This page is dedicated to Felix Picherna.

So you want to be a DJ...

I took the above photo of Felix Picherna during my first visit to Buenos Aires in September of 1999.  In those days he was the DJ at two classic milongas, Tuesdays and Thursdays at a milonga called Pavadita, and Wednesdays and Saturdays at Italia Unita.  These milongas are gone now but I will never forget my experiences there.

When Picherna was on I knew I could count on a great milonga.  In fact the music was so good I couldn't sit down.  Later in the milonga my feet would be so tired, and I would be thinking to myself that I would just sit out the next tanda.  The first song of the next tanda would be so good that I would ask someone to dance without thinking.  As I went onto the floor I would be wondering what I was doing, and still I would dance like crazy.  To get any rest for my feet I would have to leave the milonga.  Picherna's music selections were that good every time I heard him.  I want to be that kind of a DJ.

I learned a lot in those short three weeks.  I listened a lot to the kind of music played at the milongas, and when I didn't know which orchestra I was hearing I asked people.  I asked titles of songs I especially liked, and I bought a lot of CDs to bring home.  When I got home I continued to listen to lots of tango music.  I had already been listening mostly to tango for three years, but now I had a lot more music to study, and better still a memory of a great DJ to guide me as I learned to be a DJ myself.

Later in 1999 I started DJing a milonga on Mondays, and I have run this milonga since.  This milonga is only 4 hours long, and being Monday night the music has to be really good all night long.  If people sit down because they don't like the music they will soon put on their coats and leave, it is Monday night after all.  If they have time to think about it they remember that they have to go to work Tuesday morning.  This was a great place to tune my DJing.

There are many web sites about DJing that have lists of tandas, and long descriptions of all the orchestras.  The music is categorized into different styles and long discussions are made about how to present the music.  I don't want to re-invent that wheel.  You can read those web pages yourself and learn what there is to learn from them.  Here are the things that are most important to me in DJing, and maybe you can learn something from this as well.

My advice to people who want to be DJs is to listen to a lot of music.  You have to play the music you love.  If you love the music you present it in the best way you can.  This means that to please your audience though that you must love a lot of different music.  It takes time to know and love such a variety of tango music.  You need to know the different classic orchestras and their different periods, you have to know how they are similar and how each are distinct.  You need to understand what part of their body of work is best for dancing, and more importantly what part is not so good for dancing.

To play music for dancers you have to understand dancers.  You must dance a lot and feel the music as a dancer.  Listen while you dance, feel how a good tanda works, and more importantly how a bad tanda fails.  Learn to feel the energy of the party and how the music is the driving energy of the party.  When you DJ it is good to dance and feel first hand how people are dancing.

It is important to construct good tandas.  The first song in a tanda is an important one.  This should be a song that would make you want to dance.  The middle songs carry the energy of the tanda, then the last song completes the group, it should also be a special one, one that will make that last dance the best one.  Study your music to figure out which songs make good first ones, and last ones.  Experiment a lot.  I like to keep the mood consistent inside a tanda so that one song leads to the next.  I generally use a single orchestra for a tanda, and I like to keep within a similar period of the orchestra.  The songs don't have to be all alike, but I like to keep from telling dancers a lie by playing a nice rhythmic song as a first song and then after they are on the dance floor changing moods drastically.  As a dancer I like different partners for different musical moods.  When the DJ changes moods drastically in the middle of a tanda I sometimes would rather be dancing with someone else.

If you DJ from a computer you might want to pre-build your tandas before the milonga.  It takes a very intimate knowledge of the music to be able to construct consistently good tandas on the fly.  Very few DJs (2 to be exact) I know can do this and hit it right seemingly every time.  I still use CDs with pre-arranged tandas on them.  I don't know if I know the music well enough to make good tandas all the time.  My favorite North American DJ, Dan Boccia from Anchorage Alaska can read the name of a tango in his collection and he probably knows the melody on the spot.  I don't associate the names and the melodies that well, and that is the knowledge it takes to DJ on the fly.  Of course I remember seeing Felix Picherna with his case of cassette tapes.  He built pre-arranged tandas too.  Maybe that isn't such a bad way to work after all.

I play different kinds of music at different times of the night.  Early in the evening there may be a number of beginners in the room, and while I don't really believe in the concept of 'beginner music' there are orchestras that are easier to dance to.  D'Arienzo's music is perfect dance music, and the rhythmic style inspired by his orchestra is a nice place to begin the evening.  This is music that is high energy and easy to dance to, it is music that makes you want to dance when you first hear it entering the room.  Since there aren't many people in the room early in the evening you need to keep the energy up with the music.  Later when there are more people in the room you have a bit more freedom with the music.  I like music with vocals, I like the extra emotional energy that goes into a singer's performance.  There is nothing like a good tanda of Di Sarli with Rufino, Podesta or Duran, D'Agostino with Vargas, and so on.  When the party is really rolling I like to play this kind of music.  I might return to a few tandas of D'Arienzo or Tanturi or Rodriguez to push the energy even higher, but I like the more romantic music for the later part of the night.  Then I like to finish the evening well I have a few special tandas that I like to use for the end of the night.  You can find your own favorite way to do things.

It is important to have the best sound you can get.  I have heard too many people using badly processed mp3 files to DJ with.  The CDs we are able to get today have very good sound.  You should spend the money to get these CDs.  I have over 400 CDs in my collection, many were purchased to get the same songs with better sound quality.  The investment was worth it.  When the sound is better people dance better, and the party has a better energy.  Understand the sound system you use and learn to get the best from it.

I like to have the best dancers at my milonga.  I play the best music for them, because I want to keep them on the dance floor.  These dancers are also some of the most experienced dancers in the community.  If they are on the dance floor they are a good model for the less experienced dancers to follow.  If the best dancers go to a milonga, so will everyone else, and if the best dancers are having a good time the energy in the room will be great.

Above all when I DJ I want people to have a great evening of dancing.  I want them to dance all night long and go home hungry for more.  I like it when a DJ does that for me.  I have also spent too much time at milongas where the DJ has made me aware of how tired I am and how much my feet hurt.

Ultimately it is important to remember to Dj with your heart and and not your head.  All theory is useless if it is just blindly applied.  Never forget that as a DJ you are the entertainment for the evening.