7 Myths About DJing That Hold People Back

As a DJ tutor, I hear students saying some of these things, but I also hear experienced DJs telling newer DJs some of these things too, and I disagree with them all, especially for DJs who are just learning.

A lot of the wrong advice is not meant to mislead, but nonetheless, there’s a big difference between being a pro DJ and being a DJ who’s starting out. And I don’t want some of the things that pro DJs might worry about to stop people who are earlier on in their journey from having a go at this amazing hobby.

So here are seven things that DJs are often told they should worry about (or do) that, I think, are usually just plain wrong:

7 Myths About DJing That Hold People Back

1. You need to practise for months or years before playing in public

You learn by doing, and DJing is something you do in public. You’ll learn more at one public DJ event of any size or type than you will learn in a month of practising at home. You should be playing in front of other people in some way or form early, and as often as possible.

2. DJing is all about the mixing

No, it isn’t. Mixing is the final 20% at very best. DJing is about great music played in the right order for the people in front of you, right now. When you are doing that, the mixing will come naturally because every two or three minutes, you’ll be forced to make a decision about how to play the next record.

Learn to DJ with us: The Complete DJ Course

This is how it should be. Don’t think you need to be a genius at mixing to call yourself a DJ. Most DJs do the same basic things over and over again, and no one notices or cares.

3. You need pro gear

No, you don’t. To DJ, you need four things: A pair of music-playing devices of some type, something to mix the two of them together, some headphones to listen to something that’s different to what the audience is hearing, and some speakers for the audience.

That’s it.

You can do everything I just described on a couple of hundred dollars worth of gear nowadays. Of course, if you’re playing in pro clubs, you need pro gear, but one step at a time. It’s easy to learn to DJ on your phone if you have to! So don’t let gear hold you back.

4. You need a huge record collection

No, you don’t, and lots of music is actually a hindrance because you don’t know that music well enough to DJ properly with it. Far better to build your collection slowly. After all, if you’re rehearsing for your first event and it’s an hour’s DJing, well, that’s going to be 20, 25 records at most.

Don’t think you need to have a huge collection to start doing this – it’s much better to build that collection slowly.

5. DJing only happens in clubs

Not everyone wants to DJ in clubs, but a generation ago, that was basically the only place you could. Everything has changed. Now, with today’s gear, you can DJ anywhere. People expect to see DJs in all kinds of places.

Not only that, but you can DJ online, you can share your mixes, and you can even just DJ for yourself or for private parties and events. DJing broke away from the club many years ago, and a lot of DJs don’t give two hoots whether they ever play in a club.

6. You need to be young to be a DJ

Walk past any music shop window nowadays, and among the saxophones, drums and bass guitars, you’ll see DJ gear. That’s because it’s gone mainstream, and DJs embrace the art at every stage of life.

Read this next: Why It’s Never Too Late To Start DJing

DJing is now as accepted as any other way of playing music, and you shouldn’t think that you need to be 18 in order to not feel silly when you’re doing it. It just isn’t true any more.

7. DJing is hard

No, it’s not. You need a passion for music, and you need to have seen a DJ somewhere along the line and thought, “I could do better than that.”

As long as you’ve got those two things, you’ve got what it takes to DJ. After all, you’re just cutting out the gaps between records and checking that they’re roughly playing at the same volume! How hard can that be? If you can do that and avoid the things that really annoy you about other DJs, then you’re on the field of play.

Of course, becoming a great DJ is hard, but you don’t have to be a great DJ to call yourself a DJ. DJing is fun, and anyone with a passion to do it can do a good job without too much difficulty, especially with today’s amazing DJ systems.

Finally…

I was inspired to share these tips now because we have the second edition of our Amazon best-selling book, Rock The Dancefloor!, ready to launch, where I share our famous five steps to DJing like a pro. In fact, it’s going live on Amazon at the end of May 2024.

When exactly? I can’t tell you because… Amazon.

However, if you click this link and give us your email address, I’ll let you know the second it goes live, when there’ll be a special 99 cent offer on the Kindle version, which will only be for 24 hours.

So don’t miss it – click the link and fill in your address, and I’ll let you know when it’s ready.