Bit of a Bad patch

[Hood_Rich]

Not looking for sympthy but some sound advise. I'm going through a "no confidence" phase at the moment. Arrived at the gig last night full of energy and the place in fairness was quite full. But I just couldn't put more than 2 songs together all night. I actually felt mentally exchausted after the gig. Brought some of the latest tracks with me but to my suprise the floor emptied for songs I'd thought would go down great. Freeloaders- So much love to give was one of the tracks. Was it too new??? I just feel that maybe I'm not focusing properly at the job in hand. Its not that I'm not trying but I'm really not sure whats wrong. :frust:

[WayneScales]

There is no point in totally breaking your ass to please a crowd,you can only do so much,if they have no interest in the commercial music that works in most other bars/clubs you gig in then feck them,they are most probably a bunch of odd-balls,I presume your playing your new stuff early on in the night!

[jolishan]

Part of the problem may be that , sometimes, you go to a venue with some new stuff you love and expect the punter to have the same opinion as you.This rarely happens. If you are good enough to stand back and admit you are suffering a loss of confidence then you are more than good enough to pull yourself through it.For one or 2 nights leave the new stuff aside and let your own experience make the playlist up as you go. Keep it simple, keep it basic. Even if you are thinking to yourself " My christ how many times have i played this crap" put your personal feelings aside and watch the floor. Most punters nowadays want it varied and a few nights of good response will take you through this. If you want to go into this any further pm me..been there done that and ate the t-shirt:)

[Turiel]

Yeah it seems unless MTV are blasting it every 5 minutes, anything new is too new. The freeloaders song has never worked for me. The original Thomas Bangalter one only ever worked with a house-liking crowd. I thankfully have young crowds (17-23) at most my gigs so they're more "upfront" in their tastes than most. Even so, you have to be very careful what new music you play. Regarding new music, Justin Timberlake - Signs is popular with the D4 crowd right now, as is Kelis - In Public.

I don't know how often you gig Hood_Rich, but consider taking like a 3-4 night break. The first gig of the week after a few days break is almost always more fun than the rest.

[mini-fanatic]

Most DJs seldom work with anyone else so they really don't have a shoulder to lean on.This often leads to a dip in confidence. I can appreciated what you say, these days there are so many slow songs in the chart even when you pitch them up they do nothing for you, lets face it most DJs like their music to have a good thumping beat to it,so my advice to you is this.
Carefully choose your songs in advance, write out a list of sure fire party hits,
popular songs that people are always asking for,songs with words that people can sing along too and burn them onto 4 cds, keep these in front of you and for the next couple of nights work from these.
Keep all your other music beside you as flashes of inspiration will pop into your head as you go through the night, if they don't work revert back to the 4 cds.
Burn a new cd of favourites every week and you will not become stale.
Get on the mic more and raise your own tempo,so many people think DJs are on the mic for their benifit .Try to remember why you wanted to be a DJ in the first place.
When possible go and listen to other jocks, they will play songs that you had not thought of,and will be amazed at the response these songs will get.
You will soon get your confidence back, after all very few poeple are lucky enough to do something they love for a living.

[Hood_Rich]

Just to bring you up to speed on the sound advise I got from you guys and girls....

I took the advise of one user and placed a selection of music onto a couple of CD's. I worked form them the first night only and then gradually worked my way back into my own Cd's. Another good point made is that you find yourself all alone when something like this happens but in fairness I got some sound advise from this forum.

Thanks guys for the help.