Chronicles of a Diva Jockey: Practice and More Practice

    No matter if you’re playing a sport, an instrument or anything else, Practice. Once I received my turntables and plugged them in, practice. Now, in my mind, I had all intentions of practicing every day, but I started slacking. My first day back to class it showed.

    What my teacher has been doing since day one is picking 2 instrumentals that we are to match the snares. What he would do was let us know if we were matching them, if we were close or if we were doing what’s call a 1&3. He would hold up 1 finger and then 3. For the longest I did not understand what the heck he was talking about. If you want to understand, ASK!  I didn’t.  I should have but I thought as time went on, I would get it. I did not.

    It just so happens that a former student reached out to check my progress. I told him my dilemma, and he said, “Never hesitate to ask. That is what we are all here for”. He also told me that YouTube is much friend. Yes, it truly is.

    1234

    2234

    3234

    4234

    That is 16 beats, 4 bars. A lot of songs run that way. You must know where in the songs they are. You must know how to match your next song with the song that is already playing. I listen to a lot of music of different genres, but I never played instruments or read music, so I never had to grasp this. I get it now. I was matching 1234 to 3234; 1&3. There is more to this, but I think you get the gist. If not, just ask (smile). This is helpful if the songs you are dealing with you’ve never heard before but knowing the song makes it so much easier.

    Now that I got that together I was practicing less before. Yesterday makes 3 classes since being back from the holidays. I was able to transition better. Still trying to get my ears to catch on faster, rubbing is still difficult at times and adjusting the speed accordingly is still a challenge at times as well.

    We will not be in class next week. More time for practice.

    I would advise that you ask questions. It is better to ask a question that seems dumb than to go out there with minimal knowledge. YouTube is your friend. There are DJs that have tutorials. I am subscribed to DJ TLM TV and the DJs Guru. I watched different DJs because each word the techniques differently. One of them may give you an “ah ha” moment (Oh, that’s what they mean by that). I even watched a man teaching beginners piano. Yes, it helped.

    If you have any suggestions, please help a sista so that we may all grow.

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