How a DJ Will Read the Crowd

0:00 I'd be driving around in my Ferrari, having lots of fun, drinking cham

Alright ladies and gentlemen, I had an email from a guy by the name of George, actually it's a Facebook message, asking about reading the crowd in a nightclub. Now, if I was able to read the crowd perfectly in a nightclub or for that matter in any event, I would not be sat here now. I'd be driving around in my Ferrari, having lots of fun, drinking champagne. In fact, I'd have my chauffeur drive my Ferrari because of course you can't drink and drive. But what I can tell you and what I can do is give you information on some of the best ways of reading the crowd. Now this chap mentioned that so long as the girls are happy, you know, everyone's going to be happy. Well that's not really right. It's great to get a dance floor full of girls because the blokes stay there and watch and whatnot.

But with the gigs I've done, it's just as important to get the guys up and dancing and vibrant as it is the girls. Because if you've only got a group of girls dancing on the dance floor, and there's loads of psychology to this, if you've only got girls dancing on the dance floor, then where are the blokes? They're sat by the bar or maybe they're watching the girls, yeah. But they're not really interacting as much as they should be. And potentially you could have trouble. Because they're just sat there gawping at the women or drinking beer. Ideally you want the dance floor full of males and females. Therefore you've got a good mixed group of people on the dance floor. Now working as a DJ in a nightclub is completely different to working as a mobile DJ.

Because as a mobile DJ, potentially you have the job of entertaining children up to old age. Pensioners on Zimma frames who are about to die. So you've got a vast array of age groups. A nightclub, you're looking from anything from 18 or whoever can manage to get in with a pass upwards to however old they'll let them to get into. Or however old they'll let them get in.

2:12 Your sixth sense

So, reading the crowd. How does one do it? Well, of course, you play a track. If the track works, you play another track. Similar genre, similar style, similar feel. Similar year, similar sort of... I don't know if it's a pop song of today and it works. Then play another pop song of today. And carry on playing that so long as the crowd are happy. Now let's look at your sixth sense. If we go back a long, long time ago when we were running around in trees and living in caves you would be... You'd have this fight or flight. You'd think, hold on, something's wrong here. I need to move quick. I need to run. If I don't run a tree is going to fall on my head or a big antelope is going to come and like just try and accost me.

So you'd run or you'd jump or something would happen. Now the same applies exactly, exactly the same applies for a DJ when you're in a nightclub or a mobile gig. You will sense the energy in the room. The energy will be vibrant. It will be uplifting. And I have mentioned this before. It's a little bit like a swimming pool with two people either side of the pool. One splashes the water and the water then slowly the ripples of the water run along the swimming pool until they hit the next person. That next person gets the energy from those ripples and then he or she thinks, oh, I'll do the same. Flat, flat back, flat, flat back and so on. And you've got a constant flow of energy. Now that's what happens in a nightclub for that matter in a mobile gig

Because your music is giving the energy and you as well as the DJ are giving the energy. If you're playing the best house track or the best pop song in the world by the cheesiest, most poppiest X Factor band you can imagine and you're just sat there like a bag of chisels then people are going to think, God, they're not very happy as a DJ. God look, why are they doing this? Instead, why don't you jump around and have fun? You may think, this is absolutely shit but I'm going to pretend I'm enjoying myself. Try not to pretend because people will suss it out if you're pretending. You need to be professional enough to know you maybe hate the track, to know you've played it a thousand times but the crowd don't know that.

5:10 Feel and vibe

The crowd think you are thoroughly enjoying yourself and if they get that vibe, that energy from you you will transmit that energy to them and they will feel euphoric and happy because not only is it a great track, not only are the lights flashing, there's ambience in the room, the bar's full, the light, everything's happening but they'll get the fun and excitement from the track, from you, from the dance floor, from people so it's that big pile of energy being thrown at them that will make them feel good. And if you carry on playing that style and the feel then there's no reason at all why they still won't be feeling good. Now let's have a look at feel and vibe. Now, feel and vibe with a track is many things. It's the genre for example

So you don't want to start playing a house song then a hip hop then an R&B song well you could play hip hop and R&B it's very similar but a house then a hip hop then a 70s then you don't want to play a 60s you know, you don't want to play 1-1-1 try and keep it groups of but also remember and this is a big part about vibe the key of the track the feel, the energy of that track a lot of it is based on the music the melody of that song so try and keep the melodies working together. Now there's many ways of mixing in key and I would say there are four very basic rules of mixing in key there they are and I'm going to use my two hands here's track one here's track two The first rule of mixing in key is tracks of the same key

That keeps the same energy keeps a good flow here's one here's the other so they're the same key there's your mix transition alternatively if you're using 7 inch singles quite often you'll just stop one and start the other even if you do that so long as the start and stop is of the same key the energy will stay at a constant and you will have something like that The other one is when maybe you dip the energy very slightly so you go from one key to another key that's a slight dip and the energy still works because you still have a flow you have this constant flow of energy even though you're going from a high key to a lower key from A1 to A12 for example The other one is let's say if you want to lift the vibe so you're going from one key

To a higher key so for example you could be going from A2 to B2 You could go from a minor key to a major key Now all major keys will lift the energy It's a magical feel Major keys seem to lift the energy no matter what So that's the other way of lifting the energy The other one is something like that which is a bit of a square shape When you're playing one track and you chuck in the next one Now these two tracks could be house songs House, house They could be hip hop songs they could be even by the same artist the same BPM the same genre the same style Everything's the same Except the keys do not work If that's the case say for example from A1 to B2 something like that If let's say you play tracks like that and you chop or you mix

8:34 Middle middle, verse chorus, understand woman

Now the energy is going to change It's going to be a little bit like throwing a pan full of I don't know, broken spanners into the room It's going to make people feel uneasy and oh what's happened Quite often the dancers don't even know what's going on You could do a perfect mix in time In phrase Nothing is wrong with the mix Except the keys do not work That in itself will change the energy of the room Therefore resulting in potentially people leaving the dance floor Since one or two do it's a bit like sheep Then another few do Another few, oh look at the time Do you need to go to the toilet? Pick your own bag up Off they go That's it They're off to the bar And you're sat there It's a cod with no one on the dance floor

Not a good idea So it's about reading the crowd If the crowd enjoy what you're playing They're happy, they're vibrant Then carry on You may feel the energy rises and rises And rises till a point where it's like Yes come on Well if you can keep it that way Brilliant A lot of DJs what they will tend to do Is they will take a song Here's my song There it is There's the beginning and the end All they'll do They'll take away the beginning Take away the end And they'll just play the middle bit Middle, middle, middle, middle, middle Now that works If you can carry on doing that all night Brilliant But There will come a point when people will think Hold on a minute Look, can we just listen to the song? Can we just hear the track?

We don't want to just listen to Verse, chorus, verse, chorus Oh Chorus from the next song Verse, chorus, verse From the next song They want to listen to the whole track So reading the crowd And keeping the vibe and energy in the room Isn't as simple as watching this video It's a bit like trying to understand a woman I started reading the prologue of how to understand a woman And the prologue was in seven volumes And the first volume I'm on, which is chapter one Is about this big That's just the prologue No offence But I think you get my meaning So reading the crowd Itself Is very difficult But at the same time You can make it easy By just following the simple rules in this video Practice and enjoy Thank you

This transcript was produced automatically from the audio of the video and may contain mistakes.