Mixing

For more advance Djs mixing is a big part of their performance. DJs that are famous are known for there mixing skills and how unique they are. To mix and do it well you have to know a lot about the music that your playing and the feel you are trying to give to your crowed.

The most important thing, i think when it comes to mixing is the BPMs of a song, (Beats Per Minuet). This marks of where the beat hits in the song, usually its when the bass drum kicks or when the snare gets hit. Every song has a BPM number. if its a fast song its high like 145 or 160. If its a slow song its low like 80 or 90. This is so important that because when your mixing two songs together or mesh ups the BPM have to be the same and aligned or your musics gonna be all over the place.

Another important tool u have to know is how to sync music to match the BPM. Syncing music is done a couple different ways depending on the hardware or solfware your using. What syncing esacly dose is moves the beats of one song to match the other. Now when u sync a song to match another sometimes the pitch changes. Programs are different with how much it effects your sound. What u don't want to do it try to mix a song with to far BPM numbers, like a song that's 95BPM to a song that's 139 BPM. What will happened is that your slower song will speed up and it will be way to fast and sound like the chipmunks are singing it lol, and with the faster song it will slow down so much it sounds like its playing in slow motion.

This is a nice and smooth mixing transitions, ill walk you thou it. Say were mixing " lets get it started" by Black Eye Peas (105 BPM) to "Senorita" by Justin Timberlake (98 BPM). when i see that theres about 40 or 30 sec left in lets get it started ill listen in my headphones to Senorita and hit the Sync button to change the BPM to 105 to match lets get it started. then I move the turn table to aline the beats the I hear in the head phone and whats playing out the system. when theres about 15 or 10 sec left in the first song I slowly start to move the crossfader over to Senorita as it gets louder, let get it started gets lower. then I find a brake point and when the first song it so low I cut it off.

that's the basics of Mixing really. Once u get good and fast then u can start to use sample beats to mix or DJ drops or hits, but that's for another time! lol

DJing parties

DJing is not as easy as people think. It doesn't just consists of standing up and playing music in from of a crowed. To DJ well and make people like you and want to hire you again, it takes a lot more then that. first of all when u get the gig u have to know what kinda party they want. For instance, if the parties and dinner party or a business party then u would play chill music and music that fits that acation. Now if they want it to be a dance party or celebration theme party then i would play dance music and bring light, and not just DJ for them but perform.

when i get to a gig the first thing i do is look and see what kinda people are in the crowed. If its older people or more of a younger crowed or a mixture of both. The first the first song i play something that's really good and catchy but not to fast or loud. I play it at about 3/4 volume that I'm gonna be playing for the rest of the night. Ill continue playing these kind of popular chill songs and if i see that most of the party is here or they aren't that into the music, ill play something a little fast and louder.

After about 15 min. when i see that nobody else in coming in and people are done eating or are ready to get up and dance. ill make my MC (MC Prev) make an anuchment saying something like this..

"how are you guys doing tonight, were glad to be here, now I know you guys are wanting to dance right!. Were gonna pump up the music now and i better see all u guys on the dance floor!"

I would play a dance song weather its a rap/ hip hop dance song or a line dance song, considering the kinda people in the crowed. Ill keep the music loud and pumping of dance music. Then if there's a mix of ages there ill slowly transition into older dance music or more popular dance music. I have special songs that I can Transition songs that I know younger people like them as well as the old. I'll play two of these for a nice transition after a block of music.

If the crowed is willing I usually try to play one slow songs before the end of the night. for the last couple songs I like to play song that everybody loves and can sing alone too. i always cranked the volume up for the last song and give a big finish. And trust me if feels good seeing the smiles of the peoples faces when they walk out the door! that's DJ Scuilli

advertising

Advertising is a big part of why my business is a success. when your a DJ its almost like your a salesman and the product that your trying to see is your performance. After a gig is done and you see people walking out of there with smiles on their faces then most likely you did a good job. in this business a lot of wrapped around politics or popularity. If you do a good gig at one show then the people that hied you will move your name on to a friend or family member. there is a family that i started DJing their sweet sixteen party and now I do all there parties for all their accusations as well as all there cousins. the more gigs you do well the more gig you'll get.

Now like I said in my past blogs I also have a facebook and myspace and youtube accounts that also help get my name out there, as well as to advertise for Quizzo too. I have a friend that i pay from time to time to look over the sites and do all the wording of my posts and also all my HTML work. when you log onto my myspace it says something like this....

"John Scuilli a.k.a. DJ Scuilli, provides the hottest music and entertainment for you own personal, privet parties, Specie occasions, and family celebrations. With a variety of all kinda of music, DJ scuilli will satisfy your music needs only by playing the best music!! along side DJ Scuilli, his MC, MC Prev will make it a night u never forget!!"

QUIZZO!!

this past year iv been not only DJing but i have been doing Quizzo for two of the Applebees locations. iv been doing it for a about a year and its grown to be quite successful and popular. it also has really helped my DJing business.

last year around this time, Easter or so, my brother had a friend that worked at Applebees as one of the night time managers. he told me brother that they were looking to bring more crowd in during the week at night, really wanted to bar seen to build up. He also told my brother that they are looking for a DJ to play music and do Quizzo for about 3 hours at the end of the night. he asked if I was able to do that. when i first heard about DJing there i was all about it but when i heard that we had to do Quizzo too i was a little nerves. I've never done anything with trivia before and i wasn't sure if i could do it.

Well about a week later i talked to my MC and we figured out a way for us to do it. he would say the questions and take care of the scoring and i would do the music and controlling the volume up and down. about a day after me and him talked i started to make rule sheets up and score cards. i did a lot of research and really looked into how other bars are doing quizzo and i took a little from everyone and made up my own rules.

the way that the game is played like this. Theirs three rounds, each round has 10 questions that are worth 10 points and a bonus question at the end of each round worth 25 points. At the end of each round each team has to hand in there score card for that round and we tally up the points and the winner of that round gets prizes and a gift card. Each night at the end of the game the team with the most points from all the rounds put together wins and even bigger gift card and a shirt.

when we first started people didn't really know about it and it wasn't a big thing, but now that we have gotten better at it and have more stuff like bonus questions and double questions it has really become a fun night. just now we are starting to have themed nights. last month we did a 80s night. It was a Hugh night for us. The Applebees store match there black Friday income in just 4 hours. next we are looking at a doing a 90s night or a disco night. I'm really proud of what we have made it to be and I'm looking forward to seeing how did it becomes.