I’m always taking notes and planning when I’m practicing at home, looking out for what beats go with others etc. Nothing wrong with planning at all imo, if its going to give your audience a great night due to your creativity and ideas then why not?After all you’ll still need to mix in a live environment on point and without mistakes. It also helps me to practice my mixing, and has really improved me as a DJ. Of course feedback from the audience plays a major part in how successful your set will be, so that’s another reason I plan, so that I’m ready for every eventuality and can mix out and in to any genre stylishly, but I never plan a whole 4 hour mix for a 4 hour club night say, I have to leave room for playing and mixing songs at the spur of the moment that feel right for the audience type, as well as good requests (If you ever get anyone with a good enough request to play of course!), that way you can surprise the audience, and even yourself at the songs pumping through the speakers! Having said that, accomplishing a whole unplanned set is a thrill in itself, and is totally worth a shot, usually by knowing your tracks well enough and having good mixing skills you can pull it off. If it doesn’t work out, then you’ve always got your mixes that you’ve practiced beforehand to help you out of any sticky situations!
