DJ Rama Shares His Tips on Learning the DJ Craft

DJ Rama has found great success as a DJ and he puts it all down to the early years in his bedroom when he was leaning his craft. Rama is not the only one who believes this and if you ask any DJ in the world how they got to where they did, they will all likely put their success down to those early years of discovery and hustle. We are very fortunate to have the great DJ Rama here with us and we have been picking his brains about what young DJs should be doing in order to set themselves up fro a bright future. If you have some big plans to be a DJ, then here are some tips to bear in mind. 

Practice 

It may sound simple but if you want to get anywhere in this career then you have to seriously be putting the hours in. DJ Rama used to DJ for at least 3 hours per day when he was growing up, and you should be looking at hitting some similar numbers. You can’t just get away with enjoying the music, you have to know it inside out and learn how to feel the music. 

Nail The Basics

So many people try to get carried away with cutting and scratching when they get started, but that will come later. The basics of being able to DJ are having great knowledge of the music that you are playing, and learning how to beat match. In the early stages you should be literally thinking about what music works best with which, and how to count those beats to perfection. 

Music 

In terms of what music you will play, this is going to come down to your tastes and your tastes alone. Don’t start thinking of what music is popular right now or what you think people will want t hear. Focus on the music that makes you happy and play around with different styles and genres when you create your sets. 

Making Tapes

Rama says he still has hundreds of tapes that he made when he first started playing and advises that you do the same. Creating a set isn’t easy which is why you should record what you are playing and use these recordings to work out what sounds best with what. You can also use theses tapes to spot mistakes that you may have made and learn to fix them. 

Love the Music

Most DJs never grow up with any other idea that playing great music to people, and this is where your mentality should be too. If you want to be famous and you are driven by that then you aren’t going to have the same love for the music that you should, and this is going to come across when you play. Love the music and keep your dreams small, in doing this, you can achieve the biggest things.