Having an empty dancefloor is like having a blank canvas. The smart warm-up DJ applies his strokes carefully to get the background all set for the big-name guest to apply the bold, finishing strokes to.
Guest post by DJ Sean Gallagher, who teaches how to DJ with his blog and training programme.
There is no better opportunity for a new or intermediate DJ than to DJ warm-up sets for a superstar celebrity DJ in town. Think about it: having your name of the poster with any celebrity DJ will get you noticed around your city. And any time a big DJ is in town, the other promoters and DJs will usually stop by to see the superstar DJ in action. The promoters and other DJs will see you in action too and this will almost definitely lead to more gigs if you do it right.
Why? Because excellent opening DJs are rare. They are therefore respected and usually find great success in their DJing careers. Some of the top professional DJs in the world were great opening DJs. That’s part of the reason why they got noticed and became superstars.
The challenge is that most DJs don’t know how to open properly for another DJ and as a result they miss a lot of opportunities for DJ gigs. So the big question is how do you properly open for a celebrity guest DJ?
Having become a bit of an opening specialist myself, here are my 10 secrets to being an awesome opening DJ:
1. Understand your role
Opening for another DJ is an art form. It’s a lot different than DJing at peak time when the party is going nuts.
Despite what you’ll find at most of your local clubs, the opening DJ’s purpose isn’t to get the dancefloor going off. The opening DJ’s role is to invite people into the room, make them feel comfortable and lure them onto the dancefloor just before the big DJ shows up.
I’ve seen it so many times! The opening DJ starts banging out peak-time tracks trying to get people to dance early on hours before the big-name DJ is set to come on. But he doesn’t realise three things:
- First, people don’t want to dance right away when they enter the venue. They want to take their time, chat with their friends, talk up a cute girl, have a few drinks, get into the groove and then get out on the dancefloor
- Second, people can’t dance forever. They get tired quickly. So if you bang it out early you won’t be able to keep them on the floor until the big DJ takes over
- Third, if you were a big DJ coming in to play peak time, you’d want to be able to pump up the crowd yourself. You don’t want a crowd that’s already peaked and tired. This is every big DJ’s nightmare: playing to a crowd that’s already danced like crazy. Why? Because they’re tired so they won’t respond to anything you play and that creates a weird energy in the room
So your job as an opening DJ isn’t to get people dancing like crazy, it’s to first get people tapping their feet by the bar. Then you want them nodding their heads and swaying a little. As the night gets busier a few brave souls will head out on the floor and dance.
As the night gets busier a few brave souls will head out on the floor…
And little by little you want to get more and more people out by building the energy in your music. By the time the big DJ comes on, everyone is on the dancefloor sort-of swaying, waiting for the track that will make everything explode. You literally warm up the energy in the room so that when the next DJ comes on he can spark the dancefloor off 100%.
2. Tone down the tempo
A song that is playing at a faster BPM (beats per minute) will always have more energy. So the easiest way to raise the energy of a room is to gradually bring the speed of your tracks up. You can’t do this if you start off out hammering your tracks at light-speed.
Keeping a tight rein on your BPM is one of the most effective ways of harnessing the energy and increasing it at the correct rate as the warm-up set progresses.
Ideally you want the energy to be high right before the big DJ is about to come on. This means that you need to start out playing your tracks with a slower BPM earlier on and push the BPMs up as you get closer to the next DJ arriving.
Think about it. If you enter into a club at eleven o’clock and the DJ is playing his tracks slower at 120BPM, when 12.30am rolls around and he’s playing his tracks at 124BPM the music will have a lot more energy to it.
When I open a house night, for example, I know that the next DJ will be playing his tracks 126 or maybe even 128BPM for peak time. So that means I want to get up to 125 or 126 at the end of my set. I’m on for two hours so I start out slow at 120ish and leave it there for the first half-hour. Then I gradually pick up the pace as the room fills up. This creates an awesome energy.
Look at it this way: If you had two DJs playing the exact same song at 125BPM at the end of their opening set, which song would have more energy? The DJ who started out at 125BPM and had kept that pace and energy for the full two-hour opening set? Or the DJ who started off way slower and built up the pace?
You don’t start out playing peak-time bombs from Steve Angello or Tiesto…
Of course, the answer is that the DJ who started off slower would have created more energy in the room because his track at 125BPM sounds so much faster and has so much more energy than the tracks he was playing an hour before! Don’t be that guy who bangs fast music to an empty dancefloor at the beginning of the night.
It may feel slow having your tracks pitched down, but it pays off later in the night.
3. Choose your style of music carefully
A important factor in opening up for a big DJ is the style of music you play. As I said, the goal of the opening DJ is to first have people tapping their feet at the bar and around the dancefloor. Then you want to get people swaying and nodding a little bit.
The best music to get people to sway and move towards the floor is by using more rhythmic, percussive, warm-sounding tracks. You don’t start out playing peak-time bombs from Steve Angello or Tiesto early on.
You want to play music that makes people feel like bobbing their heads and tapping their feet. Then you build it to more peak-time songs as you get closer to switching over to the bigger DJ.
4. Watch the room
When do you pick up the tempo or adjust the style of the music you’re playing as the night progresses? This all comes down to what the people in the room want: what the dancefloor wants.
Any monkey can play one song after another and beatmatch.
That’s, after all, what DJing is all about. Any monkey can play one song after another and beatmatch. But if you can choose the right song, at the right time to match the energy of the people in the room, you can create magic. That’s the art of DJing. No machine could ever do that. And it’s never more important than when warming up a room.
So make sure you lift your head up and start watching people if you don’t already. You’ll come unstuck as a warm-up guy otherwise.
5. Recognise the different phases of a night
When you start to watch people more, and in the specific way that all good DJs do, you’ll quickly realise that every night has distinct phases to it.
Early on, people will be hanging out by the bar having drinks and laughing with friends. Your goal now is to see what type of songs get them bobbing and tapping their feet. Try a few different types of songs and see what they react to. If they react to something more techy, keep playing that style. If they respond to a vocal, then make a note of that and react accordingly.
As the night moves from phase to phase, try and recognise the stages: A three-quarters full dancefloor means you're not far from the big-name, and by now you should know what you need to do to leave things primed and ready.
Then the night will reach a stage where there are people standing around the dancefloor, and more people will be watching you. The venue will be starting to fill up at a faster pace and you’ll even have a few blessed-souls taking to the dancefloor. Again, as you play different types of song, watch and notice what people react to. Notice how the songs you play affect the energy of the room.
Do people leave the dancefloor, or do they do the opposite and leave the bar to go dance? What types of people are dancing? Are people surrounding the floor just waiting for a few more people to dance so they won’t be the only one? What are the people at the bar doing? What are all of the girls doing?
Then as you get closer to peak-time the floor will be three-quarters full. Again, watch how the crowd reacts and play accordingly. See what types of songs fill the dancefloor more. By now you should know the crowd pretty well and you should have a good idea of the type of track you will need to drop just before the big-name celebrity DJ arrives to get the floor packed.
Pages: 1 2
Tags: opening sets, programming, warm-up sets
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
“having your name of the poster with any celebrity DJ will get you noticed around your city.”
Sorry, but I haven’t seen this as the case in my neck of the woods, but I’m sure it happens elsewhere. Many of the openers I barely ever see again except occasionally at smaller events or parties that never go anywhere.
People entertain the fantasy of the opening DJ one day growing into the “superstar”, but I barely ever see it happen. Instead I see opening DJs come and go because promoters wanted someone who brought out 50 people early in the night, rather than everyone coming just for the headliner.
Only way the opener grows to beyond opening is when he/she pushes to be more than an opener. Produces, promotes, does things, gets noticed OUTSIDE of those gigs.
Maybe it’s different elsewhere…but not in my neck of the woods. You have to play an opening set well, but these gigs aren’t becoming stepping stones to more…not unless the big name takes you on tour with him/her.
The rest of your tips though are solid and on the mark.
[ link ]Dead on D-Jam. I can only think of one big-name warm-up DJ, Jaytek. And that’s because he’s always on tour with Above & Beyond.
[ link ]The Viceroy used to warm up and close Ministry of Sound a couple of years ago but he was Gallery resident at the time and as soon as he got signed to a record label he moved on.
D Jam. Thanks for the reply on my article!
You make some great points. The most prominent being that you can’t expect to become a superstart DJ without producing, promoting themselves etc.
That being said, I started getting a TON more gigs locally and in cities around Vancouver after I opened for Max Graham. Other promoters saw me and called me up to ask them to play their clubs opening for big DJs or peak timing their local nights.
Just from being on the posters when you finally do meet someone in the industry it gives you social proof. “Oh… You’re Sean Gallagher. I’ve seen your name around.”
[ link ]I’m from Florida, and I’ve seen the awesome set-up DJ become a big(ger) name DJ on several occasions.
I started going to club events in the mid 90s. Here in Florida, crowds were just getting into the European house sounds. I went and saw Sasha & John Digweed at Simons in Gainesville, several other big name DJs in the Orlando area – that kind of thing. This is where I got the pleasure of hearing DJs like Sean Cusick, Jimmy Van M, Chris Fortier, and DJ Three. All of them were local central Florida guys who carved out a niche as being incredible set-up guys.
And each of them are international successes.
The tips given here are spot on. If they aren’t working for you, then you either aren’t following them well, or the people in your area just aren’t into what you are doing – and that is a hard pill to swallow. I know that I’ve lost out on many gigs because I’ve refused to play hip-hop or commercial mash-ups.
[ link ]Respectfully disagreed. In terms of developing a fan base and/or getting attention for opportunities, how can it not help? I’ve personally become a fan of numerous bands/dj’s because of their attachment to a headliner.
Completely different case compared to being a launchpad to “stardom”, I believe the article was suggesting the former.
[ link ]This is a great post! An absolute wealth of tips that are all spot on. If any beginner DJs are reading this, they would do well to take note of every single point mentioned. I’ve even learned a few things myself! It’s nice to be reminded that there are still some DJs out there who understand the art of DJing, whether it’s warming up, finishing off a night or playing a peak time set – each timeslot should be approached in different ways. There are too many arrogant wannabes nowadays that think they must have the dancefloor rocking at all times no matter when they are playing – but the science behind a good DJ is a lot more subtle than that. It’s all about giving the crowd a good time which, as a DJ, should always be your number one goal.
[ link ]I couldn’t agree more Paul! You’re being paid to make the crowd have a great time so new DJs should be focusing on the patrons and not themselves. Thanks for all the kind words btw!
[ link ]Sean is the man! Nice article fella. Just one thing: the title reads 10 and there are 5 tips in total. 5 is easily enough though.
[ link ]Matt, you need stronger glasses! Tried clicking the “Next page” link?
[ link ]I need to get outside.
[ link ]page two
[ link ]Thanks Matt!
I also need to get outside more. The spelling and grammar in some of my comment replies is proof!
[ link ]Simply beyond my expectations!
A great post with a wealth of info.
Also thanks a lot for looking at both sides of the coin in the part about clearing the dancefloor. Indeed it can be a good thing!
Thank you a lot DigitalDJTips for your well thought-out and detailed posts!
[ link ]Glad you like it Signal. Now go apply the steps to your next opening gig!
[ link ]I can’t describe how much this article rocks! Awesome awesome advice! Thank you DDJT!
[ link ](also I lol’d at the “Dance puppets! Dance!” part)
Hahhha I forgot that I wrote “dance puppets dance”!
Its true though, when you build the night up properly you can control what they do. Its a positive feeling of achievement and raw power that is addictive!
[ link ]I dont mean to be overly negative but I’ve read maybe 3-4 articles on different blogs this week all saying the same thing: “if you want to be a big time rock star pro DJ with sweet hotels and groupies (and haters) you need to produce.”
The problem is none of these articles go into detail about that magical word. I even read the article abot Eski but it seemed to gloss over the details about writing songs, getting them recorded, copyright, management, contracts, labels, etc.
OK, maybe Im making a big fuss over it but my god, you cant just throw something up on Podomatic and suddenly you’re famous. Sorry for the rant but please stop casually throwing the P word around like its that easy. OK, done. Flame away.
[ link ]But this article isn’t about producing, it’s about playing warm-up DJ sets… ?
[ link ]I think that was supposed to be a response to D-Jam’s comment.
[ link ]I see what you mean dude, I’m intending to produce but have very little prior knowledge of what to do but, after talking to a newly signed DJ/Producer, even he said he had to start making music in order to play it. There are multiple reasons as to why but I get the feeling you’ve heard them all.
[ link ]Now, what I suggest you do is download the Ableton Suite free trial. There are tutorials on it (as well as there being plenty on YouTube) that can get you started and you can learn to get a feel for musical and track structure (a lot of which you should be already aware of, being a DJ).
Hope you find this helpful mate.
You’d probably find the answer you’re looking for on a producing forum / blog. Not on a digital DJing tips blog. Or you can just ask any big name DJ. Email them. They often respond.
[ link ]WOW!!! Great article and great (awesome) replys (D-Jam and DJ Possess, top opinion from both…).
Nice article Phill… keep it comimg \m/
[ link ]Glad you like it!
[ link ]Awesome article Sean…thank you !
Whilst opening is definitely an art, I always feel sorry for the guy after the main act …the dance floor clears like someone dropped a jar of ebola on it ! Any tips for the poor closers on how to stop the exodus ?
Worst example of “an opener” I’ve experienced was about 4 years ago when the two resident DJ’s at a Trance club decided to have a “resident vs resident mash up type set” before Mark Pledger. It was truly terrible , so much so that regulars who were there that night still talk about it today. It was beyond belief and so disrespectful to Mark Pledger….we actually felt embarrassed that he travelled all the way to Australia to experience something like that. It pretty much broke every single one of the rules you mentioned above (except for playing his tracks) and handed him an empty dance floor.
As an aside though…one of those residents has since become a big international name (in fairness he does have talent), the other has thankfully hung up his cans.
[ link ]The best advice on how to come on after someone that’s banging it out was from Mr Scruff. My Scruff plays chill deep housey kind of stuff. At one of the big festivals in the UK he was asked to play after Judge Jules.
So he walks in and Judge Jules just starts laughing. Neither of them knew what to do because Jules was banging at 130 BPMs and Mr Scruff plays 118.
Most DJs would fumble around and try to find the fastes song they could play to not lose the crowd. Scruff spun out Jules’ last record and threw on the slowest track he could find to make a statement that he was here.
He knew the floor would clear but it was better for him to start from scratch and build the energy up himself.
An hour later and he had a packed dancfloor rocking away to his chill tunes.
[ link ]Great info for any DJ!
To tell you the truth, I think the headlining slot is the easiest slot of the night… And I’m not trying to put any headlining DJs down, not at all, but just saying it out loud, because I know many headliners would agree with me. Getting to that status is of course a whole other matter, the headliners of course have worked (and literally toured) their butts off, they’ve done something right at some point, and deserve the slot. Anyway, when an out-of-town/country DJ is booked, (most of the time) the promoter and the crowd knows what they’re getting from that established name DJ, so ‘delivering’ is not THAT hard, usually.
The opening DJ on the other hand needs to have a much bigger variety of music at ready AND the 6th sense and skills to use it to both please the crowd (yah, esp. the pretty chicas) and set up the headliner properly AND to make him/herself look good while the dancefloor might not be jampacked from the get-go. It can get to your nerves, or ego, especially if you don’t know fully what you’re doing, or if you don’t realize that career-building can take years, and sometimes has very little to do with actual technical DJ skills.
I’ve heard it a thousand times (not usually to my face, though
, that “I could play those same tracks and rock the crowd even better if I got to play the headlining slot”, which in part can be true, but the person saying that is missing some of the point. First of, the headliner is there (most of the time) for a good reason, and also, most headliners these days either make their own music (or have a producer (or team) who they make it with) and/or play a lot of exclusive material gotten from fellow producers months in advance, or at least special edits and mashups that nobody else is playing.
The best thing an opener can do is to follow stuff like in this article, use their own brain, and be respectful to everybody. A good taste in music and a great (and dirty) sense of humour helps, too!
I’ve met several of my good friends of today at various clubs in various cities around the world when they opened for me, and when I went there the next time I requested them as openers again. The common thing to those guys is that they played great music with content, they were in charge of their sets and the crowd, but didn’t go 138bpm at 11pm and they were nice and respectful, asking about BPMs and their closing tracks etc either at the club or emailed me beforehand.
Selfishly thinking, an opening DJ who I know makes my night in that club stress free, because I know the crowd is nicely pumped before my set, ready to go, and the trusted DJ buddy already has basically done a proper soundcheck for me (eventhough I go do an early soundcheck, I want to see the venue and booth beforehand if possible), and leaves me at the 128-132 bpm where I want to start from. All of that makes the night flow perfectly, too, and everybody is happy!
Oh, one more thing: Opener’s role IMO also extends to playing great music consistently when no headliners are there, too. The local DJs build the scene, they teach people what’s hot, they can definitely steer a club to different directions (if they’re are given the chance by the management) and if they’re good at what they do. RESPECT!
[ link ]Ditto on the last point Darude. The scene in our city has been dying a slow death since our best local trance DJ moved on and no one of the same calibre came into fill his shoes. So much so that now even Above & Beyond hasn’t sold out what is a small venue…that would have been unthinkable 2-3 years back. It’s a vicious circle, the more big acts that don’t sell out the less likely they will be to come here in the future and the scene will get that much smaller…its sad to see.
[ link ]Great points Darude. Thanks for your thoughts. I’ve seen you headline a few times. You rock!
[ link ]Does this apply to concerts also?!?
[ link ]I’ll be doing the warm up on Sept 30 for a band called Wild Swans (wonder if the younger members here know this 80s band from Liverpool). Although I’ve been playing publicly or in bars or clubs for quite sometime, this will be my first time doing a band concert!
The location is concert hall and genre is new wave.
Appreciate any advice…cheers!
Great tips! I usually search for stuff like this to set my mood, when I am booked to open for a headliners here in Dallas. I had the opportunity to open for you Darude. From what I remember you were happy. That really made my night. If you are the opener, and the crowd explodes when the headliner goes on, you did your job. I’m opening for mustard pimp & infected mushroom this week. So I’m preparing & listening to there latest sets, so I have a good understanding how to set them up. My tip for other DJs who find this article is, research how the headliner plays from the type of music, to bpm. Enjoy yourself but never over play. Learn from the experience and improve or tweak for your next gig.:)
[ link ]Great tips.
[ link ]After 25+ years as a nightclub DJ, 15 as a Billboard dance chart panelist, and 10 as a producer, Ive heard a lot of opening DJs play for ‘big name’ jocks who should have been opening for THEM
[ link ]you build to more peak-time songs as you get closer to switching over to the bigger DJ.
[ link ]This is a great article.
I played a Drum and Bass gig once at around a 300 capacity venue at 2am-3am after the headliner Cyantific. I must have performed well because I was invited back but this time for a 10pm-11pm slot. For some reason and whilst being fully aware of not trying to kill it too early I went ahead and absolutely smashed it. I had some slower tunes in the mix but there were some killer tracks and double drops in there. The dance floor energy was insane but I can’t help thinking I was premature. I guess I knew how irregular the sets were offered and so thought I just want to have allot of fun and show the crowd some serious skills. To be fair I had 30 friends with me that absolutely loved it. I just wonder if these pointers are the same for all genres. I am focussed on Deep House now but still think back to that night.
Any feedback would be appreciated.
[ link ]Opening for Gunslinger, Love and Light, ChrisB. , and a secret guest Headliner next friday in LA I really enjoyed reading this post can’t wait to implement it!
[ link ]