Customer Reviews

Bedroom DJ (Beginner's Guides (Ominbus Press))

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If you are looking for something to read for the sake of reading, try to find this book used and give it a go, it is a short read and has a few laughs. Do not buy this as a guide on how to start dj-ing at a technical level. All you need to here is: practice, practice, practice, and that is all this book will tell you. Other than that it is a bunch of DJs talking about how they got started, their horror stories and their funny stories. The writing style is quite annoying and some of the DJs just rattle off nonesense with zero value added. A good example of this is a guy (can't recall name) saying how you should start a label and produce music if you want to make it as a DJ. In the next sentance he said he used to have a label and that it was a huge disaster and wouldn't do it again. Hello? Don't waste your time on this.

Bedroom DJ is a great read for all DJs - beginners or otherwise. Basically it's the humorous story of how a young technophobic woman over in London, England set out to learn how to DJ completely from scratch, after being dumped by her DJ boyfriend. She struggles with the usual stuff like buying the equipment, putting it together and then trying to learn mixing and scratching techniques. It's a fun and accessible guide and best of all she turns to the experts - DJs like Roger Sanchez, David Morales, Judge Jules, Cutmaster Swift and Dave Pearce - for advice and there are indepth Q&A sessions with these DJs, including anecdotes about when they were learning that you wouldn't normally read in all the trendy Djing magazines. An entertaining, accessible, non-patronising and informative read that shows you don't have to be a technical wizard or the coolest cat in town to have fun learning to DJ. As a wannabee DJ for some years I for one would thoroughly recommend it!

I started out as a DJ in my bedroom a few years ago playing around with my first set of decks. I wish to God this book had been around then! That way I might have escaped a few of the pitfalls and had more money to boot! Bedroom DJ is a fun read as it tells a story about the writer trying to learn to DJ as a female in London as well as including interviews with DJs and their anecdotes about learning. It all makes it a bit more personal than the usual guides that can be a bit less accessible. The book is also divided into useful sections, making each skill more easy to handle in bitesized chunks. The story is funny, as are the DJ anecdotes. If you're a learner this book should inspire and encourage you as well as giving you plenty of advice from all the top names.