I feel I’m really good at as a DJ is being ‘aware’ at events. If something doesn’t look right or sound right or, worst of all, there’s that dreaded ‘Dead Air’ , my radar goes off and I’ll do everything I can to fix it right then and/or prevent it from happening again. I recently was made aware of one of the tools I instinctively use for this, and thought it was something that might interest Pro Mobile readers. By Brian Buonassissi Based in NYC, DJ Brian Buonassissi is a successful internationally-travelling DJ/MC specializing in luxury destination private events.
He runs a multi-city mobile DJ/event business with offices in Southern California, Florida and New York City. You can connect with him at . I regularly set up a static GoPro camera at my events and record myself to be able critique later and look for ways to improve. I recently showed some of this footage to the new DJs in our company that we’re training to handle events on their own and they made an observation that I always had music segueing between moments… specifically instrumental song selections.
I’ve been doing that for as long as I can remember, it just comes as second nature to me, so I didn’t pick up on its uniqueness and the extra bit of polish it gives my events. Having instrumentals, and more specifically, a variety of instrumental styles is important. At my weddings when I welcome guests and introduce the wedding party, I can’t begin to tell you how much better it is to do the announcements over an instrumental track than it is using a song with lyrics where you’re having to fight to be heard over what the vocalist is singing.
I also use instrumentals as guests make their way to their tables for dinner after watching formality dances and between speeches. This helps alleviate the dead air and keeps that awkwardness to an absolute minimum. This is something that I would encourage all professional DJs to do. By having both upbeat and laid-back tracks, it allows you to have something for just about any situation.
Maybe it’s not a wedding but a corporate party, and you need ‘walk on’ music for the CEO or a special guesting making an entrance. Or perhaps it’s a fundraising event where there are raffles occurring, these things keep the party vibe in full effect. Also, by using a popular dance song instrumental, it gives you the opportunity to play it again during a dance set and not make it totally obvious that you’ve repeated a track. On a related subject, I’ve been doing a ton of events recently where we’ve had either professional singers in attendance or those that aren’t maybe professional but really are good singers.
Although I always probe my clients to find out if they have any guests with ‘special talents’ that they want to highlight at their event in our planning consultations, lately I’ve had a few occasions when the client has come up to me at the event and said that one of their guests wants to sing a song and that they’d be OK with it. Thank God I always carry some karaoke tracks every time I DJ. They aren’t expecting a screen with lyrics but, just by having those tracks, it allowed me to make a memorable moment at their event.
I recommend having at least the top 2,500 karaoke songs of all time on you. I did a dinner party recently and there was a ‘sing off’ that organically started and again, had I not had the karaoke versions, it would have not been anywhere near as successful. These karaoke versions can sometimes double as those instrumental ‘segue tracks’ that I mentioned at the top of this article. Lastly, it can also give you an extra add-on to sell your clients on, for those that are into it.
Do you use instrumentals to fill in the awkward ‘dead air’ at events? Which ones work for you? I’d love to know. How about karaoke?
Do you always keep some karaoke tracks on hand in your library? Send me a note! "I did a dinner party recently and there was a ‘sing off’ that organically started and had I not had the karaoke versions it would have not been anywhere near as successful"
