Skip to main content

Stage 0 Before You Start Course 1 of 4

What DJing Actually Is

Beginner 6 lessons · 25 min

Before any kit, a straight answer to what the job is. Ellaskins has been asked "when is a DJ a real DJ?" for twenty years, and his answer has not changed much: it is about the person, not the equipment. Work through this if you are weighing up whether to start at all.

By the end of this course you will be able to

  • Say what a DJ actually does, beyond pressing play
  • Tell the difference between vinyl, CDJ and controller DJing, and why it matters less than people claim
  • Set a realistic expectation of how long it takes to get good
  • Decide whether this is something you want to put the hours into

Lessons

  1. When is a DJ a real DJ?

    1:06

  2. What DJ mixing actually means

    4:54

  3. Your first ever lesson: what you are aiming at

    1:56

  4. Vinyl, CDJ, turntablist - is it the same job?

    7:32

  5. How long it takes to become good

    2:55

  6. Does the technology make you less of a DJ?

    Optional 6:28

    Opinion rather than instruction.

The stages are the way through

Below this line is the back catalogue, newest first. Useful for browsing, but it is not a course - the videos are in the order they were filmed, not the order to learn them in. Work the stages instead: each one assumes the one before it.

Latest DJ Tutor Videos