How to Create the Best Energy NRG Flow in Your DJ Set

0:00 How do you start your set?

How do you start your set? What is an energy curve? What happens if you play a banging tune at the beginning of your set? What happens if you play a mellow chilled-out tune at the beginning of your set? What happens if you eat 25 oranges in one go? These questions and many more won't be answered today. Just kidding. And that is a real vinyl turntable. Let me show you something. Right, so I've got my pieces of paper, I have my Sharpies and let's do some drawing. So you've turned up to your event, you set your gear up and you're the only DJ in the room and you have a wedding, you have a 21st birthday party, you have an event to be in control of because you are the person in control of this event. You're the person who will make or break this night.

You are in control of what is going to be played, so first of all bear that in mind. It's not the public out there. They're not telling you what to play unless you've been given a playlist. You are playing the tracks to make sure they have a great night. So let's imagine for example, this line is time and this is energy. So if you're the first DJ and you're turning up and everyone's chilled out and relaxed, no one's drunk, everyone's mellow chatting and whatnot, don't start all the way up here because they're going to look at you as though you're a Muppet. This is high energy, this one is low and this is time. So you need to start around about here. You don't want to start all the way down here by playing some songs.

Some sombre dead music that people are going to think, oh my God I need to leave the room and kill myself very quickly by drinking cyanide. Not at all. You want to start a very happy chilled out kind of atmosphere and then start to bring maybe your energy level up and during the course of the night you will take them on a little journey which I will explain very shortly about the journey. So it's slightly different. Now let's imagine if, or slightly different if should I say, you are the next DJ in a line of other DJs. Let me grab another piece of paper, just take that one here. Now I'm going to draw a line here and I'm going to draw a line here simply because this is time, this is energy and this is DJ number 1

2:47 Journey, last, centre line

And you are DJ number 2. All this should be quite logical. DJ number 1, their set is taking people on a journey and away they go up to about here which we can class that energy wise as let's say just above half way. Now what you don't want to do is start down here and you definitely do not want to start up here because DJ 1 has spent a lot of time taking these people on a journey. Let me give you an analogy, it's a little bit going like let's say for example going on a nice cruise and you've just been on that lovely cruise the boat glides into harbour and then you want to just walk off the boat get into a taxi and then just have a nice trip home. You don't want to get into a horse and cart and then the horse starts bolting off in every single direction

Because it will ruin the journey on the boat. So look and feel about where the last DJ has finished and try and start in that area. So ideally you need to start your set around about the same position of feel, vibe and energy not too high because it will make the last DJ set seem not bad but what you won't be doing is you won't be following the vibe and energy of the last DJ. If it's too high, the same if it's too low all of a sudden your set will drop so whether your energy level is high or low you will look an idiot because you are not you're not following the flow of the last DJ so bear that in mind and again this is time the centre line of course is where the last DJ finishes and the centre line is where you take over

5:03 Different, image play, track

So ideally you want to try and follow that line and then you can take people on your own journey but the journey what is the journey? Let me just move the camera here because this is the difficult bit What is the journey? Now every single track has its own vibe and energy and feel and I'm not on about here mixing in key even though I am this is not about mixing in key because you could have a hundred tracks all in the same key and you could think yeah mix track one into two sorry, two into one three into two four into three five into four and so on Now I've said this so many times but I need to drill it into people's head because it's potentially one of the most important things about DJing Different tracks, same key

And you think well they're all the same key I can mix all of them into each other Well so long as they have been analysed correctly indeed you can because they all should indeed be harmonically matched but that doesn't mean to say that they'll all have the same vibe and energy So listen to your tracks and listen to one How does it make you feel? If it makes you feel something think of an image then play that track and then if you listen to another track and it's got a different feel, different image don't play it try and follow suit from the last track and you may find out of those hundred that are all indeed exactly the same key maybe only ten of them will really go together because they've all got the same feeling

7:16 Next track, mixing energy, line mixing

Now this is all about taking your listeners on a journey because different tracks have different feelings and if you can match those feelings together then you're on a winner because this is about taking people on a journey Now let me show you another piece of paper here OK, again Energy Oop, just put that down there Energy and Time So this is you turning up let's say for example to a wedding gig Alright If you're a club DJ fair enough but a lot of people maybe watching this would have done a lot of weddings and I'm pretty sure I'll get a thumbs up for this because I've done loads of weddings and this hopefully will make perfect sense to you A wedding People have been busy most of the day The bride, the groom have been up since God knows what time in the morning

Probably got hangovers The mother-in-law's there The father-in-law Two separate families Not many people know each other It's been a very busy day come the end or come the beginning of the evening Everyone's tired Kids are running around everywhere Everyone just wants the kids to go away and play somewhere so they can sit down, relax eat some food get drunk and sit there So what you don't want to do is start BOOM all the way up here right at the beginning of the set Slowly bring them into the mood The worst thing you can do as well is after they've just eaten their food is start BANG full on energy Because people are going to be looking at you as though you're stupid In other words they've just eaten they're sitting there Why on earth

Is the DJ playing something like 2 Unlimited No Limit or Technotronic Pump Up The Jam when what they really want is some Abba tune or some gentle Robbie Williams or something to glide them on the dance floor not throw them on So energy Maybe start down here and then take them on a nice gentle flow OK Now this line here is not only mixing in key but this is about mixing energy making sure the energy works On the other hand this line here is mixing in key but the energy is all over the place No one knows whether they're going or coming No one has any idea at all what's happening and you'll notice this because all of a sudden you may have 50 people on the dance floor this point here let me choose green there's 50 people and then all of a sudden in your next track

You've only got 10 that's because the energy in the room has changed based on your wrong choice of the next track and then from 10 you may get up to 20 and from 20 you may get up to 24 but the next track you may go down to 5 and that's because again it's your choice of energy the feel it's about the tracks connecting with each other harmonically but also from an energy point of view this is the important factor here alright now I hope this has been a help if it has thumbs up any comments thank you very much practice and enjoy

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