Arthur Kokanov

Thanks Phil! I definately agree, and no worries I know there will be both plenty of success and plenty of failure and I am ready for both. There is a really cool quote that has stuck with me for a long time, “Every failure is a brick in my Castle” and I am only starting to build it.

Slow Monday.

Last week has been slow. I practiced a little bit and the rest of the time I’ve been using to get my head into the game and set up a serious game plan. I am going to start again at the basics and focus on quality. I also want to try setting up a weekly video blog that go along with these posts. Ok, so start with the basics… I bought the online video course from Digital DJ Tips and will be using it as my start. I think it gives me a good directional focus. I will write up a quick review about each video that I watched to give you guys a basic idea of what it is. I am starting today and each monday I will give a detailed outline of how the previous week went. This will be a four week challenge with key things to focus on each day and each week.

Week#1

Key things to focus on each day:
– Practice mixing for one hour.
-Use the music only in the Main crate to get to know the songs really well.
-Record each set.

– Sift through the music that I own and pick out my all time favorites.
-I have to make sure that I do not add on any fat. If I am not sure about a song I will put it off into a maybe file and listen to it again in a few days.
-I must listen to 30 minutes of new music a day as a minimum.

This weeks Focus:
-Compile 30 minutes of very select music
-Post a 30 minute mix on MixCloud and Youtube (If I can).

Talking to strangers has never been effortless for me and always somewhat difficult. I took the time and learned through picking up girls before I fell in love with DJing. If you have trouble in this area my suggestion is to act on it right now. Making connections is key if you want to DJ at the best venues and that means going out and talking to strangers and other DJ’s because they will be the ones who get you in. If you for some reason don’t want to play at the biggest venues, knowing how to make friends is important for any position in life and can lead you on adventures that you never thought possible. If you want to learn about this area in your life look up RSD Nation or Real Social Dynamics on Google. With that in mind promoting to others has still been kind of difficult. It’s almost like you become one of those annoying promoters that spam other peoples Facebook walls with spam to come to your event. Which I don’t do, but letting people know that you are DJing at a spot can come across like that. Since I don’t have a lot first hand experience with this yet my thought on this is that you have to build a true following of people, almost like a religion, and the only way you can do that is by befriending others and showing them how awesome your mix is. This is not a popularity contest even though it may seem like it. Most of the best DJ’s got all those followers through their music and throwing the best parties. There is always the exception to the rule though like the Jersey Shore star Pauly D.

I cannot stress enough that you must really want to be a DJ, be it as a hobby or as a serious profession. There is a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes that you don’t think about when you are on the outside. This was a serious lesson that I had to learn the hard way when I tried to set up my first event. I got together a crew of two trusted friends and both with a passion for dance music. We made a facebook page and designed all the graphics. We invited everyone we knew and promoted everyday. When it came down to the actual event everything flopped. Out of 100 people only 6 showed up and maybe 20 randoms. One of my crew members and all his invited friends didn’t show up and the other was called in to set up last minute to a wedding. That left me to a pretty much empty club for 3 hours with not enough of my own music, the friend who had the wedding left me his USB just incase which saved me. The crew member who didn’t show decided to block us from his Facebook and I haven’t heard from him since. With no reason, no discussion, nothing, just vanished. I didn’t leave disappointed though, there was a lot of lessons that I got out of that night and I still got to play in front of a few people on a serious sound system for about 3 hours. Almost nothing goes according to plan, which means that you must adapt to what’s going on and the current situation. There is a whole forum topic on Digital DJ Tips forums about which skills a DJ should have and adaptation is definitely one of them. So never set a plan into stone because it will change, so make it like water so that it can fit the situation, and always have a back up. Having plenty of music is also something that I took away from my event experiance. I have enough for about an hour, and only 30minutes worth of songs I really like. I am always hunting for new and old songs. I am very selective when it comes to picking tracks. It never came to my attention to actually look for tracks at any point in my life unless I really liked something so digging for music is very new to me and definitely a skill I still must work on a lot. You can say there are two main schools of thought about looking for music, either let it come to you while mindlessly listening to the radio and podcasts, or actively look for them. I am going to try both in the coming months and see which works best for me, but I think it’ll end up being a combination of both depending on my time and schedule. This brings me to the next point, organization and timing. I think the major problem as to why no one showed up to the event was because of a major timing flaw. We promoted too early and lost the hype. We did this almost a month and a half before the actual event. For huge events that type of timing should be ok but if you are just starting out, promoting within a shorter time span would hold better results. The hype dies down way to fast for smaller event. Next time I will try for two weeks before the event, and by then I should have a decent crowd of people following me, at least I hope so. I hope all of this makes some sort of sense!

I have some big plans for the future and so far it’s been an amazing ride that I hope will never stop. Playing music in front of a crowd is just so rewarding and that is exactly what I will always aim for. I hope that this post helps newbies out by giving them a glimpse into what it takes and which steps are required to begin learning this craft. If there is anything that I want to leave of with is this… Once you decide on your gear practice, have lots of fun, and play in front of people whenever you can.

P.s.
I forgot to mention. DJing isn’t a steady source of income so having a steady job or a back up plan is very handy if not needed!

Follow my blog here:
http://www.digitaldjtips.com/forum/threads/d-j-manhattan-learning-journal.2173/

June 08th 2012 Friday – When Everything Falls Apart. Stand up, wipe the dirt off, put your feelings aside, and try again until it works.

June 11th 2012.

It’s monday. I’ll start with that my event failed. Completely failed. I don’t even know how to put this nicely for myself or anyone else. Out of 100 people, 5 showed up and thats is including my gf. Then the Tech had a last minute call in -his boss called the night before- for a wedding that he had to go to right after we set everything up. That left me completely alone to play for 3 hours, good thing he left me his music usb, Because I ran out of good tracks after an hour (for the ghost crowd) and the 5-15 random people that only wanted old school rock who were in their late 30’s. The worst part of it though (the only thing im upset about) is that my gf was freezing the entire time, good thing I brought a sweater. The cherry on top… my crew of 3 is now down to 2. The Bussiness Man didint show up friday either, no txt, no excuse, nothing. He blocked me and my friend of FB and thats it. I don’t even know the reason. I’m not even upset, it’s just so low of someone to do that without saying anything face to face. Basically nothing went according to plan. Everyone backed out last minute with no reason or say. Tough luck right? Most people have a great first event, but the universe conspired against me, punched me in the gut and now is standing above me ready to do it again and saying “How BAD do you want it?”

All I can do now is stand back up and say “I want it pretty #$%^en Bad.” Starting today I am going on a fairly strict schedule of practice and promotion. I’ll keep everyone up to date. I also have an article that il be posting this week, just a heads up.

p.s. just for me,
I am still planning to get a spot in Guv by the end of the year and have my 1hour 100song live mix done by the end of the year. My two major goals that I set up at the beginning of my DJ career, even with this set back.