What 4 years of DJ’ing have taught me

I’ve been into DJ’ing for a while now and I thought that this might be a good time for me to think about the lessons that I’ve learned…

I’ve always been into quality music. I remember that in high-school I never listened to the mainstream music that all my colleagues were into, I simply couldn’t stand it; it simply seemed stupid to me.

There were only a few tracks that I slightly enjoyed listening to, but the vast majority of the music that was floating around disappointed me.

I wanted to listen to a more mature and inspired music.

After spending several years searching for my kind of music, a music that would resonate with me, the answer came to me in my early teens. The music that would vibrate with me was the queen of the Electronic Dance Music (EDM) genre, Trance.

I won’t get into details about what I like so much about trance music because it doesn’t make the subject of the post, but the energy it produces is amazing!

So 4 years ago (in 2003), when I was sixteen, I managed to obtain residency at a local club. Every night, for a few hours, I got the chance to share my passionfor quality music with hundreds of other people. And even though the vast majority of them didn’t “understand” most of the tracks that I played – trance is harder than the mainstream electronic music, the resulted energy made them feel amazing!

That is the first lesson that DJ’ing has taught me in respect to life: good music is an universal language; it doesn’t matter if you understand it or not, it doesn’t matter if you can consciously connect to it or not, it will make you feel good by putting you in a positive vibratory state. The high volumes only accentuate what’s already in the music, they can’t replace the missing energy. Good music remains good music even if it the volume doesn’t make you deaf.

The second thing that I learned from DJ’ing was the ability to read people. This is one of the core qualities of a good DJ. If you can read your crowd, you can control it. Just like in the ordinary world.

This skill is gained after hours of carefully selecting the right tracks to play and noticing the crowd reaction to them. It’s a skill learned in time by trial and error. I now have gained and learned so much about how to read the reaction of a crowd that I just know when to play the right tune and also in what order to mix the tracks that I play. Each track has a different energy to it, a different vibe, and I can just feel the vibe of the crowd and play them the track that matches it while challenging them to expand. Just like Dr. Wayne Dyer wrote in “The Power of Intention”, it’s a match game.

The skill of quickly reading people isn’t helping me only in DJ’ing (it’s a sensational feeling to be able to play the perfect record at the perfect moment and send the people crazy on the dance floor), but also in my ordinary day to day life. I can instantly feel the energy of a crowd or a person and play the according “tune”.

DJ’ing has also taught me how to keep life fresh and exciting. While mixing, I try not to play the same type of style all night as this becomes too repetitive and boring. I like to keep the sets fresh and exciting by adding different accappellas and mixing different sections of the records. In life, this translates in living on the edge and being open to new experiences and ideas.

I’ve also learned an important lesson about interests. In the words of Eleanor Roosevelt, “if you are interested [in something], you never have to look for new interests. They come to you. When you are genuinely interested in one thing, it will always lead to something else.” A big truth contained in these phrases. It’s my interest in music that led me to start studying philosophy and to start this blog.

For the DJ side of me, each mix is a blend between my musical influences, my mixing past and my ever adapting ability to incorporate new skills and technology to create new sounds. To make an analogy between this and life: the results of each moment that I live are the results of a blend between education, old paradigms and the ability to adapt to the ever changing environments around me. Isn’t it beautiful how it all fits together?

Even if I’m doing it for four years, I’m still feeling the same enthusiasm that I felt on the first night. It didn’t wear off a bit! The power of doing what you really like does that to you. Always do the things that you have passion for, never do something just because you intellectually think you can.

A DJ is an artist that paints vivid images in peoples minds by mixing different sounds, just like a painter paints his canvas by combining different colors.

Each of us is an artist, each individual is responsible for painting the picture of his own life.

To summarize, these are the things that I’ve learned as a result of DJ’ing for four years:

• I’ve learned that beautiful music is universal;
• I’ve learned to read the energy print of a crowd;
• In the day to day life, I have learned when to play the right “tune”;
• I’ve learned that living on the edge is the real living. A monotone life is a boring state of hibernation;
  
• I’ve learned that if I genuinely have an interest, I don’t have to search for others. Other interests will find me;
• I’ve learned to do what I like even if I don’t know how. I almost never do something just because I think I might be able to;
• I’ve learned that we’re all artists;
• I’ve learned not to judge anyone by how better they are when compared to someone else. I’m the only target of my judgment and if I’m a better person today than I was yesterday, I’m happy!

Stay happy, keep learning,
Here for you,
Armand