New DJ Playlist advise ? maybe.

[mkindy]

I remember when I first started mobile dj'ing, I used to poo myself every time wondering if I get the music right so panic used to set in and I used to spend all week making a play list, and as we all know it never works.

If you are new to the scene can I advise you to make a few folders/lists with "good music" in them that you are going to use, not in any order, type, style etc but keep them as reminders, I have a few folders on the pc (about 30 song in each) that I have divided into a order that makes sense to me, start up music, early on dancing party music, cheese, dancing party music, must play rock, slow dance music, modern etc. this system works for me and stops the panic of what do I play next, if I find a new song that I like and want to play at my next gig I have another folder called try again then if it works I add it to the folder it belongs in.

I've played 3 prom style gigs recently (age 17 - 20 years), I went armed with the latest chart pop dance stuff and the first gig wanted more club style remixes, 2nd gig was a rockers party and last week they wanted 90's, I didn't get to use my pre made play list, and in fact I very rarely do use it now, but I like to go prepared with enough songs to get me going just in case, then you always get that know it all who keeps asking when are you going to get people to dance, and because of the hot weather all party goers have been outside chatting making the job for me very boring and unrewarding, you go home asking yourself was it me ?

[paulg]

Sound advice and a good idea to post because there have been some new members signing up recently who might be interested

Personally, my folders are divided into floorfillers for each decade - 70's, 80's, 90's, etc and also some into very specific genres where it might be useful e.g. Motown, Northern Soul. Modern stuff is done mainly by year - 2011, 2012, 2013 etc because of the short shelf life I find that i need to reflect that last few months at the time the folder is in most use. At the moment there are some superb 2013 tracks so it's worth bringing them to the fore.

Each song is tagged with no of times played, beats intro, genre, description (R&B, pop etc), no of times requested and most importantly, what song(s) it mixes to and from. An obvious old example being Sexy and i know it mixed to Cha Cha Slide club mix which mixed to We No Speak Americano's and so on. Blimey, remember those! All this data is input whilst Dj'ing so it is further refined by the odd inspired choice and also punters choice / alcohol intake!

It reflects years of experience and it never ceases to amaze me how people are offended by the answer "no" when they ask me to give them a copy of my database and tracks!

[funkymook]

Creating playlists on your computer is the equivalent of browsing through your CD's for inspiration - sometimes you don't know what to play next and relying 100% on memory is a recipe for disaster when you get a mental block.

I've got loads of folders or playlists from previous gigs, genres or just random 'good tunes' I use as memory joggers.