3:02
A is for attitude
On YouTube this video is called DJ Advise. A is for Attitude.
What this lesson teaches
An alphabet game he set running in the comments, where viewers added a word per letter and said how it applied to DJing. His first entry is attitude, and the argument has two halves.
Attitude as the thing that gets you in the door
The scenario he draws, in his own words: you are a bad boy on the street, your mates think you are the hardest thing in town, you dress the part - and then you want to work in a nightclub, or get yourself into a hotel as a mobile DJ.
That attitude is not the one that gets you either job.
And the reason is the one he returns to throughout this stage: first impressions last, and you have only a few seconds to make one. The person deciding whether to let you play is forming a view before you have said anything substantive.
And the part that is actually worth reading
The second half, which goes further than most advice of this kind.
If you are a mobile DJ, you have to have the right attitude all night - that much is obvious.
But it does not stop there. You cannot be professional at the gig and then, walking up the high street on a Tuesday, revert to being a prat. You are still in the public eye.
Why that matters commercially rather than morally: by the argument of the whole of this stage, almost all mobile work arrives by recommendation, from people who met you somewhere other than a gig. The person in the queue behind you, the person you were rude to in a car park, the person who watched you at the bar - any of them might be the one asked do you know a DJ?
So there is no off-duty version. Your reputation is being assembled continuously by people who have never seen you work.
And on the game itself
Worth noting as a piece of how the channel operated. He is not just handing down a list - he is asking the audience to build one, letter by letter, with each person explaining why their word matters to a DJ.
His framing: it is not only me, it is you giving advice as well.
Which is why there is as much material in his comment sections as in some of the videos, and why so many lessons in this stage end with him asking somebody else to do the next one.
Contents of the video
0:03 Very quickly, what's the whole idea of this video?
Alright guys, A is for attitude. Very quickly, what's the whole idea of this video? What I want you to do is to look through the comments and if you see someone has left a word that starts with the letter A, then do another one with A and maybe another one or another one. Maybe you can do B. As soon as someone puts B, then carry on with B, C and D. The whole idea is for people to leave comments in alphabetical order with words that can be, let's say, associated with DJing. Now admittedly, A for attitude could be associated with anything in life. But we want to try and target the DJ. Mobile DJ, club DJ, entertainer as a whole, radio DJ. So for example, this is my first one, A for attitude. If, let's say you're a bad boy on the streets and your friends think you're the baddest guy in town and you walk around with a baseball cap wrapped around your arse and you just don't fly and you want to go and work in a nightclub or you want to maybe try and become a mobile DJ.
1:14 Maybe A for attitude
Maybe A for attitude. Your attitude isn't the right attitude to get yourself into a nightclub. Or to try... Or to try and get yourself into that hotel to become a mobile DJ. So attitude is one of the most important factors to get you places. Remember, first impressions last. You only have a few seconds, a few vital seconds to put over a good impression. So your attitude is vitally important. Also, you have to remember that if you want to be a mobile DJ when you're working as a mobile DJ, you have to have the right attitude all night. But that doesn't mean to say that when you're not working as a mobile DJ and you're walking up and down the high street, you can just become your normal average self and start just acting a prat.
It's not a good idea because you are still in the public eye. So your attitude is one of the most important factors about you and your attitude will help you in life as well. So, very simple. Do more A's if you want to and then maybe B. Think of a word and then in a comment put that word and then in the comment as well describe that word. How you feel that word will help is associated with a mobile DJ, a club DJ, a radio DJ. Alright? Let's have some fun here but also more importantly it's not only me, it's you giving advice as well. Very simple. Practice and enjoy. Thank you.
This transcript was produced automatically from the audio of the video and may contain mistakes.
This video is part of
Related videos
-
How to Get a Better Fee for Your Mobile DJ Services
He disclaims it as not financial advice and notes that everything depends on where you are. Taken as a checklist of what justifies a higher…
