My First Time DJing

Saturday night was one of the most fullfilling nights I've had. For the first time I was a DJ for something other than my own salsa parties at my dance studio. Although I did not use the same equipment as the professional ones, I learned about the challenges of being a DJ and the importance of meeting the needs of the crowd.

Before I can go over what I learned I have to give a background on the whole thing.

I collect music regularly because I play a variety of music at my dance classes, but I also enjoy listening to the music. As my collection grew so did the number of popular songs I have grew. My interest have always been to share the music I have, which is why I DJ the music I play at my dance studio parties. However, DJing for me is as simple as selecting the music to play and letting the computer software do the crossfading. My WinAmp software is customized in a way where the music crossfades automatically without any hiccups, I can organize my songs based on how much I like them, when was the last time I played the song, how often I've played it, etc. I've tested the software at my parties and everyone tells me (when asked) that they figured I premixed everything.

I've had thoughts of being a DJ for quite some time. Sometimes I daydream on how it would be to DJ for a club like Agenda or Miami's for a night (especially Miami's because they play crappy music most of the time) however I've never gotten the chance. My friend Anat was hosting a salsa disco party at her flat in SF and I asked her whether she needed help with the music. She said that she already has her own but I'm welcome to bring whatever I want.

So after connecting my laptop to her sound system I proceeded to DJ from 7:30pm - 1:30am nonstop. By the end of the night:

1. The host received many compliments on the music she played, which she informed them was mine.
2. Out of the 4.5 hours of music played, only one song was repeated twice and that was because the crowd requested the song to be played again.
3. There was only one song where no one was dancing to for the first 10 seconds, at which time I immediately moved on to the next song. It was a bachata song.
4. I was asked to DJ at a couple's wedding, for a salsa-themed wedding reception.
5. I was complimented by a few persons on how much fun I made the party with my music selection.

I was fortunate that "Monito" posted a blog on DJing a few weeks ago. had I not read it I probably would not have paid attention to the dynamics of the crowd at the party. So with all that out of the way this is what I learned:

1. At the wee hours in the night, the crowd prefers to salsa dance to songs that are slower, probably because everyone's tiring out. That includes slow cha cha songs and really slow bachata.

2. There's a difference between reggaeton songs, those with Puerto Rico influence and those from the Dominican Republic. DR reggaeton songs seem to be more preferred because of it's similarity to Bachata.

3. A DJ enjoys what they do because they get to play the songs that *they* like.

4. I had to watch to see how many people are dancing to a song and observes the number of people entering the dance floor towards the end of the song. If there is a high number, I continued to play the same type of music instead of switching it to something else.

5. Any good DJ will honor the request, to their best, any songs that a person asks.

6. It's best to play a variety of music at a house party, even if it's for a bunch of salsa dancers. If salsa dancers really wanted to salsa dance the whole night, they would've gone to a club instead. Everyone raved on the music played which were salsa, merengue, bachata, cha-cha, persian, reggaeton, disco, samba, trance, and Fulanito (some of Fulanito's music is more like hip-hop. People went crazy over these songs).

7. As long as the song sounds really good, salsa dancers like a little variety from the mainstream salsa songs played at a club. The refreshing songs make for a better experience.

8. The crossfading from my laptop was beneficial in keeping the whole night upbeat. Without it, I think the whole night would've lost it's momentum.

So what a fun night! I can't say that I'm as good as the likes of the professional DJs but for my first informal Djing it came out to be pretty good!