So you! The budding DJ want to do an extended DJ set? You want to push your body and hearing to the brink to test your mettle and out of curiosity to see where the journey of sound take you? And you want some tips? Some pointers and clues how to survive? AND you've come to me for them??? OH alright then! 😁
As a DJ of 20+ years, I have recently been pushing myself to the boundaries of exhaustion with extended streams. I think you really discover who you are and what DJing means to you, also the journey and evolution of your 12 hour sound will tell you what kind of DJ you are. Yes the are physical aspects; you're standing / dancing for a long period of time, you need to worry about your posture as bad posture will lead to a bad back, you need to wear trainers / make sure your standing space is clear from anything that could stop you from standing in a natural position. Other aspects include food and the health of your hearing. I have been able to do extended dj sets on Twitch via livestreaming, never done it in a club, but I imagine these pointers will be universal.
The first thing you should do;
- Plan the journey.
I never plan my DJ sets, whether they be 1 or 12 hours long, I love my DJing journey to be organic, to let it take its own path. Use that little voice inside you to say 'XXX will be a great track to play next'. This brings me back to a point I made on one of my very first blogs - LEARN YOUR TUNES! Know what would flow well into each other to either keep things the way they are, or know which tracks will take things to the next level up.
For the 12 hour set I did recently, I knew I was going to start off slow and easy - this allows you to ease yourself and your headspace into a gentle start. DO NOT burn out / smash things out too early as you'll have no where to go. I started with some very nice melodic house about 123bpm - which I then aimed to take into funky house at 125bpm approximately 90 minutes later. This gives YOU and your audience a nice warm up. Also, it was around lunchtime so again, know the crowd youre playing for, funky house vibes on a saturday lunchtime is kinda nice. As the sun goes down, youre going to want to ramp things up and progress things along. Late afternoon, I progressed the funky house into Techno and come sundown about 7pm, I was ready to start my main segment of the DJ set - Trance. So I used the first 6 hours as a warm up to where I wanted to end up.
I knew I wanted to get from melodic house at 123bpm to Trance at 140bpm - its just connecting the dots from A to B as seamlessly as possible. Make all bpm increases gradual, and over those initial 6 hours, move the narrative along. If you find 12 hours daunting, break the journey into quarters and plan a switch up of genres every 3 hours! Time will FLY!
- EAT AND DRINK.
You need to eat. The body needs nutrition and liquids to function, and there is nothing worse than DJing hungry - you lose focus and you really do feel the fatigue. So have standing meals (off camera during long tracks) - pasta, protein - and drink water, especially for the first part. No one wants a drunk DJ after only drinking beers for the initial 3 hours. You wont want that either because you'll sober up with a headache and 4 hours to go. NOT GOOD... Trust me. And bathroom breaks, we all gotta take them - find a good long record and put on your on screen graphics! We're human (well some of us) after all!)
- Take your headphones off as much as possible. Give your ears a break!
Once your not mixing, and after cueing up your next track, take the headphones off and give your ears a breather. TRUST ME ON THIS. Your hearing will be getting burnt out and before long, you'll find actually listening to the track for beatmatching harder and harder. I dont use recordbox so I have no track display wavs to look at, its all done by ear for me, so I need to respect that factor. Try to have your headphones as quiet as possible for as long as possible - and take them cans off when you can!
Keep interacting with the audience, its a journey for them as well as you, but dont be disheartened of your audience numbers / members go in waves, not everyone can stay for the whole 12 hours. You may not have a life during this extended set, but people do, and generally supportive people will be back once they have freed up their time. Be thankful for any support whatsoever. DJing is so self indulgent, so thank people for massaging your performing ego.
Try to mix in headphones (as well as respecting point 3) to avoid upsetting neighbours because of the duration of the stream. Neighbours of DJs are pretty good because they understand this is your craft, and as long as youre respectable most of the time when you practice, they'll be forgiving for the odd hour or 2 of music during the weekend. But I can't say many people would appreciate to hear every moment of your 12 hours, so mix in headphones where you can to keep your monitors down. If you live in a detached house in the Cotswolds, please disregard this comment.
HAVE FUN - and if you can't make it (painful back, deafness, chronic stomach upset or upset partner) at least you know you gave it your best shot, and make sure you do this whilst smiling. No one likes a moody DJ, apart from the Techno / Tech House scene.
Please feel free to add your own if you are a DJ who has also done extended / marathon sets!
Love,
James x