memory.
No matter how good or well you arrange your crates/playlists, there is always a time when you are trying to recall that particular one track or even tracks. You can see the picture in your head but just can’t remember the name or the artist.

Furthermore, i’d say being observant. In the digital age of Djaying, there are so many things you have to notice and look out for all at the same time. Time elapsed, BPM counters, Faders, cross faders, Key detection, tempo drift, EQ faders, computer CPU, noise levels, gain levels, duration of track, drinks within the DJ booth ….e.t.c

you gotta have cajones..balls…steel ones.. cos you know sumtime u just gotta drop that mad track no one expects or knows, but you know it will crush the floor

good reaction time… just in case something goes wrong or u trainwreck.. you better know a way out

and gotta have a sence of humour… cos fat chicks in spandex will always make you laugh… just dont let em know ur laffin at them

good eyesight, it can be pitch black in there.