It's happened to all of us at one time or another. You are in the middle of an event, people are nagging you with this question and that, asking for requests, in some cases asking what song is next, and generally distracting your train of thought from the music you are thinking about playing. All of the sudden your dance floor has inexplicably emptied!
Brain freeze! What do I play? That little kid just interrupted you at the worst possible time.
Mobile Beat magazine has recently had some excellent stories about music. In fact, in the past several issues, they have publicized some pretty terrific music play lists!
It is a good idea to incorporate these lists into your presentation. With the avalanche of new music, it is a daunting task to keep it all in your head.
In my case, I am a Digital DJ, so incorporation of these play lists has become a simple, and valuable task.
Not that there is anything new in these play lists per- se, but having a concise and track-proven list gives your mind a break.
I have learned to continually create play-lists that cover just about any eventuality. With the Digital System, be it my Denon 2500, the Cortex, Numark D2, or a laptop with Virtual DJ, PCDJ,Torx or whatever software you use, pre-programming these lists will give you piece of mind, and also prepare you for those awkward moments when putting on the right song can save the day!
For those of you who use CD's, you will find that by keeping these lists printed into a song book, will really help you out.
In my many years, various unforeseen problems have popped up during an event.
Here are some of my Play List Titles to remedy these...
1. Music to play when dinner is served a half-hour late
2 .Music to play while the bridal party finished fighting in the bridal suite as to who is going to be introduced first
3. Music to play while the paramedics carry Aunt Tillie out to the ambulance
4. Music to play after the cake cutting so the bride can change her clothes after hubby hit her in the head with the whole
freakin' cake!
5. Music to play after more than half the guests leave immediately after cutting the cake, and there are two and a half hours left
for the event
I have started looking through my library list, trying to review one or two letters of the alphabet each week, picking out tunes that were hits, but have been forgotten, "resurrecting" them and inserting them into my various genre play lists. I find this helps keep my show fresh. DJ's often fall into the habit of playing certain sets of tunes that always work, but, lets face it, are very repetitious and mundane when playing to an audience that sees you more than once a year.
Yes, by all means play the standards, and give them the "cheese", but keep it fresh as well, by playing some of those forgotten hits that always bring back good memories for the guests.
This week's "Resurrected Hits"...
Les Bicyclettes De Bel Size by Engelbert Humperdink
Tighter & Tighter by Alive & Kicking
Dance Tonight by Paul McCartney
Make Someone Happy by Jimmy Durante
Fool To Cry by The Rolling Stones
Brain freeze! What do I play? That little kid just interrupted you at the worst possible time.
Mobile Beat magazine has recently had some excellent stories about music. In fact, in the past several issues, they have publicized some pretty terrific music play lists!
It is a good idea to incorporate these lists into your presentation. With the avalanche of new music, it is a daunting task to keep it all in your head.
In my case, I am a Digital DJ, so incorporation of these play lists has become a simple, and valuable task.
Not that there is anything new in these play lists per- se, but having a concise and track-proven list gives your mind a break.
I have learned to continually create play-lists that cover just about any eventuality. With the Digital System, be it my Denon 2500, the Cortex, Numark D2, or a laptop with Virtual DJ, PCDJ,Torx or whatever software you use, pre-programming these lists will give you piece of mind, and also prepare you for those awkward moments when putting on the right song can save the day!
For those of you who use CD's, you will find that by keeping these lists printed into a song book, will really help you out.
In my many years, various unforeseen problems have popped up during an event.
Here are some of my Play List Titles to remedy these...
1. Music to play when dinner is served a half-hour late
2 .Music to play while the bridal party finished fighting in the bridal suite as to who is going to be introduced first
3. Music to play while the paramedics carry Aunt Tillie out to the ambulance
4. Music to play after the cake cutting so the bride can change her clothes after hubby hit her in the head with the whole
freakin' cake!
5. Music to play after more than half the guests leave immediately after cutting the cake, and there are two and a half hours left
for the event
I have started looking through my library list, trying to review one or two letters of the alphabet each week, picking out tunes that were hits, but have been forgotten, "resurrecting" them and inserting them into my various genre play lists. I find this helps keep my show fresh. DJ's often fall into the habit of playing certain sets of tunes that always work, but, lets face it, are very repetitious and mundane when playing to an audience that sees you more than once a year.
Yes, by all means play the standards, and give them the "cheese", but keep it fresh as well, by playing some of those forgotten hits that always bring back good memories for the guests.
This week's "Resurrected Hits"...
Les Bicyclettes De Bel Size by Engelbert Humperdink
Tighter & Tighter by Alive & Kicking
Dance Tonight by Paul McCartney
Make Someone Happy by Jimmy Durante
Fool To Cry by The Rolling Stones
I always have a music list and I try it out before every event. Eventhough I don go strictly by it because of the requests I do still have a list.
