A few general guidelines that I try to go by...

you don't want to play too many songs by the same artist in a night, period. definitely not back to back if you can help it (unless the sound of the songs differ a lot).

vary up the tempo a bit... it doesn't have to be each and every time, but something like fast, medium, medium, fast, slow, medium, fast, slow, medium, medium, fast, fast, slow, medium.....

you generally want a fair bit of variety in your sound.... if all the songs sound the same, no matter what tempo they are, it starts sounding boring; but at the same time you want the songs to sort of flow together as well.... drastic changes of pace can sometimes be jarring.... something that grant does, and that I have done when I dj, is I listen to the song that is playing, then the song that I am cuing... if the both kind of have the same feel, or a similar sound (but not exactly the same), I usually will play the cued song. If it sounds like a huge change of pace (and not very natural), I try to pick something else for the next song... it's not an exact science, and it doesn't always work out, but it's something to think about.

and last, but certainly not least- michael jackson is not, nor ever will be, swingable.

ElChuy:

A few general guidelines that I try to go by...

you don't want to play too many songs by the same artist in a night, period. definitely not back to back if you can help it (unless the sound of the songs differ a lot).

vary up the tempo a bit... it doesn't have to be each and every time, but something like fast, medium, medium, fast, slow, medium, fast, slow, medium, medium, fast, fast, slow, medium.....

you generally want a fair bit of variety in your sound.... if all the songs sound the same, no matter what tempo they are, it starts sounding boring; but at the same time you want the songs to sort of flow together as well.... drastic changes of pace can sometimes be jarring.... something that grant does, and that I have done when I dj, is I listen to the song that is playing, then the song that I am cuing... if the both kind of have the same feel, or a similar sound (but not exactly the same), I usually will play the cued song. If it sounds like a huge change of pace (and not very natural), I try to pick something else for the next song... it's not an exact science, and it doesn't always work out, but it's something to think about.

and last, but certainly not least- michael jackson is not, nor ever will be, swingable.

Those are some decent guidelines. But I would have to disagree with some of them. First and foremost, Michael Jackson is 100% swingable. West Coast is swing. Enough said about that.

Second, DJing is in a sense, like dancing. You just have to get the feel for the dance. You have to adjust. Sometimes sticking to the basics is the best thing to do.

Generally, I try to aim for songs that are similar in one aspect but different in others. It's a bit tricky sometimes. Just please, don't subject us to an hour of music that make it feel like you just danced to an hour long song.

That said, I'm sure you'll do great. And don't forget, West Coast Swing is swing.

...Yet you lindy hop to hiphop. Not exactly swung, is it?

SwingSis:

...Yet you lindy hop to hiphop. Not exactly swung, is it?

Exactly... it's not swung (though a lot of the hip hop songs I favor do actually have swing clips as the back beat)... I lindy hop to hip hop. A bit of swop, if you will. Therefore, if the hip hop song does not have anything that makes it "swingable", I am merely dancing lindy hop to a hip hop music song. Not swing.

Going back to Michael... you can certainly do West Coast to his songs... but they are NOT swing.

you might want to check out this forum. there's a lot of good advice there.

http://www.swingdjs.com/phpbb2/

Some of my best dances at BYU used to be with Laura to some mj song.

Continuing the tangent, michael is rockin here and here. Old school michael is some of the best dance music ever.

I hope you meant to refer to old skool michael there.

yeah tbe one with all the problems

I took this quote from the "I hate this song thread" and decided to respond to it here. I've been thinking about it for a while, and there are a few things I want to say.

Buzz:

Alright, time for my two cents...

I find it interesting that a DJ will come to the dance and say to me "I'm playing Blues every other song." or "I'm going all westy tonight" or "I only play vintage" (and yes, within the past 6 months, I have heard all of those) It feels like I'm being force-fed the music that that particular DJ likes, whether I like it or not. It reminds me of visits I have from people of certain religions that say I have to believe what they are telling me whether I like it or not.

DJing isn't about playing the music that you believe everyone should enjoy. It's not about converting people to your way of jazz, westy, whatever. It's about playing the music so that the people can dance. It seems like if you are DJing, you should play the music that will get people to dance. I don't care what you are playing,if it clears the floor, you just failed as a DJ.

Well, that's what I think anyway. But two cents isn't worth a whole lot nowadays...

Buzz makes a good point here, but lest we go too far in the other direction, I wanted to make a point. I completely and utterly agree that dj'ing is about playing the music so that people can dance, and that if the songs that you are playing are emptying the floor, you should rethink what you are doing. However, I believe that as a dj you have both the opportunity and a certain responsibility to introduce new material and help with the musical education of the dancers. It's not quite the situation of "you should enjoy this so I am going to play it no matter what", but rather a "this is something a little different from the norm, and I feel that it still really swings and I want you to give it a try". Otherwise we run the risk of playing the same 100 songs over and over and over again because that is what is known to be what dancers will swing to. And that gets stale.

I am about searching for good, hard-swinging songs and versions of classics from every era. Variety is the spice of life, and I personally think the worst thing a dj can do, no matter what type of music he is playing, is have the same "sound" throughout his set. Even if the tempo is varying, or different artists are being played, if all the songs have the same sound or feel to them I generally don't enjoy the set. Let's not limit ourselves to one particular era, or even genre- let's look for awesomely swinging songs in 20's Ellington recordings, or 30's folk blues recordings, or some jump blues from the 60's and 70's, or some of the classic big band and small jazz groups of the 30's, 40's and 50's. There are good versions (as far as quality of sound) to be found everywhere, and nothing pleases me better than to hear a new (unfamiliar) version of an old classic that really gets my feet moving. Ron played a version of "sunny side of the street" that I just LOVED. However if he had gone with some of the same versions we've heard over and over and over again I wouldn't have had the same reaction.

So to summarize, one should keep an eye on the floor, and be sensitive to what people are enjoying and wanting to dance to, but a good dj should also be introducing new material and helping the scene to have a balanced and broad musical palette.

Those are my two cents, anyway.

So are you saying here in Utah.. ( and I will say that, because I have only felt this to be true here) When we go to a swing dance.. as Dj's or dancers we should be expected to play and dance to a variety of music.. that does not generally fall into the swing category?? Such as Hip Hop music, Pop music, Gospel, RnB, Funk, Groove, County, Rock, or even Mother Goose Rhymes.. if that's what makes the people dance... is that correct? Because it seems to me that is the case at most of the dances.. at least at BYU... I am not going ot give my opinion on that, one way or another.. I am just trying to understand what you are saying by being more direct and using examples of music Genre.

at the risk of being shot by multiple people....

i like dancing at byu because there is a variety of music. it makes me experiment with my dancing, and try to match my dancing to what is being played. in some ways, it is challenging. i may not know exactly what steps go with the music, but i'll still give it a go. if i look like an idiot, so be it. i came to a dance to dance, not to sit on my tushie and gripe about the music (for the most part). do i call all of my dancing "lindy"? no, because calling the dance "lindy" when i'm dancing to hip-hop or blues (or heaven forbid polka) would not accurately reflect what i'm doing (i think we've already had this discussion). am i okay with that? absolutely.

Apparently it's not totally a Utah thing since Lee's music fit in the Utah groove too.

One unique thing about BYU's swing club experience is that a VARIETY of young people consistently show up. They need some POP tunes to match their energy levels and interests. Unfortunately for the purists (including me, since I usually draw the line at nursery rhymes and ... polkas) that means we'll sit a few out, which I'm not used to doing during a dance. Uh oh we might have to be social instead :o ::gasp!::

AAAAH!!!.. dude!! that puts it into perspective extremely well!!.. thanks Roach, now I understand it.. ok so now that I know how the scene grooves and what they groove to.. I feel so at peace.. hmmm... perhaps next time I am asked to DJ.. I shall team up with another fellow Utah Dj who can better accomodate the "Pop" side of utah's dance scene as it would feel really weird for me to play the other kind of music..

ElChuy:

Certain genres/artists I personally think should never be used, e.g. polka, country, brittney spears, and death metal. However, opinions may vary.

oh, come on. everyone likes to swing to death metal now and then.

and i love how brittney spears is now her own genre. [Emoticon not found]

well Chuy.. i beleve if i played any of those "Alt. Artsts/genres" in Seatt;e or Denver.. I may be hung... or stoned... But I will keep that in mind here n Utah

Ya, I meant to put the name purist in quotes earlier. It's all relative. [Emoticon not found]

Utah's the only scene where swing music outside of the 20s-40s is played -- see Sunday Afternoon in this clip. I subscribe to an apparently relatively inclusive definition of swing music. Refer to the music in my CD case to see what that means I guess.

I think we've been trying to describe Utah's music tastes, which I think isn't possible. If we want to talk about the music tastes of swing club attendees that's cool, but then there are subsections there too: the "cool" people that sit on the stage, the b-boy that shows up occasionally, the "I've taken a social dance class" people, the newbies, the freshman, the old fogies that have been coming since the 90s, ...

So i just pulled the BEP song I was talking about up on my Ipod and i guess its more funk then swing but still an awesome song.

Stage trolls! Cool name! Well said. Just the trolls like to keep the cliques alive and well in every scene, much of these music-preference nuances are part of every scene as well. The tunes that BYU's crowd will recognize and enjoy are more pop oriented since there is so much turn over (i'm hypothesizing) and there are so many fairly new people to the venue. If they recognize every second or third song (i'd recommend using jazz standards such as sunny side or popular songs that are nearly jazz standards such as mack the knife or let's call the whole thing off or on the street where you live thanks to amazing musicians such as ella and louis or harry connick jr of new orleans), they'll be appeased and be having fun even though they don't know how to lindy hop very well.

The other songs can be solid, swingin tunes from the classic repertoire of basie and lunceford, and keep the place jumpin with some small group stuff from slim & slam, cats and the fiddle, or duke's small groups, bring in some familiar but less often heard sounds of louis (since he recorded a kajillion songs amazing, but we only hear about ten of them), change up the rhythm with a boogie woogie from HAMP or even harry james, insert some soul for flavor with some ray charles or etta james or chewdawg's aretha recordings, bring it back home with some old skool cab calloway (again a recognizable voice) or swingin nat king cole, insert some swingin blues with Joe Williams or the old skool jimmy rushing, crank up the energy level without increasing the tempo with jimmy mcgriff or gene harris or jack mcduff or joey defrancesca (make sure it's there swing recordings since they've explored the gamut of jazz and blues), take it uptempo and back to the 30s and early 40s with some more hamp or lil hardin armstrong or henderson or webb, ... rinse and repeat as needed.

Sorry about the rambling. It was a brainstorm of sorts.

Not at all Roach.. I think your collection of music and playlists you put together are more adequate for the scene at BYU than mine.. I am 90 percent more of a vernacular jazz and trad blues purist.. And although I have all of DJ lee's music collection as well as a few other national groove djs and west coast djs in my collection.. I really don't like playing them.. I will if someone requests them.. But I would prefer not to.. That's just me though.. I think the rest of the Utah DJs.. Probably 99% of them will be more than thrilled to cater to the West Coast groove of BYU..

Hey Sub no worries bro.. I like your enthusiasm.. If you want any funk let me know...

Make it a jello cake and you gots a deal

Yeah.. Much like your knowledge of lindy hop [Emoticon not found] and I say this with the utmost respect and.... love... like the love for a fine lionel hampton recording from his early years

Can I get a Hey-ba-re-bop in memory of the late Lionel Hampton!

Hot Chocolate:

Make it a jello cake and you gots a deal

what? jello & cake mixed together? that sounds just wrong.

popthestack:

t_roach:

One unique thing about BYU's swing club experience is that a VARIETY of young people consistently show up. They need some POP tunes to match their energy levels and interests.

But how many stick around? And why not? I can't say it's the music, but it could play a part.

First thought if we really play music you hate so much at BYU dances do something about it. make some requests, ask to DJ, do something besides tell us we suck and leave it at that. No problem was ever fixed by simply pointing out that there was a problem. There must be an action to fix it. So stop complaining if you will do nothing to help us fix what you deam to be an issue.

popthestack:

gumby:

One thing I find myself doing more and more is only listening to swing music. I think this is a bad thing as it allows me to loose contact with what many people are listening to on the radio.

Is it really that bad to loose contact with what people listen to on the radio? It's not like the music on the radio changes much anyway. It takes at least 2 years for it to change drastically, and even then I think "drastically" might not be the right word.

Yes I think it is bad to loose contact with what people listen to on the radio. I see two issues that come from this.
#1 I think one sign of an excellent DJ is that he will not lock himself into a Lindy cave and hide from all the other music of the world. Lindy came to be by people branching off from traditional styles and trying something new. If there is no bad how can you know something is good or how good it is?
#2 Even if most of what we hear on the radio is crap there are a few bits of gold worth searching for. Sometimes Ill go to FYE and spend an hour or two looking through their Jazz section for artists Ive never heard of. Will it pay off most of the time? No. Did I have fun doing it? Yes. Do I ever find cool music that way? You bet.
So what am I asking? Im not asking you to come all the way out of the Lindy cave many of us hide in, but just take a look out from behind the door every once and a while. You might even find something you really enjoy. This is how I found Lindy.

Go Logan!

- I've never claimed to know the names of many songs and artists. I don't request songs because I have no idea what anything is. I just know the sound of what I like. So, when a song comes on that I don't like, I will try to sit it out (I say try because if someone asks me to dance I will usually say yes). Sometimes if I'm close enough to the DJ I will look at the DJ and say something like "you're fired," and the DJ usually laughs and keeps playing what I don't like. So, late last year I decided not to attend BYU dances unless something different was happening (a band or a DJ I like). And that's exactly what I've done. I was there when the Army band played, I was there for Red Rock, and I was there when Ron DJed. That's my version of doing something about it. I support it when I know there's a chance of me liking it, and I don't when there's not. And, I complain on here. And? Yes, I know I'm pretty rude about it on here. I will try not to be from now on.

- I don't live a lindy cave. I just don't listen to the radio.