PLP 072: Digital DJ Tips’ Complete DJ Course Review

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With things opening up again in the United States, I’m getting ready to perform live which has me thinking a lot about DJ techniques.  In this review I condense over 40 pages of notes from Digital DJ Tip’s (DDJT) Complete DJ Course into into my most essential (and surprising) takeaways. 

The course is taught by Phil Morse, the founder of Digital DJ Tips.  He spent 15 years as a DJ in Manchester, England, is an award winning promoter, and has played at Privilege in Ibiza. He’s been teaching about DJing since 2010 and his online school has over 27,000 students. 

You’ll Learn

  • Why phrasing is king
  • Why you should record your sets
  • Using acapellas
  • Tips for playing in multiple venues
  • Tips for reading a crowd
  • How to adapt some of the key points of the course to Ableton Live

Resources

Transcript

What’s up Heroes, welcome to the Producer Life Podcast episode 72. With things opening up again in the United States, I’m getting ready to perform live which has me thinking about DJing.  I realized I never reviewed the Digital DJ Tips’ “Complete DJ Course” which I took in 2019.  During the online course I took nearly 40 pages of notes, and I’m going to distill those down into my most essential (and surprising) takeaways. 

The course is taught by Phil Morse, the founder of Digital DJ Tips.  He spent 15 years as a DJ in Manchester, England, is an award winning promoter, and has played at Privilege in Ibiza. He’s been teaching about DJing since 2010 and his online school has over 27,000 students.  The course is based on his book, Rock the Dancefloor and at the end of the podcast I’ll tell you how to pick up a free copy of his book, so even if you don’t want to purchase this course you can still learn a LOT from the book. 

 But first, cue the intro music.

I really debated about taking this course.  Reading over all their material it seemed to be very focused on traditional DJ controllers, and I was worried it wouldn’t translate well into my software of choice, Ableton.  I finally decided to do it because they offered a 12 MONTH money back guarantee, so I figured I didn’t have anything to lose.  

In case you haven’t heard of them, Digital DJ Tips is the world’s largest online DJ school with over 27,000 students. They have dozens of different courses, almost all focused on DJ skills as opposed production skills. It’s run by Phil Morse, a delightful british gentleman who is extremely knowledgeable and very easy to listen to.  He’s also the primary teacher in most of the courses. 

The start of the course talks about DJ gear, including laptops, cables, and DJ software.  Name a piece of software, and there are plenty of big name DJs who use it… but the industry standard is Rekordbox.   For controllers, he recommends the Pioneer DDJ 400 for entry level, or the Pioneer DDJ 1000 as the closest to professional club gear.  I’m using Ableton and an Akai APC 40 MKII, so I’ll mention throughout this talk how I adapted some of Phil’s materials for my own setup. 

Phil then goes into beatmixing, and breaks it down into three subcomponents: tempo matching or getting the speed right, beatmatching, or getting the beats to line up, and phrase matching. He mentions this is the hard part… it’s all about phrasing.  For example, going from one chorus to the next may not work well, but going from the chorus of one song to the breakdown of another gives a feel of a logical arrangement.  In Ableton tempo matching and beatmatching are handled for you if you’re using quantization (mine is set at ¼ bar, so I actually trigger clips a ¼ beat sooner than you would with traditional beatmatching).  The concept of phrase matching is really what I needed to focus on. 

Phil then demonstrates basic transitions, including the fade, where you basically fade out one track over a 4 bar section then start another track.  This lets you easily transition between any genre.  My first big ah-ha moment happened here: Phil commented if you’re mixing out of a well known track, make sure you go INTO a well known track or you’ll kill the vibe.

Phil does add that 90% of DJing is picking the right records at the right time, and that if you play great music people will forgive mixing errors.  AND, you don’t always have to beatmix, you can cut mix, fade out, etc. 

Phil talks about creating hot cues, and generally recommends the intro, 1st kick drum, breakdown, next or last drop, and the outro.  In Ableton I replicate hot cues by creating new clips of the same song with different starting points. 

He then talks about effects which are tied to the beat, things like delays, echos, reverb, flangers, filters, etc.    Phil advises finding effects you like and then being careful not to abuse them. Another big insight happened here: Phil commented that you want  your effects post fader so they continue even after you bring your fader down.  That’s really useful if you want to have an echo’s tail continuing even after a track stops to smooth a transition into a new track  That’s when I realized I needed to be creating these effects in a send track, not as an insert. That made a huge difference in my Ableton setup.

Phil talks about mixing in key. He comments that, “this is a tool, not a rule.”   I’m not sure where I heard him say it, but Laidback Luke commented that if two tracks are in key, it lets him perform a longer mix…if they’re not in key, then mix quickly.  I use the Mixed in Key software to determine key of tracks, and I regularly try to mix in key.  If you’d like to know more about how I prepare tracks in Ableton, check out episode 16.

Recording your sets to critique them is the key to improving, and he talks about a couple of different ways to do this both hardware and software.  This is another area where Ableton shines: I can record the entire set with automation and see EXACTLY where I made mistakes after the fact.  His favorite method is a dedicated recorder, like the Tascam DR-05.   Record your set, then wait 24 hours to listen to it. Take notes on what worked and what didn’t.

He talks about mixing with acapellas and offers a variety of places to get them.  If you’d like some ideas there check out episode 5.  One technique I thought was interesting was using acapellas as a transition tool: start an acapella over one track in one BPM.  Fade out the old track with acapella playing solo during a chorus or something. Change the BPM while only acapella is playing, then start the new instrumental track under acapella. He also comments that rap acapellas work well over most music, and if you’ve got an instrumental on track 2, with various hot cues, you can jump around on the instrumental while the acapella plays over the top. It’s a good idea to practice these creative transitions ahead of time

Phil then talks about gigging in various venues, from bars to weddings, to festivals.  One of the things he mentioned that resonated with me is how you have to play differently depending on the venue. For example, playing at a club you’re the center of attention and you’ve probably got tracks for early evening, peak hours, and after hours.  In a small bar or lounge, however, you may not be the center of attention because you’re there to add to the vibe.  People will be coming and going, so Phil recommends rotating through 10-15 minute mini-sets focused on a particular genre. You also don’t want to play music too loudly because people will want to talk.

Phil also has a pretty big section on reading crowds which was really helpful.   Start by doing your homework and research your venue and the types of patrons. If you’re a multi-format DJ, try “genre battleship” early on to see what genres resonate. Look for tapping feet and nodding heads. Try to get the girls dancing early, the boys will follow.  Watch the center of the floor early on, then the edges when it’s full. 

He also had a unique perspective on requests. Listen to them, but react to patterns of requests, not individual song requests.  Also remember to check with whoever booked you to see if there is a particular policy about this. 

Phil also talks about marketing including picking DJ names, branding, and social media.  Think about your minimal viable product: what you NEED to get started. He recommends a one-page website, email signup form, one DJ mix (on Mixcloud, which is the only legal place to post them), Instagram, Facebook, and a promo photo.  For social media he recommends a rule of thirds: one third talking about you, one third sharing other people’s stuff, and one third replying/engaging. 

Finally, he talks about getting your first gigs, and mentions two ideas. One is to take on the role of a promoter and creating your own evening (Like Loren Hardy did with Bass Night Orlando waaaay back in episodes 3 and 4).  Another is to go offer your services at unconventional venues that haven’t booked DJs before.  Identify their problem, and offer a solution.  When figuring out payment, he recommends saying something like, “My usual fee is  (insert the highest amount you think you can get away with), but I’ll do the first night for $.  Always ask for SOMETHING. Then SHUT UP.  If they say they need to think about it, get their phone number and tell them you’ll follow up.

The course is about $200, but Phil offers a 1 year money back guarantee… plenty of time to try it out and see if the value is there for you.  I kept the course and did not request a refund: I felt like I got plenty of value from the course even though there was little mention of Ableton.   If you just want an introduction to Phil and the Digital DJ Tips team, they have a ton of free content on YouTube and their website, and Phil has begun offering his Rock the Dancefloor book as a free PDF download. I’ll have a link in the show notes page at Producer Life Podcast.com, episode 72.  You can learn a LOT from the book, but the videos in the course are really helpful for learning this stuff, and his online community is also very active.  

If you found this review helpful please leave a rating and review wherever you’re listening.   If you’d like to see how I’m applying this, check out some of my livestreams on my YouTube channel at youtube.com/HouseNinjaMusic, or your can listen to the cleaned up mixes on Mixcloud at mixcloud.com/HouseNinjaMusic 

Until next week, this is the House Ninja reminding you to be somebody’s Hero today.

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