DJ Skills: Reading the Crowd

DJing is a heck of a lot more than just pushing play. Real DJs spend many years building up a unique skill set that includes sound and equipment knowledge, music discovery, mixing techniques, crowd interaction, and of course reading the crowd. Good DJs will be able to do all of those things and much more.

In order to be able to read the crowd, there are a couple main things to keep in mind. One is that you need to know your music. In order to adjust on the spot depending on how your crowd reacts to certain artists, songs, genres, etc, you'll need to know your library, and more so, you'll need to know your individual songs to know what to predict and where to drop in and come out of a song.

Watch them, see how and when they dance, they'll give you cues as to what they're into and what they're not. A good DJ will listen to requests. Just because a request is made, doesn't mean you have to play it but can be a good indicator for what your crowd is into. Another tip is to experiment. You can't learn to read a crowd and make adjustments if you never do it. Play around, be free, see what works and what doesn't.