Point Blank DJ School

BASIC DJ COURSE

Due to London’s public transport system we arrived in Shoreditch at the Point Blank studios 1.5 hours late for a course that didn’t start till 11am! We were buzzed in and greeted by Bhav (a former student on the course, now training the groups himself!) after a brief chat with him we headed for the class rooms. Like no ordinary class room, it’s equipped with at least 10 sets of decks, mixers, headphones, CD mixers, Samplers, Drum Machines and PCs (mainly used on the Production courses held here)… If music classes at school looked anything like this, no doubt I’d have passed with flying colours! Taking the weekends Crash Course Introduction was Tony aka DJ Intrigue (in-house DJ extraordinaire). Amazingly Tony was able to go round the room and introduce us to the group of about 15+ dudes remembering all their names, most of which we instantly forgot of course - no offence guys! Tony doing his thing with Kiss FM's Robyn Banks & fellow students eagerly watching!

He carefully explained the Phrasing, Beat Structures such as 4x4, 8 bar tracks etc and the fundamental differences between the dance music genres. He then went on and covered the equipment set-up and the various functions on the DJ equipment, some obvious, some not so obvious... The weights on the decks and speed test with the red dots on a pair of Technics was interesting and other useful bits we never knew.

He then talked us through dropping in the first beat of the new track (cueing it in), counting beats, timing, and rounded up some audience participation by performing a class room exercise on counting beats.

We were guided through dropping tracks in on time and after we were shown an example, we all stepped up to ‘flex it‘, man.

At lunch we adjourned to a local drinking establishment and ordered the highly recommended Bangers & Mash. Rob Cowan, Point Blank’s Managing Director joined us for a bite to eat and to personally meet and mingle with all the course students.

We met Jeremy also from Brighton who writes for Time Out, an Essex lad who’d promoted his own nights before, Mark from Sheffield (he‘d just brought decks and already knew the basics), Louis from London (who has an identical twin brother and thought it'll be an easily marketable angle), an Irish kid who’d come to find out if DJing was for him before shedding out £800 on a set of decks, and Robyn Banks (whose name we didn’t find funny until after the course) was from London’s Kiss FM Radio station, his usual show is the drive time slot between 3-7pm and all the tracks are play listed on a computer for him so he’s never been required to mix… You may of heard of him recently as after the course on Monday night he went out with the course trainer Tony, got really pissed up and stormed in to Kiss FM (off schedule), high-jacking the airwaves, being loud and leery live on air - only to be thrown out by security and plastered over the papers the following day, he apparently got the sack from Virgin Radio for saying Chris Evans had died on air!

Back in the studios feeling a little bloated we work up a sweat practising some of the things we’d been taught, we were given a few tracks that ‘go’ apparently and focused on the cueing up and initial stages of Beat Matching, after at least 2 hours of playing the same two wicked funky house tracks (one made by their own boss Rob) I was like ‘Bhav do these two records go mate?’ starting to get a bit miffed as to if I was getting it. "You’re nearly there mate just a little push on the tempo, after 50/50 guessing the wrong direction and him correcting me I upped the pitch by about 0.2% and it was in (not too neatly but hey), nearly there - look out Pete Tong!

Sunday comprised of a few EQ & FX tricks, reading the grooves, Phasing and Back 2 Back mixing, fills - none of which I knew about before today. Then Tony really started strutting his stuff on the ones and twos by busting up some scratching for the massive! From the crab to the baby scratch, and then to beat juggling, we all studied vigorously. The Art of Turntablism can be found in Point Blanks Scratch Course (or see our Turntablism article).

The trainer, somewhat begrudgingly showed us the CD mixers, like him we were pessimistic about them at first by were all impressed by the flexibility of them and the random tricks you can do in an instant. They allow you to store loops from any track on the CD and play it over at the touch of button, you can spin back and even scratch on these fuckers! Beats the CD player in our office anyway!
Orlando, Tony & Bhav @ Point Blank counting them beats!
After playing around on the CD mixers, we skimmed over Accapella mixing, with Instrumentals, and placing lyrics over beats… easier to say than do. So I stuck to the funky house tracks I been practising with for the last couple of hours, again questioning my own ability to ever suss it out I called on Tony to tell me where I’m going wrong, ‘Nearly there mate, just a little touch’, I speed it up by prodding it a little and his smile grew wider, ‘you got it mate!’ … wicked, wicked - I ran in to the next room grinning like a Cheshire Cat, ‘I fucking got it Dave, come and listen to this’… he pissed himself laughing at my child like enthusiasm. What a buzz, now all I need to do is get my two hour mix, down to about 3-5 seconds and I’ll be up with Erick Morillo and Paul Oakenfold (we can all dream right?). I spotted the Cheshire Cat syndrome on a fair few faces on Sunday as people were finally starting to get to grips with it, if someone had got in time you could tell by the width of the smile!

At the end of course we had a discussion about the Music Business Industry and how to get noticed, helpful ideas for self promotion and getting the contacts you need to get your first gig, and residencies etc.

All in all, a fascinating weekend full of the hints and tips all budding DJs should know, really friendly and helpful staff that are on your level, ample equipment to practise on in superbly equip studios. On day one it all seems so far away by day two things are quite literally being drummed into you, every time I hear any track I'm always counting the beats? They've warped my mind! But then I guess with 10 years experience and having trained 'Faking It's DJ star Sean Evans (no it wasn't Lottie and Anne Savage!) they do know their shit... If you’re thinking of starting DJing, for the cost of one new Technics 12’10 (mk III) you could learn the Basics with the Point Blank professionals, alternatively they do have advanced DJ courses and Production courses for both Basic and Advance too. Our thanks to everyone @ Point Blank, especially Rob, Bhav, Tony and Orlando.

For more information on courses available or to contact Point Blank check out.. www.Point-Blank.com