ADubhlaoich

This is a sequel of sorts to an old piece of mine, Swing DJ Guidelines. I still stand by it: it covers what I consider the spirit of good DJing. My intention with this piece is to offer some more practical advice and examples. I have never claimed to be a particularly good DJ, but what I share is what has worked well everywhere I've had the chance to work.

It's been a holistic effort for me with many lessons learned through failure. My worst set was probably my very first one: there's been some other times technical problems have bludgeoned me, but there's ways to mitigate that, too.

Let's get right into it.

Finding music

A lot of people have tried to sell me on Spotify as a discovery tool. In principle, I can understand this: it's got a gigantic database of swing music, full of things you've heard and things you've never heard of.

In reality, most people I know exclusively DJ whatever they heard during the last batch of competition videos they binge watched. In certain cases, they just ran over to me in the middle of one of my sets, took the name of a song and beat the music to glue over the next year.

On that note, you should not be DJing from Spotify. You probably won't get in trouble, but you will get sliced at the kneecaps if you ever have to work with or in public.

Subject to your compliance with these Terms (including any other applicable terms and conditions), we grant to you limited, non-exclusive, revocable permission to make personal, non-commercial use of the Spotify Service and the Content (collectively, "Access").

You need to become genuinely curious about music. The problem you should try to solve is not "What music is good for dancers?", it should be "How do I understand swing music?". A simple start is to understand who the individual people in a given arrangement are.

Take Benny Goodman. You probably know who he is, and you probably know he worked with drummer Gene Krupa a lot. Did Benny Goodman write all of his music? How did the composition of the orchestra change, and why?

These kinds of questions will lead you towards musicians you might not know, and ensembles you were unaware they were a part of. You'll end up noticing a lot of people worked together in different arrangements: if there's an instrument you favour, there's a chance your new favourite musician might have lead a band.

Now that you have an idea of how to discover music, you need a way to actually obtain it.

bandcamp is a good shout for contemporary swing bands (You'll notice a lot of them swap members, too). Sticking to digital, I tend to have better luck finding older recordings on 7digital. In theory, Amazon also has a lot of great options, but I try my best to avoid supporting it as a business.

I built the backbone of my music collection hitting local charity and record shops. I enjoy this quite a lot: I notice some people buy songs piecemeal on bandcamp; I buy albums and discographies whole, and sort them out later.

Diving through stacks of CDs can be quite interesting, because what you see is what you get. Finding compilation albums is a great way to introduce yourself to bands and orchestras, since they tend to have a large variety. The music itself tends to fall into two categories: whatever the arrangement was most famous for, or whatever the record label could license for cheap.

I don't know a single person who has an internal CD drive anymore, but you can find a USB one for cheap. I use a program called whipper to dismantle analogue music I buy - charity shops have let me build up a sizeable non-swing music collection this way.

Arranging music

You've got a bunch of music! Now you need to actually sort through it.

Before I get around to sorting it, I add all of my music to my beets database. It automatically organises and tags music files appropriately, but it's reliant on online databases. Great for popular music, bordering useless for anything obscure.

Most swing music is effectively obscure, so I do a lot of manual tagging. What I largely use it for is converting my entire music collection to mp3 (From lossless FLAC) so I can keep it all on my phone to listen to whenever I like.

I'll talk more about it in a later section, but the program I use to arrange and DJ my music is Exaile. Most people I know actually use Mixx: the best tool is the one you will or can actually use.

Figure out a way to update the tags of your music, and starting adding the BPM as a column. Being able to see the speed of your music at a glance is invaluable, as it's the first contextual decision you will typically make. Automatic BPM taggers largely don't do well with swing music, but you could try this project.

Your music player or manager might have a way to tap it in, or you might need to get a phone application. Tap your foot along to the music, and focus on the rhythm section. About 30 seconds a song is sufficient for me, but in reality I will listen to whole albums over and over for days when I get them.

Once you have your BPM sorted, there's all sorts of ways you can tag an individual song:

• Sub-genre of jazz (Bebop, dixieland, ragtime, and so forth)
• Dance style (Many people will advise against this)
• Rhythm (Syncopated, shuffle, staccato)
• Utility (Competitions, jams)

No single way works best for everyone, and much like writing notes for dance classes, you'll probably find your preference changes over time. I've only done BPM for a long time, but I also dance most swing dance styles: I tend to choose music based on the groove, which is nebulous to define and more easily felt.

Setting up

We're not playing anything yet. We've just arrived at the venue and are unpacking our gear. What are you bringing, and what are you doing before your slot?

I usually show up 20 minutes before I'm needed. This puts organisers at ease, and lets me hear what music is being used in a class or part of what's been in the prior DJ's set. We're not worrying about what to play yet, though.

Here's what I usually bring:

• My laptop, fully charged
• My laptop charger
• My USB mouse, so I'm not fighting a trackpad
• My headphones, and its cables (I usually use it with bluetooth)
• My USB digital to audio converter (DAC)
• A 3.5mm to 3.5mm audio jack

My headphone cables are also 3.5mm to 3.5mm: the extra one listed is in case the cable provided to me by the organiser or venue is banjaxed. If I expect the situation to be dire, I might also bring an entire speaker with me - but that's a rarity.

The USB DAC is barely used for its full potential: I use it as a separate audio sink so that I can play and preview music on a single device. I line into the speaker directly with my laptop, and preview with my headphones and the DAC.

It's set-up this way so that if someone bumps the DAC, I lose previewing capability - instead of the venue losing music. Similarly, wiring in my headphones means I don't have to worry about any bluetooth device sleep shenanigans, which I saw happen to a friend during a public gig.

I open my music player, do any device configuration necessary, disable any music auto play options, and the ability to play a song while an existing one is playing. I only want music playing exactly when I decide it should be, and no other time.

We're almost ready to roll. Make sure you have water, and swap into your dance shoes to give yourself the option to get up.

Planning your set

A lot of what I want to say about this is covered by the aforementioned Swing DJ Guidelines, so I'll try to tread different ground.

I don't really plan my sets in advance, but there are things I often have to consider.

• Is there a band, and when will they arrive? Getting a quick photograph of their sets is useful
• Am I expected to run a jam? If it's for someone, I will not facilitate it without their explicit consent
• Are there performances? The organiser will probably have told me in advance
• Are there competitions of any kind? What format are they, and what level are the participants?

All four of these concerns are explicitly telegraphed activities as part of a night, with their own precise constraints. This is why it's really important to know your music - none of them should be too much of a stretch to facilitate.

Your aim as the DJ is usually to keep as many people on the floor at all times as possible, so what you spend a lot of time doing is managing energy. There's all sorts of basic strategy to oscillate between tempos, but I've never really adhered to it. Instead, I try to ensure the night as a whole feels well-rounded.

Sometimes, this means setting an expectation on what the floor and ceiling for speed will be. If I'm catering for Lindy Hop and Blues, it'll err on the slower side. Balboa & Collegiate Shag will be on the fast end, in contrast. Most sets have been for general "swing dance" events, though, so I stick near the middle and deviate for contrast.

Early sets

If you're DJing an early set, you might be following a class, and you probably have the least full dancefloor. This is a great opportunity to figure out the acoustics for a room, and get a sense of what volume will fill it while it's empty.

As more bodies enter the room, you can afford to go a bit higher.

Most of the people on the floor will have been those who were in early for the class, or to talk to people. As a result, a lack of dancing is due to higher priorities, not a dislike of your music. Relax, get some dances in, and stick to music that feels approachable to beginners. Ideally, you should be at the desk 15 minutes before any given set: in this case, you might have heard a song or two used during a taster class.

Familiar music is less intimidating than new music for a beginner, and it's crucially important that you keep the people who just started dancing on the floor as long as possible. You don't have to cater to the experienced dancers, because most of them probably aren't around - and they are already invested in the hobby to stick around most of the night.

Middle sets

As more people arrive, you can bring the energy up more. This is when I might decide to play a few songs I know will get people reliably excited - they've just came in, they've finished their drinks, they've finished some self-imposed expectations of community service by dancing with strangers.

This is when I tend to pay the most attention to the floor. I'm keeping an eye on how many people are dancing, but I'm also keeping an eye on how many people are not. If a band has exclusively been playing fast and long songs, I won't risk anything weird, as people might have been waiting for the band to leave before they would start dancing again.

During a typical night I'm only a song or two ahead of myself when planning a set, and I try to think of each song as part of a set of three. In Dublin there's no cultural expectation to dance more than one song in a row with anyone, but it's still quite common to dance at least two, so the pacing within an ephemeral partnership is important.

The later a night goes on, the more you can afford to play faster or weirder songs to account for the fact most of the people sticking around will be enthusiastic or experienced. This isn't an excuse to stop catering for as many people as possible, however, and where I find many DJs end up killing a room.

As a band set ends, or immediately after announcements (They tend to be paired together for pacing), a DJ will decide to play music for a solo jazz stroll like the Shim Sham or the Big Apple. Immediately after that, they might try to facilitate a jam. If there was a performance of some kind, or the last band song was too much for most people to dance to, this could represent up to 20 minutes of standing around for some dancers.

If you've already been dancing for an hour or two, feeling forced to sit out nearly half an hour of dancing might be what pushes you to end your night early. An emptier dancefloor is better for some people, but worse for the atmosphere and momentum of a night.

Understand the power you have as the DJ.

Final sets

By the end of the night, things have started to wind down. This is when I might start to play some Blues songs, but my aim is to ensure that everyone still ends the event on a high note.

Knowing the true, actual end of the night is important: some events will go as long as the venue will let them, other events end to facilitate time for class or other activities the following day.

There's a lot of songs I accidentally only play near the end of the night, and I usually end a final set with one of my favourite songs. If there's any time of the night you can cater for specific people, this is it.

The right song can give a lot of people a second wind so that they cross the finish line eager instead of lethargic. I have made a habit of announcing when there are only three songs left and the final song, which gives people plenty of warning to get up while they still can.

Concluding thoughts

I believe it's easier to point out wrong ways to DJ than right ways to, because music ultimately comes down to taste. Like good design, the impact of a great DJ is often invisible. I've had the privilege of applause for many of my sets, though I dislike having attention drawn to me.

If you've wanted to try DJing, there's no best time to start. My first set bombed horrendously, and I started out buying my own music - enough for one hour. This meant I couldn't make informed decisions about what to play, and instead had to contend with when to play it.

I would recommend slightly more preparation than I had at the time, which is a low bar to trip over.

You'll find it gets easier the more you do it, much like dancing itself. As time goes on, you'll eventually develop your own style of managing things and distinct voice for your sets.