Rediscovering the art of the mini DJ set

I was all ready to tell you about the incredible DJ Z-Trip, and the simple secret to great live performances that he described in a terrific book called On the Record. But when I sat down to write, I discovered that I covered that ground in a post I wrote nearly three years ago.

It’s a secret worth sharing again, especially with the benefit of experience and hindsight, so I hope you’ll indulge me. Here’s the relevant quote once again:

“My trick is that, no matter where I’m playing, I always have five or six mini sets planned out. Even if you research the crowd and the venue things can go wrong – a crap warmup DJ, an awful sound system. But if you’re prepared with your mini sets and each one has a different vibe, you can pull out of almost any situation.

“If I start to lose the dancefloor I just go to one of my crates or Serato playlists and play the first track from another mini set. If that doesn’t work, I’ll hit up the next set I have. Just organize your records, CDs, or MP3s so that they’re divided in that way, and you’ll do fine.

“The funny thing is that it makes you look like this amazing guy who can cook something up on the fly, but really you’ve been ready all along.”

Back in 2010, I thought this was a pretty neat trick. But now that I’m older, wiser, and committed to a daily twenty-minute practice routine, these mini sets have become a vital part of my system. When I switch on the decks each night, I can either practice and refine a current mini set, or try out some new ideas that might make their way into the next one.

And I’m not just working from a vague set of lists in my head, either. Each mini set has its own crate in Serato, and each new idea gets filed away for future road testing. These sets are there when I need them, and the more I practice, the larger my library gets.

In certain contexts, one of these mini sets is all you need. At the once and hopefully future Everyone’s a DJ, for example, twenty minutes was all you got. And if I ever finally get around to podcasting, there are going to be times when I’ll want to get in and get out with a quick set.

But as Z-Trip notes, you can use these mini sets as building blocks in a much larger performance, just as you would use individual tracks to build each set. I’m doing a wedding next weekend, for example, and a lot of the music the bride and groom have requested is relatively new to me. Instead of rehearsing with the whole crate, I’m breaking it down into smaller groups of tracks that work together. I can move from one set to the next as the crowd dictates, and if all goes well, I’ll look like an amazing guy who can cook something up on the fly.

I hope to share some of the fruits of this system with you soon. You probably can’t come to the wedding, but a podcast is in the works, and I hope to start doing more live work as time and dad duties allow. Stay tuned for details, or better yet, drop a line about bookings!

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