FAO Dj's

[buckman]

after reading a story in the ny times about colleges (ie berkley-california and berklee school of music-Boston) offering classes on dj mixing.i wanted to get your opinion on the matter.do u think its good for edm or bad.Do you wish when you first started djing there were courses in colleges that taught this.do u think it takes away the integrity(sp) of djing??

[palmer]

well I'm sure the instructors probably aren't that sweet.

you are better off learning yourself IMO

although if I needed an elective and djing was on the menu here at AI I would take it. ... lol

[Steve Graham]

I think it would be okay as far as getting the basics down. Curious as to who would teach a course like that. Not sure if it would be good bad or indifferent to the scene. I mean, people that go out to see dj's are still going to know what they want to hear, and just because someone has a degree in mixing I dont know that it will matter as far as getting gigs and what not.

[Ariel Cybana]

One of my friends asked me about this too and maybe it's the very same class you've mentioned as he lives in Oakland. I just told him to pick one fundamental to learn like beatmatching and mad practice it before you add another fundamental to mixing. The Dj mixing class according to him would run him 600 bucks yet I don't know how many lessons he'd get. I'd rather advise trying it on someone else's setup to see if this is something you want to get into further. If you don't have that option, you can always buy cheap or used equipment. Rather spend 600 bucks on something tangible!

As for myself, I learned everything on my own and never had anyone show me a thing regarding how to mix. Six years later I am still learning!!

[buckman]

Re:: FAO Dj's

we have this offered here in boston.

http://www.djmixacademy.com/

[DreamGirlie]

^ the guys running that are cool as fawk for the most part

[Morgan]

Re:: FAO Dj's

The local college where i live has been offering sound production courses for a few years now. lots of local DJ?s have taken this course and gone on to bigger projects, IMO it is a good thing. I think sound production has more merit than DJing as you can actually produce a product rather than just spinning records.

[cneill]

Re:: FAO Dj's

Hmmm, is a dj class really necessary? I don't think I've ever met a good dj who didn't learn on their own, or maybe with some guidence from a friend. It's nice when everybody has a unique approach to mixing. If dj classes become widespread, certain "standard" practices would emerge. There would undoubtedly be some kind of standard "method" for learning to mix and scratch.
Besides, how teachable is it really? I've tried to show a couple friends how to mix, but it's hard to really pin it down. I usually give up and say you just have to do it until you get it. It seems to be the kind of thing you either understand or you don't. I recall hearing Digweed remark in an interview some time ago that he really doesn't know how to explain what he does.
All in all, you can teach someone how to beat match or juggle records, but is that all that makes a dj? Will that make someone a good dj? I think not. How do you teach mood and flow and set movement and creating an atmosphere and reading the crowd? The djs who can't do these things are the worst djs in my opinion. I think most everybody knows that one dj who just bombs everytime he/she plays because those key elements just aren't there. By teaching djing in an academic setting, I think the frequency of those djs will surely rise.

[mixu]

Re:: FAO Dj's

Someone can point you in the right direction but it's just practice and feedback - I've no idea how you'd 'teach' somebody...

I got my decks 12 years ago and just locked myself in my bedroom for six months before emerging like a butterfly... or something

[day_for_night]

they dont really teach you how to mix in the way that most edm djs mix...they mainly teach turntabalism, scratching, tricks, ect. they dont teach how to mix for minutes at a time, more how to manipulate records.

[DreamGirlie]