RIDICULOUS ENTERTAINMENT!

HOME

DJ SERVICES

DJ ACADEMY

RESOURCES

CONTACT

 

 

Sample Curriculum

• Sample Lesson Plan: Hip-Hop Mixing, Private Instruction

 

• Sample Lesson Plan: DJing and Modern Music, 8 week after-school program for Middle school students

------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Sample Lesson Plan: Hip-Hop Mixing, Private Instruction

Hip Hop Mixing

A 1 1/2 Hour Introduction to hip hop mixing and scratching using two turntables and a mixer

 

Lesson #1

 

Mixing Overview

1. What is a mix? What does a DJ do?

1. Different types of mix
2. Types of DJs
3. Matching occasions to practice
4. The DJing Continuum 

 

2. Equipment Overview - A brief, hands on, step by step technical walkthrough.

1. Music Sources - Vinyl, CDs, Digital Files, Tapes,
   
2. Music Players/Controllers - Turntables, CDJs, Laptop/Serato SL, Ipod etc..
3. DJ Mixer Basics
4. Headphones/Cueing
   
5. Sound Systems - Home stereo, PA Systems, Powered speakers, studio monitors etc.
   

    
3. The DJ Mixer - In Depth

           1. Differences between standard  audio mixers and DJ Mixers
   
           2. Types of DJ Mixers

• How many channels do I need?
• Digital Effects units, BPM counters, and other add-ons
  
• Types of faders, faders vs knobs
  

           

           3. Parts Overview - Step by step walkthrough of all the functions of a DJ mixer

4. Sources

1. Sound Sources -  Overview of the different DJ sources, pros and cons
   
• Turntables, Vinyl
• CDs
• Digital Djing

                
            2. Turntables -

• How does a turntable work?
• The parts of a turntable
  
• Things NOT to do, good record care, and making your needles last

5. Record Control

•     Battle style vs standard position
  
•     Hand positioning
•     Cueing - incl. leading into a drop
•     Throwing a record
•     Backspinning

6. Scratching basics
 

1. What is a scratch?           
2. What is Cutting?
3. Easy scratching technique
4. Types of scratches

(Baby, Tears, Faderless, Flares, Chirps, Crabs, Tweak)

7. Mixing

1.    Cueing with headphones
   
2.    Transitions
3.    EQs, Gain, Effects, 
4.    Mixer techniques and styles (upfaders, CFX curve)

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Sample Lesson Plan: DJing and Modern Music, 8 week after-school program for Middle school students.

DJing and Modern Music – 8 week after school program

This program is designed for middle-school students and is entitled “DJing and Modern Music.”  Students enrolled in this program meet once a week with a highly qualified professional DJ and instructor to learn the rudiments of DJing, the history of different styles of modern music (hip-hop, techno, pop, and other forms of electronic music) and all about how modern music is created.  This 8-week course will give 8-10 students a chance to try out different forms of music-making including beat-making, music production, and hands-on lessons in scratching and mixing with real professional equipment.  Hands-on lessons will be balanced with discussion, music analysis and history lessons using original sound and video sources.

Here are some sample lessons:

1st Class – What do you love about music? An Intro to DJing

Goals:

• Inspire students to begin to think critically about music
• Engage students using their own music as a platform into lessons about structure, rhythm, and production techniques
• Introduce the physical techniques needed to DJ

 

1. Live Demonstration of a DJ routine. As an introduction to what they will be learning about, students are shown a live DJ performance that includes many different techniques and styles of music blended together including music from the 60s through today’s music.  Students are then asked what they know about the techniques, songs they recognized, what they would like to learn, what they already know about modern music.
2. Each student writes on a piece of paper three songs that they love.  Papers are picked randomly and discussed as a class.  The instructor will ask students thought-provoking questions about their music choices.  i.e. What is the genre (type) of music? What year was that song made? What is the tempo of that song?  What instruments are used to make that song?   How would you divide that song into sections?  What makes it better than other songs? Who is an artist that may have influenced the songwriter?
3. DJ routine is repeated with stops at each section and explained by the instructor.  Last 20 minutes of class students take turns learning a basic scratch that was part of the same DJ performance.

 

2nd Class — Where do beats come from?

Goals:

• Give students an introduction to the technology behind sampling, one of the most important modern music-making techniques.
• Empower students through participation in a creative music-making process

 

1. Live demonstration of sampler technology.  Students watch as the instructor plays an instrumental “beat” from a sampler.  The instructor shows the students each individual part of the beat separately, then showed how they are assembled into an instrumental song or backing track.  
2. Beatmaking Exercise – Each student is assigned one sample and given the chance to record a performance of their sample until the entire class has contributed to an original instrumental.
3. Repeat the beatmaking exercise, encouraging students to use the same palette of sounds in a completely different way. (New tempo, new rhythm, different patterns)
4. Each student then records their own performance of the beat as a whole.  The tracks are burned to CD for each student to take home.

 

Other Lessons – Hands-on DJing Exercises, Making a DJ Set, Mixing Records, Synthesizer Technology, Basics of Recording, History of Hip-Hop music, History of Electronic/Techno music.