Why Reading the Dance Floor is the Most Important Quality of a Professional DJ

In the DJ sphere, there is one skill more critical than any other: knowing how to interpret a dance floor. Everything else falls in comparison.

Have you ever see a wedding DJ in Washington DC who does not try to mix, cannot manually beatmatch, and has an average knowledge of DJ equipment – but was still capable of rocking a party? Generally this is because they are great at one very important thing: reading & reacting to their audience.

DJ only watching their equipment will know nothing:
You have heard of Serato face before, right? A typical error that new DJs commit is spending a whole DJ set merely glancing at the gear. Whatever equipment you use (turntables, media players, MIDI controller), you’ve to build up the capability to pay equal attention to the dance floor and equipment.

You must master your gear and know how to look at it as little as feasible. This can mean:

• Knowing where each button/knob is / being able to find controls by touch

• Knowing how much pressure it takes to activate this or that control

• Being able to put the needle on a record in the dark, from the edge of your vision

• Having playlists well-organized so you can quickly find your next track in a few seconds

You must aim for nearly each interaction with your setup to be based in muscle memory. This gives your eyes spare time to spend as much time as feasible looking at the dance floor.

Apart from being able to learn more from watching dance floor, DJs who only look at their equipment produce a sense of disconnection & estrangement in a crowd. This can quickly guide to vacant dance floors and unconstructive feelings regarding the DJ – and audiences will not forget that.

Being aware of the dance floor doesn’t entail you’ve to amuse the audience by dancing & gesticulating madly. Rather you should try to have a smile in your face, but be cautious not to become a sight for your behind-booth movements. Creating an ambiance and building a dance floor rooted in your music and mixing, not how high you can jump.

Whether you are looking for a wedding or party DJ for hire in Washington DC, you can count on Casanova Productions. Our professional DJs are party starter in the true sense and makes the crowd go mad.

Source: https://djandlighting.wordpress.com/2020/07/15/why-reading-the-dance-floor-is-the-most-important-quality-of-a-professional-dj/