What Is DJing? 5 Things That A DJ Does

What’s the one sound that keeps constantly beating your eardrums at a party? The sound of music. Right? It cannot be denied that a party or function is incomplete without good music, but who makes the incredible music that brings life into a party? A DJ.

DJs or DJing are quite popular terms now with increasing demand and career scope in the area. The concept of DJing might sound easy and exciting, but it is a lot more difficult than the cool vibes emitted. DJs not only play music in a nightclub or party but also perform online mixing and mastering of musical notes to present a unique sound to the party. 

Let’s get into the five most important jobs of a DJ who brings fun to a party.

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  On-stage Beatmatching

One of the basic skill sets mastered by a DJ is to blend musical tracks. This blending of different musical tracks of different tones, moods, and beats, is one of the most difficult tasks performed by a DJ. 

A DJ performs on-stage beatmatching by playing the songs at the same speed and blending into each other, referring to the beats per minute(BPM). On-stage beatmatching is a very challenging job because all the blending and mixing must be done by hearing music from the ear without any digital print. It takes years for a DJ to master beatmatching.

• Digital Beatmatching

With the introduction of digital trends in the sound mixing industry, beatmatching has become quite easy. With a digital console, blending musical tracks and bringing them to match speeds can be done visually instead of listening to two types of tracks on-stage. 

Syncing music is just a button away concerning the digital console. However, beatmatching is a skill that is acquired by constant practice. A DJ mixes musical tracks live and plays them to the audience. Beat Mixing might be a challenging task but not the most important task that a DJ performs.

• Transitioning and counting to four

A DJ finds out the sections of a musical track that has few elements and uses them to perform transitions. Transitions are done to shift or move to different songs but subtly. A crossfader or channel fader is used to perform this along with the technique of counting to four.

Counting to four is simply done by recognizing the fourth beat of a musical track and using it to blend and set transitions. EQ knobs are also used to adjust high and low frequencies while transitioning.

• Playing what the audience wants

A DJ plays what the audience wants to listen to. Well, one of the easiest ways to know what the audience wants is by asking for song requests, but a true DJ already knows what the audience would like to listen to and dance on. 

A DJ reads the audience and lines up musical tracks according to their mood. After all, a DJ is playing music for the people in a party or nightclub to enjoy and dance on. 

• Listening to music

Well, it need not be said that the primary task of a DJ is to listen to music. A DJ does not just listen to music to make himself/herself feel good. Their job is to learn the technicalities of a musical track and measure their beats per minute so that it can be used efficiently while beatmatching.