Song selection/playlist at the event…

You have hit upon the pinnacle of DJ-ing: “knowing what must come next”. It’s hard-earned experience that will give you these skills. Can’t be taught (altough there are great ways of music discovery that will help you gather the tracks you think you can and will use. Look for articles on both the main site and these forums).

So, there is no template or pre-fabricated list to tell you what to bring to a party, let alone what to play and in what order. Sure there are some general guidelines, many taught in the courses here, but at the end of the day it’s going out to play and getting the experience.

Effectively (general tip) the best combination is preparing for a gig by knowing what kind of theme/genre is expected (if any), what kind of crowd, what time slot, if you are not the only DJ what other DJ’s are coming and what are they playing, what is the venue like, if the venue has these gigs more often what is played there. Etx.
Once you know that, you can make a selection of tracks to bring. Typically you will want to bring about twice the amount of tracks you really need. Rule of thumb is 20 tracks an hour playable, so take 40 tracks for every hour you are playing.
Divide the tracks you are taking in mini-playlist (3-5 tracks) that go well together.

During the evening you can play something from a mini-playlist and if the crowd likes it, play some more without the stress of finding those next matching tunes. Again, much has been written about dividing energy and such, so not gonna go into repeat mode there. Most important is to watch the crowd.

Confirmed, unless you get a specific play list (and that’s still soft). Your best skill to have is reading the crowd. General practice would be to have general breakdown play lists of common groups of songs. This will let you find & try things quickly. You could also do short lists where 3 to 6 tracks that go well together. That way you get a little more bang for the song buck if you find they like it. Good Luck.

I have divided many of my songs into categories. Line dances, bangers (dance floor favorites), transitions (songs to change styles or age groups), party tunes (good dance songs, but won’t have them running to the dance floor). I have created many 3-5 songs that go well together (each with a slightly higher BPM), the first song in each group should be a “banger”. There are different characteristics for a club/bar, wedding, party, school, concert, etc. Club/bar, school and concert they came to DANCE, with a wedding and party many may just want to socialize and drink so dancing can be more challenging. With the latter, you need to warm them up to dancing so after a few tunes I will either start with a slow song or a line dance and ask them to dance. The next song a mid-BPM banger which I chose based on the age group that came out to dance. I personally don’t like playing from a playlist because if it isn’t working you start questioning the whole playlist. I do print former playlists from successful events that I have done as a way of helping me decide what might work. When I’m “lost” my motto is pick a slow song, line dance, Michael Jackson or Pitbull. 🙂

I prepare tunes for each gig, with well tagged tracks, files labeled perfectly, but I always bring my two external drives that have my backup of my whole library because you never know.

Mini Playlists are your friends, I only recently started doing this and it’s been great. it makes it way easier to not only find songs to play next, but also just to pack/prepare music for a gig. if you need 40 songs, but can only think of 5, take the mini playlist (which is generally 4 tracks) and you’re already halfway to your goal.

These playlists can be purely for maintaining a vibe or energy level, have a theme, simply mix well together, or (my favorite, especially when I’m doing school dances with multiple genres) tempo changing.

Good luck!