DJGold

Joseph Ivy · Joined: August 16th, 2006 Posts: 133 Location: Glendale, AZ

I have the 1% videos, Hey DJ focus videos, Mobile DJ Handbook, the DJ sales and marketing handbook, a wedding DJ horror stories book and another How to MC a wedding book (though I forget the name).

I also subscribe to bridal magazines, participate in the ADJA, and attend national DJ conventions.

How do you all continue you education and/or get additional training to improve your DJ services?

dokai · Posted: Fri Nov 17, 2006 9:18 pm Post subject:

You left out reading DJ Gold. :shock:

Seems like you're already doing just about everything. Here are a couple of other ideas:

- I try to read books, magazines and websites from outside the DJ industry that I feel can improve my business and/or performances. For example, www.entrepreneur.com is a frequent read. Similarly, a colleague of mine has become an actor, and tells me that many of the skills he's developed for theatre have improved his DJ performances. Don't hesitate to look outside our industry for good ideas!

- A technique that I intend to implement soon is have another DJ accompany me to an event to monitor and critique my performance. I'll probably reciprocate as often as possible, so that all participants can benefit.

- In addition to the critiques, I'm planning on recording my performances for later analysis. I expect it to be brutally educational. :hahaha:

Joseph Ivy · Joined: August 16th, 2006 Posts: 133 Location: Glendale, AZ

Oh yeah, I also want to get a critique. Hopefully, I'll get to that next year.

Thanks for the post :)

DJ Daddy · Joined: October 20th, 2004 Posts: 185 Location: MO

.

Education on the technical aspects of the DJ industry is something I think everyone should keep in mind.

I consider technical aspects to be things like:
Principles of sound reinforcement and amplification,
Electrical rules; both standard 120 voltage as well as low voltage,
Public speaking,
History of music and the various genres (I consider this technical as it is education on the main tool of a mobile DJ: music).

True, even the best race car driver doesn't work on his own car. But it helps tremendously if the driver knows his car inside and out. No different for a person working with a bunch of electrical and electronic gadgets.

In other words, technical education is just as important for me as understanding the "performance" of DJing.

An example of good study material is the Yamaha Sound Reinforcement Handbook.

.

djdonny · Posted: Sat Nov 18, 2006 12:35 pm Post subject:

You've both forgotten (?) to mention DJ magazines, like Mobile Beat, DJ Times, and Pro Mobile (out of the UK), all to which I subscribe. There's also the Disc Jockey News.

dokai · Posted: Sat Nov 18, 2006 2:38 pm Post subject:

djdonny wrote: You've both forgotten (?) to mention DJ magazines, like Mobile Beat, DJ Times, and Pro Mobile (out of the UK), all to which I subscribe. There's also the Disc Jockey News.

DOH! How could we forget the obvious? :hahaha:

DJ Teddy Bear

How about attend local association meetings, and go to workshops?

Last week I attended the LoveStory Workshop. Fantastic stuff.

I regularly attend Toast Masters meetings.
I also download DJA Radio every day.

jbrown157

I've been attending Improv classes. I'm fortunete enough to have a Second City Training Center not far away.

I recently had someone do a video recording at I wedding I did. What an eye opener! I found some things that I want to work on! Most of us have an idea of what we want to sound and look like - we can evaluate ourselves rather easily by watching a video.

TheBartman47 · Posted: Mon Nov 20, 2006 12:26 pm Post subject:

DJ Daddy wrote: .True, even the best race car driver doesn't work on his own car. But it helps tremendously if the driver knows his car inside and out. No different for a person working with a bunch of electrical and electronic gadgets.

Excellent point. The race car driver is in constant contact with the pit crew about the performance of the car. He needs to know the technicalities of the car in order to tell the pit crew things like the front right tire needs 0.1 degrees more camber and the back right needs 1 psi more air pressure, etc. The driver notices these little things while driving the car and knows what it takes to fix it.

If you don't work on your own gear when it needs maintenance, you can at least know what to tell the repair shop what it needs.

Joseph Ivy · Joined: August 16th, 2006 Posts: 133 Location: Glendale, AZ

My dad is a member of toastmasters. I get a lot of public speaking experience through my day job. My time is somewhat limited because I'm still working on my BA in business, but I hope to do some improv.

Ron, it would be real nice to have a DJ handbook for technical stuff like basic sound reinforcement, basically how an amplifier works, basically how speakers work, etc. Maybe I'll add a section to my own website. It could be a project for my next slow season.

I get Mobile Beat with my ADJA membership and I've glanced at a few DJ magazines. I haven't found DJ magazines to be all that helpful. I'll probably also cancel my wedding magazine subscriptions after my current ones run their course. Each seems to be too geared towards selling to the readers. The DJ forums and conventions more that make up for the DJ magazines. Am I wrong on this?

Thanks again for all of your posts. I'll be getting that yamaha book and I may do the love story workshop if my schedule permits.

TheBartman47 · Posted: Mon Nov 20, 2006 3:32 pm Post subject:

Rather than get too technical about exactly how amplifiers and speakers and other things work, I'd say knowing more what all the specs of each piece of gear means would be more beneficial. Things like power ratings of different types (Peak vs. RMS vs. continuous etc.), impedances (actual vs. nominal), dampening factor, slew rate, gain and input sensitivity, -3dB and -10dB points of a speaker's frequency response curve, etc.

Knowing what all these things are enables you to see past the marketing hype and make informed descisions on just how much amp and speakers you need to get the job done. Also you'll know the limitations of your system so you don't blow something up trying to make it do more than what it was designed, and how to tell what components will match up with others the best. Example, if you have two amplifiers both rated for 1,000 Watts, but one has a gain of 40dB and the other 20dB (and therefore different input sensitivities) you will have great difficulty getting a balanced sound.