What is a DJ?

A Brief Introduction to the Art of the DJ
By Aran Keating
v.1.0    July 2008

What is a DJ?

 

Simply put, a DJ is someone who plays prerecorded music for an audience. There are many different kinds of DJs, from someone who plays music strictly as a professional service, to someone who creates their own original music in a studio or creates music live  for an audience. 
The most rudimentary form of this is a radio or wedding disc jockey who has a list of songs and requests that they play in a certain order.  This kind of DJ is performing a service and doesn’t necessarily view his job as an art form but as a professional craft, similar to a lighting technician or a sound engineer.  On the other end of this spectrum is an artist or musician who creates his own music in a studio or creates sets as part of a live show, making music in front of an audience in the same way that a songwriter would perform with a live band.  Today, DJs can be considered the prime music maker for a band, or as an additional member of an ensemble serving some of the same functions as a guitar player, but using different tools.  
There is a wide spectrum of different types of DJ ranging from the “Professional DJ” to the “Creative DJ” and many DJs find a space comfortably in between these extremes, making music and creating mixes that are unique and interesting.  Many DJs have huge multinational followings and have gained status previously only granted to rock superstars, even though the music they play might not be their own.

What is a MIX?

 A mix is the medium through which most DJs express themselves: A selection of songs that are blended together to create a unique listening experience.  Radio DJs simply play certain songs in a certain order. Although this could be considered their “mix,” the real art of DJing comes in when the DJ uses different skills and techniques to create a mix that is more than the sum of its parts: a completely one-of-a-kind listening experience. A good DJ mix makes you listen to music in a completely new way.

Some DJs are known for creating “sound environments” by choosing certain songs, sound effects, and other recorded sounds that create a certain mood.

Other DJs use beatmatching and certain kinds of blends in order to create seamless transitions between songs, or to add instrumental “solo” sections to songs where they didn’t exist before.  Other DJs will break a track down to its individual parts, separating out particular drum sounds or vocal samples to reconstruct the track anew; this is known as “remixing” and can be done in a studio before a performance or live during a show.  Some DJs take music creation to a higher level and incorporate performance on various instruments into their DJ sets.  While they play instrumental songs a DJ can perform on various types of percussion instruments, horns, keyboards, or play sounds from an actual record using their hands, known as “scratching.”

 What tools does a DJ use?

Almost all DJs use basically the same tools, turntables or CD Players and a mixer, but some DJs use these and other tools to modify and add to the music they are playing.  There is a multitude of skills that any DJ can learn in order to make his sets more interesting or more creative and, depending on what he or she needs, certain tools for them to achieve their goals.

Music Sources:

 

Two Turntables (Record Players) are usually the beginning of any DJ setup.
This allows a DJ to take two different sound sources and mix or blend them together in many ways.  Modern CD and Digital technology (CD Players, laptop mixing, Ipod) now allows more flexibility in choosing where music comes from, while still allowing a DJ plenty of control over their music.   DJ Turntables usually have some of these features:

• High-powered motors for immediate response
• Pitch Control for changing the speed of the music
• High-Quality sound reproduction
• Skip-resistant parts (for very reliable performance)
• Skip-resistant needles

Mixer

 The DJ mixer is similar to a standard live performance sound mixer (multiple inputs, EQ controls, level controls, and monitoring ability) all of its features are designed for absolute ease of use.  Most DJs use only a two channel mixer, meaning it can mix only two sound sources at one time (as opposed to standard live sound mixers, that usually have anywhere from four to 80 different channels of sound)
In addition a high quality cross-fader allow fast changes between the channels allowing many different tricks and techniques.  All the elements of a DJ mixer are built for ease of use in a live performance; just like a good quality keyboard or guitar, a high-quality Mixer is necessary for a DJ to perform.

Music

DJs traditionally have used records (vinyl) as their sound source.  Although they are still popular (new music is still pressed to vinyl before it is released to the general public) DJs now have the choice to use CDs, MP3, or other digital files in their music sets and achieve the same amount of control.

Scratching

Scratching is the art of moving a record percussively back and forth across the platter of a turntable.  Modern needle technology has enabled record scratching to become a reliable and technically advanced way of making music: High quality needles prevent records from skipping, or deterioration of the sound quality, slipmats allow the record to move smoothly over the surface of the platter, high-powered turntables allow immediate response from the music.

Scratch DJs, or turntablists, use a variety of complex techniques when scratching for a performance.  There are approximately 30 different named scratch techniques and each one can be combined with a huge variety of sounds.  Scratching is usually an improvised art form.  Similarly to the way that a jazz musician will improvise on the notes of a certain scale, or a drummer will combine the sounds of his drum kit during a drum solo, a scratch DJ can take a sound and scratch it in an infinite number of different ways.

Although this form of DJing has only been around since mid 80s, it is an art form that has gained huge recognition as a musical form.  Turntablists have performed special concertos with symphony orchestras across the world, they are studied in world-class schools of music, and a special form of written scratch notation has been invented to document their performances. 

How is a DJ a MUSICIAN?

 DJing is a form of music making that incorporates many different aspects of traditional music practice.   In some ways a DJ controls and guides prerecorded music, much like the conductor of an orchestra takes a pre-written symphony and guides the orchestra through its different movements.  Even though the music is already written, the orchestra needs a person with the vision to understand how all the parts fit together and give the audience a good listening experience. 

In other ways a DJ is an instrumentalist, similar to a jazz musician in a combo.  The rhythm and the framework are laid out by the bass and drums, so the soloist can perform within that context.  For a DJ this means scratching, playing instruments, or triggering samples on top of music playing as part of their set. 

In addition, a DJ must have an intimate understanding of rhythm and structure in music.  In order to perform a beatmatch or to mix two songs together in an appealing way, the person who is controlling the music must have a good understanding of time signatures, rhythmic patterns and song structures for the type of music they are playing.  The structure of music is a very important aspect of music study.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the DJ is a musicologist: someone who studies different types of music, listening to a wide variety of genres and styles to find songs, new and old, to play for their audience, or to aid them in making their own original music. 

Every DJ’s goal is to help their audience appreciate music in a new and different ways!

 

 

For booking, rates and questions about any of our services: