L2DJ Practicals: Digital DJ Versatility Series

Think about the last time you played a video game or activity, in order for the game to remain interesting it has to become more challenging and cause you to adapt. Why should you settle for less in DJing?

What is Versatility in DJing?

Versatility encapsulates a wide number of concepts in DJing. It can mean anything from how versatile your play style  is (i.e, how “open formatted” can you play; what assigned slots can you play) to how well equipped you would be to play on any type of medium you are given (e.g., vinyl turntables, CDs, digital, laptop only).

While the holistic definition of versatility in DJing is important, the reality is if you’re just starting off DJing you might not have access to a wide range of hardware to practice on. As a result, you may quickly find yourself stuck in a rut of inability to practice under different constraints. This can lead you to form habits or get tunnel vision into how you perform which might be setting yourself up for failure in the future.

Versatility is about being able to adapt on the fly to different situations.

What does the Versatility Series focus on?

DJs, not unlike athletes or weightlifters, can develop imbalances in how they perform, for example, preferring a given method of beatmatching or beatmixing, over-using the cue button to count, aggressive jogwheel use, et cetera. Continual repetition drills these techniques into motor memory allowing DJs to comfortably master and ascend to finer elements of a performance. However, it can also lead to trouble when the setting *isn't* perfect causing a bit of panic if your reliable method of mixing now longer works.

Imagine you arrive at the event to find out “DJ Slammer” has slammed all the functionality out of the cue button or busted the channel 1 volume fader and your up next to perform. If the show needs to go on, how will you adapt?

These are the type of scenarios we want to emulate and practice for in the Versatility series.

What will you learn & what is it about?

In the initial press of this L2DJ Practicals collection on Versatility, Robert will provide some practical exercises aimed to challenge you in adapting your workflow with real-world encounters of faulty equipment.

By regularly introducing changes and challenges to your practice, you will discover new techniques or unused features of your equipment to improve your performance resiliency. This series isn’t  about “how to handle busted equipment”, but rather introducing artificial disadvantages to stretch your skills and see if you can still make it work.

All of these skills you learn will further translate into your advantaged performances to give you a full repertoire of techniques to rely on. Maybe counting with the jog wheel and tossing the track in, as a vinyl DJ would have, might work better for your particular beat mix than an overlay. By practicing these skills in advance you will be able to apply them confidently and perform strongly to an audience.