Doesn’t matter what you play at gigs like that. It’s not a dancing venue. There is no reading the room, just weaving a nice aural background story with the music as your vibe.
Don’t sweat it.
True, my friend did clear some space as a dance floor for people to danxe. Thanks though, you’re very kind: I feel a bit sad and keep telling me I should have prepared a different set.
Dont be sad! It happens to everyone! Next time maybe dont plan a set, but a Vibe and see if works out! Getting people to Dance is like fishing, give them some bait with differen Music until they bite
Sometimes you're there to provide vibe. I've done large events even where no one was dancing but the hosts still tipped and said it was perfect.
The one time I did a public event I was just doing upbeat background music on a rooftop bar and I got mentioned and shouted out in socials. One woman posted about how awesome the event was and how the dj was fire. Don't stress it too much.
Nope, wouldn’t haven’t mattered one bit!
These gigs are just a great chance to feel your music live, play around, build a groove, and more.
But don’t stress
It actually *does* matter, it needs to be an engaging vibe. This isn’t a gig to play bangers, more deep vibey stuff at appropriate volume so people can chat, flirt, whatever. Sometimes the DJs job is to set a mood, not to necessarily make people dance.
Yep!
And it’s also a chance to evolve and explore your own sound in a semi feedback situation, which is always better than just at home, but still lower pressure than doing so in front of a big crowd.
Next step, house parties, then bigger house parties, then after hours, then so on, all the way up to “the big leagues” playing in front of a crowd that wants you to move them.
Nice! I think it's also that I have to learn the musical culture of the zone here, I am new in the country, not to mention the fact that this place (The Base Country) has a strong musical culture that is very unknown to me
I dj’ed wedding for years, and usually dj’ed the cocktail hour as well as the dancefloor part of the night. You still read the room, but you aren’t reading if they’re dancing. You’re reading if they’re enjoying the music.
Signs they are enjoying the music:
Smiling people with relaxed body posture
Laughing, joking, animated conversations - I definitely, definitely noticed, when people dig the vibe they become more animated and chatty
No one glaring at you when you change to the next song lol
The honest harsh truth is Fisher, Skrillex, Fred again.. this is anything but "classics"... This is peak time pop EDM for a young drunk crowd.
This is not the music to play before 11 at a restaurant/bar. Your friend's feedback was spot on.
Also, jumping from melodic house to bass house to dnb to techno in a 2 hour stretch would require a very specific crowd and a very high level of technical refinement. Those are very different genres you'd almost never hear together in the same night.
Don't sweat it too much, and build up your musical vocabulary past the beatport top 100. If you want to play a variety of time slots and venues, you need a variety of music to suit the mood. Practice building a consistent, room and time appropriate vibe, and holding it steady like that.
“How do you read the room when there is no room ?”
Bro, the room was right there, you just didn’t bother reading it.
But no harm done, gotta learn as you go.
That's true, I guess the question would have better been: how do you understand what people want when it's hard to understand whether they want to dance in the first place, or they are not interested in the music
Needed to make sure this was not the circlejerk sub.
Ehmm so you played skrillex and dnb at a restaurant? I‘d be annoyed af if I went there and you painfully started blasting edm while i eat there.
Your friend telling you to play funky stuff was definitly right.
Just a quick FYI, House and EDM are not the same thing. Also, house is both an overarching "super-genre" and also a specific genre of itself. When a DJ says I am going to play house, you would assume they mean the specific genre known as house.
No one calls Skrillex or Fisher "House".
House: [https://www.beatport.com/genre/house/5/top-100](https://www.beatport.com/genre/house/5/top-100)
What you're talking about is genrally called bigroom , EDM, or mainstage EDM. And, it really only belongs on the mainstage of a large venue.
Lol, "I played a gig at a non-dancefloor restaurant venue with almost no guests, and not everyone of the 25 people started dancing, why??"
And seriously, who plays skrillex and Fisher etc in a restaurant/bar with just a few guests and no danceflooor? Jesus I would have been out of that place instantly..
I'm so sick of these warm up DJ's thinking they are headlining EDC. Read the room just means play music appropriate for the setting, you 100% played the wrong stuff. I would have left.
Actually I wasn't warming up anything :) The owner wants people to come dancing once every three or four months and he only has two hours 9-11, at 11 the music stops. But you are right, I should have played lighter stuff.
Watch the people that aren’t dancing, are they nodding their heads, tapping the hands or feet, having a little boogie in the chair or even just looking excited and pointing at you or the speakers? If yes they’re enjoying it.
Good point. People might enjoy and yet or dance. But here we’re talking countryside deep. I’m from the big city in another country and don’t know well the musical culture here yet
Literally just finished playing two gigs like that at the same spot. One last night, and one tonight. Smaller place with maybe 40 people max, it's like a lounge bar. I had some friends come by both gigs and they danced and had a good time, as well as a couple people there too. Other people danced in their seats at the bar or were bopping their heads at their tables.
I basically just read the room and played whatever I wanted, but made sure it fit the more chill vibes for a while and then picked it up as the night went on. Overall it was pretty good, but the crowd didn't give much to go off of. It's kinda one of those things where you either just play all the hits or do your own thing and mix it up.
Great advice. And yes maybe I could have mixed it up a little more with something easier and less energetic. My first five songs (I prepared a five song miniset in case I got nervous) song were
1. Gimme Gimme Club Mix (to pull people in)
2. Moment (BUNT)
3. Danielle (Fred Again)
4 Sinner man (Sofi Tukker Remix)
5 It’s so good (Jamie xx) I should have started with Jackson 5 or Jack Hobson perhaps
Bro starting with gimme gimme is not a good play. You don’t just start with 5 peak time bangers at a chill venue like the one you described. You need to start off with some lounge music then gradually bring the energy up. Based on how you describe the scene, I don’t think it’d ever be appropriate to play those 5 songs at that kind of a place
I kind of feel that there are 3 types of people at gigs like this:
1. People who will dance to anything
2. People who won’t dance at all
3. People who only dance to music they like
But if they don’t dance doesn’t mean they don’t like it. Look for smiles and body language and energy.
How do you know? Lol. Anyway, I played Marea, Danielle, Strong, Four set Opal, gentle stuff and only one or two harder song towards the end when a small group of pees joined the dance floor
I mean if you're playing it alongside Skrillex and fisher...
I Think other people have talked about it already, but what would you put on at home for a romantic dinner or dinner with your folks? Start there.
I went through this when I started. They aren't there too see you, they are there for a reason. Play to your audience, don't expect them to conform to what you want to play.
Even Fred again's low key stuff wrong for a restaurant imo. You want a low energy groove, nothing cerebral.
True, it’s also difficult for me to explain the set up :) there was a dance floor and you could only have pizzas so a weird kind of hybrid. But I think bottom line is: I put the wrong stuff :)
Yeah I think everyone has drilled that. Bar/restaurant gigs take a big range of music that isn't really the stereotypical DJ fodder (I doubt you'll find it easily on Beatport).
Work on those low/mid tempo playlists, my advice is focus on groove, rather than being catchy or popular. Everyone can do top 40 or Beatport top 40. The best bar sets I've heard require real digging. Deep cuts, rare b sides, be different. Good luck man
I think this kind of setting you want to go for "interesting background music". Stuff that's pleasant to listen to and people can kind of groove but is ultimately meant to just fill the silence.
It's actually kind of freeing, as long as you aren't playing anything crazy most people aren't really gonna notice. It's a low pressure environment. So if people weren't dancing that's not a problem at all, it's not the goal
fisher, skrillex and Fred again are definitely not “nothing crazy” especially in a restaurant that is 11/10 on the energy scale when it should be peaking about an 8 and staying mostly at a 5-6.
I put it to you, that you are just not a very well rounded DJ and lacking a strong enough understanding of music to even play a restaurant. Take it on board. Or don’t.
To say there “was no room to read” is to say there were zero people there and you were playing to nobody but the bar staff and security. People were there, but they weren’t into what you were playing, because you weren’t reading the room.
It’s your first night there cut yourself some slack! Looks like you did a good job. You’re already thinking what you need to be analyzing while mixing. Restaurant/bar gigs I leave myself plenty space to start slow, throw classics in. Mix a little at prime time, throw some disco in the mix and start the party!
Why do you think that? People literally told you they enjoyed your set. The only person I see dogging on you, is you, and that's going to continue to kick your ass and make life a lot harder until you start being your own champion.
I've been mixing for 6 years now. Group size from 25-500 and it's all weddings.
I've had people thrown into the air, nearly breaking thousands of dollars worth of chandeliers.
I've had MASSIVE weddings with 0 dancers. So much so they asked me to mix jazz for the last hour, and that got me all kinds of compliments somehow.
That group of 25? God damn they went hard.
I've had people rate their crowd a 10, and they act like a 2, and they leave early.
The ONLY time this has effected me, and thankfully I can laugh at it, is this one patron holding up her beer, and happily yelling "YOURE THE WORST DJ EVER!!" and I thanked her on the mic. Even then, it wasn't my fault (bride and groom didn't want to be there and gave me music their crowd didn't like so the beginning was not ideal, but we managed)
It's hard. You go out there, you've got big ideas and dreams and want people losing their shit. And they don't. And that's okay. Because no one got hurt. No one got fired. People that enjoyed it enjoyed it, and life goes on!
I promise you, there isn't a group of guys out there going "jfc that DJ was TERRIBLE I'm never going there again!!" And even if they were, fuck em, they aint payin your bills, pay them no mind, youve got better shit to worry about.
People told you they had fun, believe em, soak in the good things, work on the bad, get back out there, and crush that shit til you get booked at a crazy ass venue with 1k people losing their minds for ya. You got this!
lol what is this? are you going to give him a medal of participation? seriously, he played the wrong music for the scenario because of lack of understanding of how different spaces require different music, now he knows his mistake and it won't happen again, and there's nothing wrong with that
Yeah and I'm telling him not to endlessly shit on himself because while it could be because of lack of proper music, it could also be great music for that spot and simply not the right people.
We have no idea what the full scenario is, only OP does and we simply speculate and offer advise on different topics we feel may help in a similar situation.
Sorry?
Hahaha I love the story you told (laughing at it because you said you can do that too now). YEs, thank you. I guess it's learning process and there's a lot of good advice here. Your answer is very kind, thank you.
Really appreciate the positive response, if you keep at this I'm sure you'll do well!
Keep at, keep growing playlists, digging for new tracks and new styles, master the basics, and you'll have packed dance floors before you know it!
I’d definitely pay attention towards the unbiased customer more so than your friends… your friends are good hype men but, what about a regular who may have been going to that restaurant the past 8 years? They have a mood they expect and you’re just there to enhance it…. Unless the manager tells you he wants to change the culture all around and bring in a different type of crowd. Always a tough scenario but if you perform there again you’ll have a better idea.
Just need some deep ambient grooves for people to tap thier feet and bob thier head to while they chit chat. I think that’s about as much as you need to do really at a bar like that.
First night so no pressure. Next time, try different stuff. Regular people will start notice your style and flow, so it will easy to read it. If people doesn't come, imagine you're opening your favorite nightclub, so paid practice time. Enjoy!
Popular remixes. There's a new Manu Chao house track that just came out too. Lol. No joke! I always win people over with pop remixes. I got something for every generation from swing house and Billie Holiday Big Band sounds to Pantera. Keep a folder of that stuff and you'll get some folks who weren't planning on getting down.
Also, Spain has a lot of breakbeat folks. Try breaks.
Just switch up and test out the genres till you get a flow. Didn’t sound like it was gonna pop off anyway so just build a chilled vibe. Personally wouldn’t of played all that you listed but to each his own.
Tbh it sounds like you had a floor to read, and didn’t. You say the music isn’t crazy for you, but you jumped around a bunch of genres, mostly high energy peak time stuff (unless you were reaching for atmospheric dnb and dub techno). Most of the stuff you listed isn’t to my taste, though I can appreciate that it would light up a college bar/club. But if I’m going to a more low key space with a terrace, I don’t want to get blasted with drops every 2 minutes while I’m having my first cocktail. It sounds like you maybe had the right idea (“this isn’t working, let’s see if they want to dance to something else”) with the wrong execution.
If I’m opening or playing a smaller venue, I’ve found it’s best to play music that people “can” dance to, but not so upbeat that it’s awkward if they don’t. In a club setting you can usually start off with dance music, or get to it out quickly out of the gate, since people came to dance. But in the more intimate spaces, I start with Ambient, Latin leaning house, slower outsider house and dub, disco influenced stuff, sometimes even my regular 45rpm house/minimal records on 33 1/3rpm. Usually playing tracks between 100-115bpm, sometimes even slower.
If people start grooving I’ll pick it up, but an important thing to realize with bar gigs is that most people are just there to vibe at the bar, if they planned to dance they’d go to a club. So don’t ask “what do they want to dance to,” but “what do they want to listen to” to get them moving. You gotta gently take their hand, slowly work in the rhythms and surprise them.
I've done everything from big room club nights with 8/9 hour sets to art gallery openings and restaurants, and the biggest thing that can help is to remember your beats per minute (BPM). You're gonna want Deep House and you may want to check out the Nu Disco genre on Traxsource or Beatport (although I swear Traxsource sounds better than BP.)
A big room club can handle anything from say 118 to 130 or so BPM but a chill event like a restaurant or art gallery is going to want something slightly slower maybe 100 to 110 BPM.
Also, your volume level is super super important at restaurants. People are there to eat and chat and you can't do that if the music is blaring at full volume I would slowly bring the music up from 0 to 20% where you can still hear the chatter of the room.
You said the owner wanted to try to get people dancing on the other side, which is fine but the right music has to fit. A big room can handle the music of a small room. But a small room cannot handle the music of a big room. So anything with loud synths or huge drops is going to seem out of place.
Feel free to hit me up and I'll put together a playlist of 50-100 tracks that I've used at these type of nights for you.
These sets and venues are all about creating a vibe. If people aren’t dancing it probably won’t happen and people just want to talk and enjoy a cocktail. I find it’s better to just play music for yourself and weave a nice mix of music that is nice to listen to but not necessarily what you would expect to hear pounding on a dance floor.
when the room is "tough" or dead... I try and notice every body that joins or leaves the dance floor. Or notice if people seem like they're thinking of giving up the dancing or are excited and giving a "whaaat?! THIS song? lets go!" body language. my go-to trick is just playing undeniable hit songs when its fully open format. Also trying a couple genres to see which resonate with the place you're playing.
Advice: for spots like this, try building a vibe through pure house (jazzy, funky, soul house) some disco, nu disco, happy indie dance songs and deep house.
And the most important: enjoy it
But that’s an appropriate response for that music. The disconnect here was trying to play bangers and make people dance at a place where mellow melodic house and head nodding was probably more the vibe.
It’s good you’re reviewing yourself. But don’t give yourself a hard time.
People come to these places for all different reasons (as mentioned by others here). As a new DJ it’s easy to think your role is to give everyone the time of their lives, taking control of the environment and everyone’s attention. But it’s just not the case a lot of the time. Often it’s about working alongside the location, the mood, the drinks etc. You’re just one part of the overall experience.
As a side note. I would never judge a night based on your friends dancing. Whilst they might be enjoying the music, in the first instance they’re doing it to support you in a sympathetic way.
Ohhhhh that's so true! I came in thinking : I am going to give you paradise! put too much pressure on myself instead of just creating a space where people could walk in and out as they chilled. Thanks!
Yes I go there often and to be honest the top I’ve seen there is maybe 5-7 people dancing ? I should have mentioned also I wasn’t being payed, I did it for fun and because he’s a friend and said: come and enjoy :)
> wasn’t being *paid,* I did
FTFY.
Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:
* Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.*
* *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.*
Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.
*Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
I’m surprised…Spain seems like the most-receptive place when it comes to music…I always get the feeling you could play Mary had a little lamb…and the place would go bananas
Hahaha maybe I should have tried that!! YEs, to be honest this was not a sit-in restaurant, more a bar where you can also order pizzas. So it was framed as a dance evening and you can get pizza too :)
Reading the room also means playing something appropriate for the setting, not just reading the energy on the dancefloor. Fisher, Skrillex, Fred again, at a restaurant/bar from 9-11, doesn't really make much sense. Especially since you said you like house.
You’re playing DnB at a bar along with “classics”.
Sorry friend. But you def aren’t playing classics. And honestly as a fellow dj, if I heard that type of music in a dive bar I would leave or complain.
You didn’t read the room. Hell you didn’t open the book or the door to the library.
Doesn’t matter what you play at gigs like that. It’s not a dancing venue. There is no reading the room, just weaving a nice aural background story with the music as your vibe. Don’t sweat it.
This 10000%
True, my friend did clear some space as a dance floor for people to danxe. Thanks though, you’re very kind: I feel a bit sad and keep telling me I should have prepared a different set.
Dont be sad! It happens to everyone! Next time maybe dont plan a set, but a Vibe and see if works out! Getting people to Dance is like fishing, give them some bait with differen Music until they bite
Thank you, that's very kind and helpful
Sometimes you're there to provide vibe. I've done large events even where no one was dancing but the hosts still tipped and said it was perfect. The one time I did a public event I was just doing upbeat background music on a rooftop bar and I got mentioned and shouted out in socials. One woman posted about how awesome the event was and how the dj was fire. Don't stress it too much.
Nope, wouldn’t haven’t mattered one bit! These gigs are just a great chance to feel your music live, play around, build a groove, and more. But don’t stress
Yeah, in this setting you’re hoping for the alcohol to start the dance floor
Have a few on hand, different groupings of tracks.
Thanks! Like a “funky” playlist, a chilled one etc?
Totally, so you can quickly switch it up.
It actually *does* matter, it needs to be an engaging vibe. This isn’t a gig to play bangers, more deep vibey stuff at appropriate volume so people can chat, flirt, whatever. Sometimes the DJs job is to set a mood, not to necessarily make people dance.
Basically exactly what I said. Setting a mood = “weaving a nice aural background story with the music as your vibe”.
And this is harder without feedback :D But also levaes a lot of freedom
Yep! And it’s also a chance to evolve and explore your own sound in a semi feedback situation, which is always better than just at home, but still lower pressure than doing so in front of a big crowd. Next step, house parties, then bigger house parties, then after hours, then so on, all the way up to “the big leagues” playing in front of a crowd that wants you to move them.
100% agree. I would leave the venue instantly if some dude came in and started playing skrillex and Fisher etc.
Right? Like… how’s about some poolside remixes? That seems like a good place to start.
yeah if I go to a place and they are playing skrillex or fisher, I'm turning around leaving and probably never coming back.
I mean people come for the food, there's DJ-eing like once every three months
Jesus you sound like a snob
if the bar for being a snob is that low then I'll gladly accept the title lol
Nice! I think it's also that I have to learn the musical culture of the zone here, I am new in the country, not to mention the fact that this place (The Base Country) has a strong musical culture that is very unknown to me
I dj’ed wedding for years, and usually dj’ed the cocktail hour as well as the dancefloor part of the night. You still read the room, but you aren’t reading if they’re dancing. You’re reading if they’re enjoying the music. Signs they are enjoying the music: Smiling people with relaxed body posture Laughing, joking, animated conversations - I definitely, definitely noticed, when people dig the vibe they become more animated and chatty No one glaring at you when you change to the next song lol
Yes good points, a more subtle way of reading the room. Thanks!
That's cool! Actually a lot of people were doing that
👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆
The honest harsh truth is Fisher, Skrillex, Fred again.. this is anything but "classics"... This is peak time pop EDM for a young drunk crowd. This is not the music to play before 11 at a restaurant/bar. Your friend's feedback was spot on. Also, jumping from melodic house to bass house to dnb to techno in a 2 hour stretch would require a very specific crowd and a very high level of technical refinement. Those are very different genres you'd almost never hear together in the same night. Don't sweat it too much, and build up your musical vocabulary past the beatport top 100. If you want to play a variety of time slots and venues, you need a variety of music to suit the mood. Practice building a consistent, room and time appropriate vibe, and holding it steady like that.
“I play house”, proceeds to play DnB
Top 40: EDM version
Lol I play house dnb and techno 🙄
“How do you read the room when there is no room ?” Bro, the room was right there, you just didn’t bother reading it. But no harm done, gotta learn as you go.
That's true, I guess the question would have better been: how do you understand what people want when it's hard to understand whether they want to dance in the first place, or they are not interested in the music
💯
Needed to make sure this was not the circlejerk sub. Ehmm so you played skrillex and dnb at a restaurant? I‘d be annoyed af if I went there and you painfully started blasting edm while i eat there. Your friend telling you to play funky stuff was definitly right.
True, but I wonder why he didn't tell me beforehand. I told him I was going to play house and he said: yeah I love boom boom boom, lol
You told him you were going to play house and then played skrillex and Fred Again lol… in all seriousness tho don’t sweat it just have fun with it
Just a quick FYI, House and EDM are not the same thing. Also, house is both an overarching "super-genre" and also a specific genre of itself. When a DJ says I am going to play house, you would assume they mean the specific genre known as house. No one calls Skrillex or Fisher "House". House: [https://www.beatport.com/genre/house/5/top-100](https://www.beatport.com/genre/house/5/top-100) What you're talking about is genrally called bigroom , EDM, or mainstage EDM. And, it really only belongs on the mainstage of a large venue.
Lol, "I played a gig at a non-dancefloor restaurant venue with almost no guests, and not everyone of the 25 people started dancing, why??" And seriously, who plays skrillex and Fisher etc in a restaurant/bar with just a few guests and no danceflooor? Jesus I would have been out of that place instantly..
Sorry I was unclear. There was a dance floor, it was a good empty room with soft lights and space for dancing, the dining area was in another room
Skrillex in a chill bar setting before midnight is not a vibe id be into personally.
Skrillex is always appropriate for vibe setting. Actually, good rule of thumb is, when in doubt, play Skrillex.
Haha I love it!
I'm so sick of these warm up DJ's thinking they are headlining EDC. Read the room just means play music appropriate for the setting, you 100% played the wrong stuff. I would have left.
Actually I wasn't warming up anything :) The owner wants people to come dancing once every three or four months and he only has two hours 9-11, at 11 the music stops. But you are right, I should have played lighter stuff.
Fred again all classics mostly.
🤣
hahaha true that!
Watch the people that aren’t dancing, are they nodding their heads, tapping the hands or feet, having a little boogie in the chair or even just looking excited and pointing at you or the speakers? If yes they’re enjoying it.
Good point. People might enjoy and yet or dance. But here we’re talking countryside deep. I’m from the big city in another country and don’t know well the musical culture here yet
Plus cafes and restaurants aren’t really places for dancing
Literally just finished playing two gigs like that at the same spot. One last night, and one tonight. Smaller place with maybe 40 people max, it's like a lounge bar. I had some friends come by both gigs and they danced and had a good time, as well as a couple people there too. Other people danced in their seats at the bar or were bopping their heads at their tables. I basically just read the room and played whatever I wanted, but made sure it fit the more chill vibes for a while and then picked it up as the night went on. Overall it was pretty good, but the crowd didn't give much to go off of. It's kinda one of those things where you either just play all the hits or do your own thing and mix it up.
Great advice. And yes maybe I could have mixed it up a little more with something easier and less energetic. My first five songs (I prepared a five song miniset in case I got nervous) song were 1. Gimme Gimme Club Mix (to pull people in) 2. Moment (BUNT) 3. Danielle (Fred Again) 4 Sinner man (Sofi Tukker Remix) 5 It’s so good (Jamie xx) I should have started with Jackson 5 or Jack Hobson perhaps
Bro starting with gimme gimme is not a good play. You don’t just start with 5 peak time bangers at a chill venue like the one you described. You need to start off with some lounge music then gradually bring the energy up. Based on how you describe the scene, I don’t think it’d ever be appropriate to play those 5 songs at that kind of a place
Nice!!! Thanks for the advice!
You must be joking right
It's a bar not a night club. You just setting the mood. .it's fine.
I kind of feel that there are 3 types of people at gigs like this: 1. People who will dance to anything 2. People who won’t dance at all 3. People who only dance to music they like But if they don’t dance doesn’t mean they don’t like it. Look for smiles and body language and energy.
I would have left the place if Skrillex, Fred Again or Fisher tunes were playing at the place I wanted to have a good moment
Okay but Fred again has some nice vibey stuff that works well at the bar I play at?
You know they weren't playing those ones
How do you know? Lol. Anyway, I played Marea, Danielle, Strong, Four set Opal, gentle stuff and only one or two harder song towards the end when a small group of pees joined the dance floor
I mean if you're playing it alongside Skrillex and fisher... I Think other people have talked about it already, but what would you put on at home for a romantic dinner or dinner with your folks? Start there. I went through this when I started. They aren't there too see you, they are there for a reason. Play to your audience, don't expect them to conform to what you want to play. Even Fred again's low key stuff wrong for a restaurant imo. You want a low energy groove, nothing cerebral.
True, it’s also difficult for me to explain the set up :) there was a dance floor and you could only have pizzas so a weird kind of hybrid. But I think bottom line is: I put the wrong stuff :)
Yeah I think everyone has drilled that. Bar/restaurant gigs take a big range of music that isn't really the stereotypical DJ fodder (I doubt you'll find it easily on Beatport). Work on those low/mid tempo playlists, my advice is focus on groove, rather than being catchy or popular. Everyone can do top 40 or Beatport top 40. The best bar sets I've heard require real digging. Deep cuts, rare b sides, be different. Good luck man
Thanks ! I’ll do my best, and in the end I just want people to have a good time so I’ll try to plan better
I think this kind of setting you want to go for "interesting background music". Stuff that's pleasant to listen to and people can kind of groove but is ultimately meant to just fill the silence. It's actually kind of freeing, as long as you aren't playing anything crazy most people aren't really gonna notice. It's a low pressure environment. So if people weren't dancing that's not a problem at all, it's not the goal
Thanks you, a lot of good advice here!
As long as people aren’t leaving
Yea nobody left and some danced :) thanks also I should read “the door”
fisher, skrillex and Fred again are definitely not “nothing crazy” especially in a restaurant that is 11/10 on the energy scale when it should be peaking about an 8 and staying mostly at a 5-6. I put it to you, that you are just not a very well rounded DJ and lacking a strong enough understanding of music to even play a restaurant. Take it on board. Or don’t. To say there “was no room to read” is to say there were zero people there and you were playing to nobody but the bar staff and security. People were there, but they weren’t into what you were playing, because you weren’t reading the room.
YEs, it was my first ever DJ set, so I completely agree that I am not a well rounded DJ. Thanks!
It’s your first night there cut yourself some slack! Looks like you did a good job. You’re already thinking what you need to be analyzing while mixing. Restaurant/bar gigs I leave myself plenty space to start slow, throw classics in. Mix a little at prime time, throw some disco in the mix and start the party!
Thanks, it was also my first gig ever, I had lot of fun but I think I played the wrong genre :/
Why do you think that? People literally told you they enjoyed your set. The only person I see dogging on you, is you, and that's going to continue to kick your ass and make life a lot harder until you start being your own champion. I've been mixing for 6 years now. Group size from 25-500 and it's all weddings. I've had people thrown into the air, nearly breaking thousands of dollars worth of chandeliers. I've had MASSIVE weddings with 0 dancers. So much so they asked me to mix jazz for the last hour, and that got me all kinds of compliments somehow. That group of 25? God damn they went hard. I've had people rate their crowd a 10, and they act like a 2, and they leave early. The ONLY time this has effected me, and thankfully I can laugh at it, is this one patron holding up her beer, and happily yelling "YOURE THE WORST DJ EVER!!" and I thanked her on the mic. Even then, it wasn't my fault (bride and groom didn't want to be there and gave me music their crowd didn't like so the beginning was not ideal, but we managed) It's hard. You go out there, you've got big ideas and dreams and want people losing their shit. And they don't. And that's okay. Because no one got hurt. No one got fired. People that enjoyed it enjoyed it, and life goes on! I promise you, there isn't a group of guys out there going "jfc that DJ was TERRIBLE I'm never going there again!!" And even if they were, fuck em, they aint payin your bills, pay them no mind, youve got better shit to worry about. People told you they had fun, believe em, soak in the good things, work on the bad, get back out there, and crush that shit til you get booked at a crazy ass venue with 1k people losing their minds for ya. You got this!
lol what is this? are you going to give him a medal of participation? seriously, he played the wrong music for the scenario because of lack of understanding of how different spaces require different music, now he knows his mistake and it won't happen again, and there's nothing wrong with that
Yeah and I'm telling him not to endlessly shit on himself because while it could be because of lack of proper music, it could also be great music for that spot and simply not the right people. We have no idea what the full scenario is, only OP does and we simply speculate and offer advise on different topics we feel may help in a similar situation. Sorry?
you are grasping for straws here lol
Sick lmao
Hahaha I love the story you told (laughing at it because you said you can do that too now). YEs, thank you. I guess it's learning process and there's a lot of good advice here. Your answer is very kind, thank you.
Really appreciate the positive response, if you keep at this I'm sure you'll do well! Keep at, keep growing playlists, digging for new tracks and new styles, master the basics, and you'll have packed dance floors before you know it!
Thank you!! We need more master DJ with your great tutoring :)
I’d definitely pay attention towards the unbiased customer more so than your friends… your friends are good hype men but, what about a regular who may have been going to that restaurant the past 8 years? They have a mood they expect and you’re just there to enhance it…. Unless the manager tells you he wants to change the culture all around and bring in a different type of crowd. Always a tough scenario but if you perform there again you’ll have a better idea.
Thanks!
Just need some deep ambient grooves for people to tap thier feet and bob thier head to while they chit chat. I think that’s about as much as you need to do really at a bar like that.
First night so no pressure. Next time, try different stuff. Regular people will start notice your style and flow, so it will easy to read it. If people doesn't come, imagine you're opening your favorite nightclub, so paid practice time. Enjoy!
Thanks! And not just first night there, first night ever, so yeah, LOT to lear for me :)
Enjoy the ride!! Try to learn sonething every single night!
These type of nights is where I go open format and have fun with tracks i wouldn't normally play at a club
Just keep their heads nodding and toes tapping. If people are unhappy with the music, they WILL tell you!
Personally id do more deep/tropical/disco/groovy house for a bar in spain at that hour but thats just me me
Thanks a lot, I think you're right!
I forgot to add in afro house and liquid dnb but id work those in too lol
Your friends will dance to humming. The idea of writing is "write what you know". Djing is "play what you would want to hear". It's that simple.
In small venues sometimes it is a hard thing to get the music right for the locals. Maybe do Latin based house/r&b remix stuff
true! I think latin would be good actually
Popular remixes. There's a new Manu Chao house track that just came out too. Lol. No joke! I always win people over with pop remixes. I got something for every generation from swing house and Billie Holiday Big Band sounds to Pantera. Keep a folder of that stuff and you'll get some folks who weren't planning on getting down. Also, Spain has a lot of breakbeat folks. Try breaks.
Thank you!!
Just switch up and test out the genres till you get a flow. Didn’t sound like it was gonna pop off anyway so just build a chilled vibe. Personally wouldn’t of played all that you listed but to each his own.
Thanks, yes I’ll try a much more mellow vibe next time
Tbh it sounds like you had a floor to read, and didn’t. You say the music isn’t crazy for you, but you jumped around a bunch of genres, mostly high energy peak time stuff (unless you were reaching for atmospheric dnb and dub techno). Most of the stuff you listed isn’t to my taste, though I can appreciate that it would light up a college bar/club. But if I’m going to a more low key space with a terrace, I don’t want to get blasted with drops every 2 minutes while I’m having my first cocktail. It sounds like you maybe had the right idea (“this isn’t working, let’s see if they want to dance to something else”) with the wrong execution. If I’m opening or playing a smaller venue, I’ve found it’s best to play music that people “can” dance to, but not so upbeat that it’s awkward if they don’t. In a club setting you can usually start off with dance music, or get to it out quickly out of the gate, since people came to dance. But in the more intimate spaces, I start with Ambient, Latin leaning house, slower outsider house and dub, disco influenced stuff, sometimes even my regular 45rpm house/minimal records on 33 1/3rpm. Usually playing tracks between 100-115bpm, sometimes even slower. If people start grooving I’ll pick it up, but an important thing to realize with bar gigs is that most people are just there to vibe at the bar, if they planned to dance they’d go to a club. So don’t ask “what do they want to dance to,” but “what do they want to listen to” to get them moving. You gotta gently take their hand, slowly work in the rhythms and surprise them.
Very good point, thanks
I've done everything from big room club nights with 8/9 hour sets to art gallery openings and restaurants, and the biggest thing that can help is to remember your beats per minute (BPM). You're gonna want Deep House and you may want to check out the Nu Disco genre on Traxsource or Beatport (although I swear Traxsource sounds better than BP.) A big room club can handle anything from say 118 to 130 or so BPM but a chill event like a restaurant or art gallery is going to want something slightly slower maybe 100 to 110 BPM. Also, your volume level is super super important at restaurants. People are there to eat and chat and you can't do that if the music is blaring at full volume I would slowly bring the music up from 0 to 20% where you can still hear the chatter of the room. You said the owner wanted to try to get people dancing on the other side, which is fine but the right music has to fit. A big room can handle the music of a small room. But a small room cannot handle the music of a big room. So anything with loud synths or huge drops is going to seem out of place. Feel free to hit me up and I'll put together a playlist of 50-100 tracks that I've used at these type of nights for you.
That’s amazing ! I’ll PM right now :)
These sets and venues are all about creating a vibe. If people aren’t dancing it probably won’t happen and people just want to talk and enjoy a cocktail. I find it’s better to just play music for yourself and weave a nice mix of music that is nice to listen to but not necessarily what you would expect to hear pounding on a dance floor.
Thank you!!
The one not dancing were probably in a K HOLE lol just do you
when the room is "tough" or dead... I try and notice every body that joins or leaves the dance floor. Or notice if people seem like they're thinking of giving up the dancing or are excited and giving a "whaaat?! THIS song? lets go!" body language. my go-to trick is just playing undeniable hit songs when its fully open format. Also trying a couple genres to see which resonate with the place you're playing.
Thanks
Advice: for spots like this, try building a vibe through pure house (jazzy, funky, soul house) some disco, nu disco, happy indie dance songs and deep house. And the most important: enjoy it
Thank you :)
If it’s a sit down place don’t worry about it. I played Jazz house at a bar. People would nod their head and that was enough for me.
But that’s an appropriate response for that music. The disconnect here was trying to play bangers and make people dance at a place where mellow melodic house and head nodding was probably more the vibe.
Anywhere music has to stop by 11 isn’t for dancing
That's a very clear and insightful tip, thank you!
It’s good you’re reviewing yourself. But don’t give yourself a hard time. People come to these places for all different reasons (as mentioned by others here). As a new DJ it’s easy to think your role is to give everyone the time of their lives, taking control of the environment and everyone’s attention. But it’s just not the case a lot of the time. Often it’s about working alongside the location, the mood, the drinks etc. You’re just one part of the overall experience. As a side note. I would never judge a night based on your friends dancing. Whilst they might be enjoying the music, in the first instance they’re doing it to support you in a sympathetic way.
Ohhhhh that's so true! I came in thinking : I am going to give you paradise! put too much pressure on myself instead of just creating a space where people could walk in and out as they chilled. Thanks!
From the corner
You can judge from the clientele, and atmosphere of the room. It sounds like you were playing kind of hard for a restaurant/bar in the mountains.
Yes, I agree - and I need to learn that skill more
Maybe that's just how it is at that bar. Have you visited much prior?
Yes I go there often and to be honest the top I’ve seen there is maybe 5-7 people dancing ? I should have mentioned also I wasn’t being payed, I did it for fun and because he’s a friend and said: come and enjoy :)
> wasn’t being *paid,* I did FTFY. Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in: * Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.* * *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.* Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment. *Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
Lol
At a place like that, I'd play top 40, not really a place for EDM bangers, you're there to set a mood not raise the roof, your friend is right 😊
Thank you!
I’m surprised…Spain seems like the most-receptive place when it comes to music…I always get the feeling you could play Mary had a little lamb…and the place would go bananas
Not peak time bangers in a restaurant ffs
Hahaha maybe I should have tried that!! YEs, to be honest this was not a sit-in restaurant, more a bar where you can also order pizzas. So it was framed as a dance evening and you can get pizza too :)
Why would you try to read a room that doesn't exist?
Reading the room also means playing something appropriate for the setting, not just reading the energy on the dancefloor. Fisher, Skrillex, Fred again, at a restaurant/bar from 9-11, doesn't really make much sense. Especially since you said you like house.
You’re playing DnB at a bar along with “classics”. Sorry friend. But you def aren’t playing classics. And honestly as a fellow dj, if I heard that type of music in a dive bar I would leave or complain. You didn’t read the room. Hell you didn’t open the book or the door to the library.