5:41
On becoming a "superstar DJ"
On YouTube this video is called How to become a Super Star dj!, Vlog, perhaps you are alread
What this lesson teaches
He warns you himself that it is a vlog and that if you cannot stand the waffling you should go and watch paint dry. Stay for the central idea, which is genuinely good.
Superstar DJ - that is you
The claim: if you are in your bedroom with five, three, two mates, and you can make them smile, tap their feet and buzz off your mix, you are a superstar DJ - because that is no different from doing the same thing to a thousand people in a club.
It sounds like flattery. Then he explains it, and it stops being flattery.
Why a thousand people is easier
This is the real insight, and it is about crowd psychology rather than encouragement.
In a club of a thousand, a hundred of them start enjoying themselves. The other nine hundred look over, see people having a good time, and join in - without knowing why. Somebody can walk in depressed, look at a room full of people buzzing, and be buzzing themselves within minutes.
The crowd generates its own momentum. People buzz because other people are buzzing.
None of that is available in a bedroom with five people. There is no mass to feed off, no anonymity, nobody being carried along. Every reaction you get is a direct response to the music you chose and the way you put it together.
So his conclusion is not sentimental - it is arithmetic: making five people in a room enjoy a mix may be a harder job than making a thousand enjoy one in a club.
Which is worth holding onto if you have never played out. The small room is not practice for the real thing with the difficulty turned down. In the one respect that matters, it is turned up.
On mistakes
The other thread, and it is why his sign-off is what it is.
Make a mistake with a negative feeling inside you and it will not work. Make the same mistake with a positive one and it will.
That is why it is practice and enjoy. Smile when you make mistakes, smile when you do not, and you cannot go wrong.
The mechanism is real: a visible flinch tells a room something went wrong, and a room that was not listening closely now is. The recovery is the performance, not the error.
And the admission
Worth recording, because almost nobody in this business says it.
He does not think he is a good DJ. Average, by his own assessment - possibly good at teaching and inspiring people, but average behind the decks. People send him questions, he watches their videos, and thinks they are better than he is.
And his diagnosis of why that is unusual: this is what is wrong with a lot of the DJ community. They will not admit things.
His suggestion is not public confession - it is to admit it to yourself, privately, and feel better for it. Which is sound. A DJ who can say what they are not good at can work on it; one who cannot has to keep defending it instead.
Coming from somebody who taught thousands of people, that is the most credible thing in this stage.
Contents of the video
0:00 Jonathan here, also known as the DJ Tutor
Jonathan here, also known as the DJ Tutor. For people who don't know me, I give online lessons here at DJ. My website is djtutor.com. This is a bit of a vlog, so first of all, a word of warning. If you would like to stop now because you can't stand me waffling, then maybe you should go and do something a lot more interesting, and that is of course maybe watching paint dry. For the people out there who want to carry on watching me, then check this out here. That there is a similar picture. To something that I put on a video I did like 18 months ago. Superstar DJ. That is you. Alright, let's say you're in your bedroom and you've got 5, 3, 2, 1 of your mates around and if you can make 5, 3, 2 of your mates smile, tap the feet and buzz to your mix then you are a superstar DJ because that is no different
1:42 100 all of a sudden start going, hooray!
To a DJ being in a huge club doing exactly the same to a thousand people. Okay, maybe this conversation is squished down quite a lot because it's vast. Because there's the buzz, there's the euphoria, there's thousands of people, there's people buzzing from people because the people are buzzing. They don't really want to buzz because they're... Sorry, start again. They don't really want to buzz but they will end up buzzing because everyone else is buzzing. Maybe they walk in really depressed and they look at all these people going, And they go, And they don't even know why they're going, That's the club. 5 people buzz, then you're possibly doing a better job than the superstar DJ who is in a club full of 1,000 people. Because, think about it, the mind boggles. 1,000 people? 100 all of a sudden start going, hooray! The other 900 will sit there and they'll think, wow, they're enjoying themselves, maybe we should enjoy ourselves as well. They don't even know what they're doing, but...
They're buzzing because everyone else is buzzing. So, like I said, maybe you're doing a better job in your bedroom with five people than the superstar DJ is doing with a thousand people. Again, sorry, I don't really want to go into this because I could just go like this. So, right, calm down. Deep breath. Calm down. Alright, so... Thank you for watching. Hey! What the heck? Enjoy it, because think about it logically. If you make a mistake and all of a sudden you have a negative vibe inside of you, it won't work. If you make a mistake and you have a positive vibe inside of you, then it will work. That's why I say practice and enjoy. Smile. So when you make mistakes, Smile. When you don't make mistakes, smile. Can't go wrong, can you? Alright, I want to say a big thank you to everyone who is getting involved. Please, tell your mates, tell your friends. The thing is, I am not, I honestly, truly do not think I'm a good DJ. Maybe I am good at teaching and inspiring people. Maybe I'm good at that.
3:59 There are some people out there who watch my videos and ask me questio
But from a DJ's point of view, I'm average. There are some people out there who watch my videos and ask me questions. How do you do this, this, this? And then I watch their videos and I think, bloody hell they're good. I think, oh shit. But I don't care. I'm admitting it. It is so funny. And I think this is what is wrong with a lot of people in the DJ community. They won't admit things. Maybe you should sit back and just admit it. Not sort of in public, but to yourself admit it. And if you admit it to yourself then maybe you will feel better as well. Again I mean I can't explain myself and I can't express myself enough. There is more to me than perhaps meets the eye. Maybe there's more to me than even I know. It's quite amazing.
Again, you know, some people, a lot of people see me on the videos and they think, wow, he's a wacky chap. And then they meet me and they expect this bloke to go, hi, how are you? I'm fine, thank you so much. Yes, I'm Jonathan. But what they actually have is they say, oh, hello, Jonathan. Hey, how's it going? And, you know, after five minutes they go, bloody hell, man, will someone take him away? So, I can't help it, this is me. I've got loads of energy. So, possibly... This is what's happening. My energy is now being... It's going through that camera and it's hitting you, which is brilliant! That's what I want. So practice and enjoy. Mr and Mrs Superstar DJ out there. Thank you.
This transcript was produced automatically from the audio of the video and may contain mistakes.
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