Monday, December 14, 2009

Day 348:DJing for Dummies - Book Review

Kicking off our DJ Christmas goodies reviews will be "DJing for Dummies".

The Dummies brand is well known by everyone these days, and they seem to have reached out to almost every corner of interest, pastime and activity. DJing is no exception, and we were lucky enough to get a copy to review.

The book is written by John Steventon, who is a real world working DJ who got into the game back in the 90s. Inspired by listening to other DJs he started making notes about the art, and later published these online, back in the early days of the internet. These notes grew and expanded and became a well respected resource online for DJing info, which is still there today: www.recess.co.uk

Anyone who has ever read a dummies book will know the format already, but for those few that haven't opened the yellow book of knowledge, simplicity and clarity is the key here. The books are deservedly famed for their unassuming and easy to read style. DJing for dummies is certainly no exception.

The first thing you notice with the book is that you feel like you are being taught by a friend in your bedroom. Such is the style of writing that even some of the less interesting subjects, such as connecting up a mixer feel like idle banter between friends.

John delivers this friendly nature throughout the book, and peppers it with his friendly manner, and dare I say it bad jokes ;).

Another excellent feature of this book is it's comprehensiveness. Literally every aspect is covered from equipment, song structure, beatmatching, scratching, networking, getting a gig, and much much more.

Some of the resources I have read have tended to either just rush you through beat matching, or how to scratch, and kinda leave it there. In DJing for Dummies however there are many many elements that I hadn't even thought about that are covered. All of them real world and useful. Just simple things about various settings while using the headphones, or what to do when a gig goes wrong (often accompanied by a real world field story based on the authors own experience).

Therefore, due to the ease of reading, the comprehensiveness of the content, and the level of knowledge you will acquire, I have to give this a definite personal recommendation for any budding DJ that wants to be guided into the art almost effortlessly.

Naturally the book is available at all good book shops, and online such as here. A bargain at under £10 via Amazon.


40/365

p&&l

bang!

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