Be your own life DJDJ

[Music]

[Music]

it was a late night

in 1999 my friends and i walk up

to a nondescript building on a quiet

street in downtown boston

from the outside you can barely tell

that this was

actually one of boston’s best

underground

after hours clubs the dj that night

was danny tanaglia who is legendary

for his epic dj sets that go

as long as 13 hours

and those who are privileged enough to

be there from beginning to end

describe it as a soul expanding

experience

and that night danny took us to the

heights

of everest and down to the depths of the

marianas trench

sometimes he dialed up the tension so

much in the room and almost made you

feel

angry but then he would release all of

us

at once with a song that was so

beautifully played

that you just wanted to give everyone

around you a big hug

yes it was truly a soul expanding

experience

it was experiences like these formed in

boston where i went to school

and in new york where i grew up that

inspired me to want to become a dj

i wanted to reproduce and to share some

of these transformative moments

for me on the dance floor and now

hundreds and hundreds of events

and more than 20 years later

i can still happily say that i love

being a dj

i never did manage a 13 hour set though

my maximum was about 8.5 hours before

this happened but as many djs would say

it’s not about how long you can play but

about

how far you can take it about how far

you can take people on this musical

journey that you and the crowd

co-create together and that to me

is the art of djing to me

there was a lot of parallels that i saw

between

djing between dance music and also the

psychological concepts that i was

studying

so let me just share with you three of

them today

the first is the concept of entrainment

now most people think that a dj what we

do is just play

hit after hit pounding beats the whole

night but actually takes a little more

finesse than that

especially when you’re just starting out

now as a warm-up dj

very often you have to face an empty

dance floor

in an empty dance floor is very anxiety

inducing

what you want to do is you want to play

some hits

to kick people’s butts onto the dance

floor but you will find

that if you do that the opposite will

happen

you will drive people further away so

what should you do instead

you should feel the room take the pulse

of the room

feel where people are at emotionally and

play

music that syncs up with their mood

and make them feel safe and then

challenge them

lead them eventually onto the dance

floor how do you know if you’re doing a

good job

if you can see people nodding their

heads so

if you can get them nodding and keep

them nodding pretty soon

you can get them dancing now

this kind of synchronization was of

rhythm

and movement this is called entrainment

and entrainment happens everywhere

happens between mechanical systems and

biological systems

and it happens between people there’s

actually a concept called

conversational entrainment where

two people talking with one another will

actually match

the speed and rhythm of each other’s

speech

and even some of the body movements will

be mirrored

and this is actually essential for

creating a sense of rapport

djing is also like a conversation it’s

like a two-way conversation

the crowd dances to sync up with the

music

but the dj also plays music that syncs

up with the crowd

now dj who knows this who knows how to

entrain with a crowd

knows how to work a crowd

now the next concept is that of ebb and

flow

i don’t know if this has ever happened

to you you’re with a group of good

friends

everyone’s joking laughing having a good

time and then all of a sudden

everybody becomes quiet it’s kind of

weird right

and maybe kind of awkward but it’s also

very natural

now there are ebbs and flows in the

energy of any

crowd of people and there are ebbs and

flows in the energy

on the dance floor and the same actually

is reflected in the music

so let me show you this is the waveform

of a piece of electronic dance music and

this is zoomed out

so you can see the entire song from left

to right

you see right here with all the dark

bands the thicker the band

the more energy there is in the music

right the more stuff there’s going on in

the song but over here

it becomes light why now this part

is called a breakdown what happens

during the breakdown is that you take

out some of the most energetic aspects

of the music

such as the kick or the bass drum and

you leave just little bits

in there and then slowly you add them

back

in and by adding them back in you build

a sense of anticipation expectation

and eventually as it keeps rolling and

going and going in this crescendo

and finally during the build and then

the whole song comes back in wham all at

once

and everyone on the dance floor goes

crazy all right so this is called the

peak

now in some genres of edm production

this is also known as the rise

and the drop now this relationship is

very important

because for a piece of dance music it’s

very hard to sustain

high energy the whole way you can’t keep

adding stuff

eventually become too much overwhelming

so in order to take things up higher

you actually have to take things lower

take stuff away

take away the things that the crowd has

already gotten used to

or gotten tired of and you take them

away

so that people will appreciate them

again

that’s the concept of a breakdown and

build

now the third concept i would like to

introduce to you

is that of the motif a motif

is a small piece of music

that is a musical idea that is repeated

often

within a piece of music that becomes an

identity

of that piece of music so in classical

music

we have very famous motifs such as

everyone enjoys this motif right there

are also very famous motifs

in dance music such as

okay

marshall jefferson

underworld now in modern music motif is

also known as

riff or hook different names but they

stand for the same thing

pretty much once you hear the riff or

the hook or the motif

you will know what song you’re listening

to

so this is very important in identifying

the piece of music

now a dj who knows the value of a motif

will not waste it in the mix if it’s a

good motif that’s being

introduced and everyone will expect it

or know it

we’ll let the music actually stop

sometimes

take down the energy just so that a good

motif can come in

in its full glory these are all

techniques

that djs can use to generate the

surprise or

drama on the dance floor okay

now what i’m going to do is

i’m going to take you through a

playthrough

of a piece of dance music now this is a

song that

i produced many years ago the reason i

chose this song is because

it’s relatively simple the motif is very

clear

and you can hear exactly how it works

through all the parts of the music this

song is called

knock down and i used to play this a lot

back at a club in taipei called luxie

i hear some chuckles in the audience i

some of you may have been there all

right great times

all right so maybe you even recognize

this track

so this is knockdown and i’m going to

talk through it and tell you about how

all the pieces fit together here we go

first we have some drums and now this

first part is the intro

now in the dj friendly mix this part

usually consists of

just the most basic drums and percussion

so usually if you heard this by itself

you will find it quite boring but dj’s

needs a longer beginning for the beat

match

and here we have some guitar pores

and this is the movie and all the

personality of the track

comes from this motif right here

and here we have the introduction of the

bass which runs in parallel with the

movie

the bass line and the kick work together

to establish the groove which is the

backbone of any dance

all right so pop quiz

what is this section called

breakdown that’s right so here we only

have the motif

all of your attention is focused on this

element

but listen carefully it begins to change

and we have delays added to the mix

there’s a sense of anticipation and this

is usually when the emcee might say

something like

put your hands up all right

well why don’t we do that put your hands

up

put your hands up pretend we’re in the

club that’s right

here’s the bill wait for it

knock down

[Music]

all right now i don’t want to play the

whole song for you right i don’t want to

get you guys

really excited after all

but maybe we’ll play it at the after

party would you guys like to hear it

then

all right all right so now that i’ve

introduced these three concepts to you

how does that fit into our life

your life how does that work recently i

was counseling this

teenage girl that was bullied by her

classmates

and she was referred to me by her mother

and as you can expect with such cases

she wasn’t exactly ready to open up to

me in the beginning

so we were sitting there in the room she

was across the room from me and between

us is this huge space of silence

but instead of getting frustrated

i went into dj mode and i

thought of her as a dancer

on the edge of the dance floor of an

empty dance floor

and i felt where she was emotionally i

changed my patterns of speech and my

rhythm and my intonation

to engage with her and also to entrain

with her

and at the same time i was sending out

signals that would invite her

to join with me in this dialogue space

the dialogue space where she would feel

safe enough to share more of her story

worked and eventually were able to have

a fruitful conversation

and the next time you guys have a

conversation that

feels like you’re not really getting

through you can try this

focus on listening to the person’s

intonation

their rhythm feel their energy and

entrain with them there

match their energy level don’t just

think about what you’re going to say

and you will find that oftentimes

rapport

is built not by what you say

but by how we both say it

so in terms of ebb and flow and

breakdowns and builds

every day our energy levels are not

consistent

and so we should build our days around

the natural ebbs and flows

of our life and not in spite of it it

sounds like a very simple idea

but actually so few people actually do

that

you know we all pack out our schedules

we schedule one thing after another

after another

and it’s just go go go from the moment

we open our eyes until

we’re lying there on the bed too

exhausted to move

and yet too wired to sleep

now this can only go on for so long

so i always advise people in my own

personal coaching you

have to engineer your own breakdowns

engineer your own breakdowns so that you

can go up higher

especially before you have a peak

performance

before something important this period

of

very deliberate and intentional

quiet and reflection is very important

we need to break so that we can build

and how about motifs well i like to

think of motifs

in our life as the patterns of thought

the little things that we tell ourselves

repeatedly

over time that actually form

a core of our personality so what is

your personal motif

we all have one but we may not be aware

of it because sometimes

you repeatedly tell yourself so many

times it just becomes like background

noise

but imagine someone who wakes up every

day and tells themselves

you know i’m going to get mine or

everyone is out to get you

or win at all costs imagine how that

person would react

to other people or you know how that

person’s mental state would be

compared to someone who tells themselves

life is worth celebrating or i can be

loved

for who i am so

motifs can be reconstructed also

i often advise my clients to write down

their personal motifs

write them down so you can read them

aloud and if they’re too negative

try to change it form it in a more

constructive and positive way

and if you repeatedly tell yourself this

as an affirmation

you will find that the theme of your

life and the song of your life

starts to change his tune and indeed

life is like a song in fact

if we had the chance to zoom out

on a person’s life narrative arc

and visualize it like a wave form it

would look

very much like a piece of dance music

you know we have

our introductions early in life where

we’re just getting our footing

establishing ourselves

we have the motifs that come in our

experiences that start to form our

personality

we start to catch our groove in our 20s

and we start to experiment

maybe we enter the main productive

period of our lives

from our 20s 30s into our 40s but then

what happens with so many of us is

middle of our life

we find that we actually have to

reprioritize we need

to break down again to essentialize

and when you’re in the breakdown it’s a

little scary

because your groove is gone or you gave

up your groove

but if you listen and are patient then

you can start to hear the motif coming

back in

little by little softly at first but

then louder and louder

rising in a crescendo until eventually

if you

embrace it and know how to work with it

you will achieve

another peak in life the second wind of

your life

maybe you can even change up your tune

try something totally different

later in your life but then

as it so happens inevitably with all of

us we will all

reach the end of our life song that part

is called

the outro and at the outro

things are essential again just the

basics

because there’s no longer our song that

matters so much as the song the next

generation that is fading in

and as it plays louder and louder when

the time is right

with a simple flick of the crossfader

we are out that’s why they say god is a

dj

there’s a song called god is a dj and it

says

this is my church this is where i heal

my hurts

it’s a natural grace of watching young

life shape

it’s in minor keys solutions and

remedies

enemies becoming friends when bitterness

ends

now faithless is referring to the club

like

a church but i like to think of our

whole world

like a club we’re all members of this

club

and in this club there are billions of

dancers

each dancing their own song of life each

song unique

there’s long ones and short ones loud

ones and soft ones

there’s major keys and minor keys all of

them mixing and melding into each other

forming remixes and mashups and if we

embrace this concept

we can also become the dj of our own

lives

we can change up the rhythm dictate our

groove

we can create our own crescendos design

our own breakdowns and builds

maybe even change a key march to the

beat of a different drummer

there are elements of mystery and

spirituality here

that’s much more art than science but

this

we know for sure there’s a rhythm

in here and as long as this keeps

beating

the rhythm doesn’t end so

let the music play on and become

your own life dj thank you very much