By Ron (Ron) on Monday, May 21, 2001 - 02:13 pm: EditI'm struggling a bit on how to keep my djing interesting, not only to everyone else, but to me. If I can't keep it interesting to me, I'll stop doing it.
I'm always looking for/buying/listening to new music, and thats the main thing that keeps it interesting to me, but that's getting less rewarding as it gets harder to find good new (to me) music. And I love the music, but I get bored of some of the songs earlier than many of you probably do. For one, I've already listened to it numerous times before anyone else hears it the first time, and not everyone comes to every minute of every set I play. But I do.
As much as people seem to love certain favorites, I think I get the most compliments when I first play a bunch of good new stuff mixed in with the pop favorites. And it gets really tough to keep finding good new songs. Of course, when I play, its most interesting to mix up the tempos and the types of music, but it can be easy to get stuck in a rut.
To keep things interesting to me, I make compilations, play sets of songs in a theme (like food, summer, or sex), think of simple contests, feature certain CDs or artists, etc. But I'm getting bored again.
I'm thinking of doing a few theme nights. One theme would be to play a night of jazz/blues standards. A standard is a song that has been covered over and over by other artists. I'd play standards like "Night Train", "Corner Pocket", "Good Rockin Tonight", "C-Jam Blues", "Blue Skies", "Jersey Bounce", "Flat Foot Floogie", "Route 66", "Stomping at the Savoy", etc. I play lots of these anyway, but this would be a night consisting entirely of standards, some by the original artists, some covers.
I might plan another swing music evaluation night soon. I might play more obscure songs, even if they aren't as good. I think I'm going to dig out some neo-swing songs I haven't played for a while. I might play a Latin tune once in a while, or a Waltz. Hmmmmm. Maybe I'll play a night of only Big Band. Or a night of R&B, jump blues and Rock and roll tunes from the 50's. I'll think of ways to give away some more CDs, too. I should remind myself to call a "Shim-sham" occasionally. Or a steal, although the last couple times I tried, no one stayed out of the dance in order to steal in.
Any other suggestions?