The “Focus who is on the floor, not who is NOT on the floor” technique
Weird name for a technique? I know, but the point is for it to stick in your head and it means quite literally what is says. So what this actually means is that when you DJ, after you finally get your first few people on the dance floor, keep playing more music for THESE people who are responding to your music to keep on dancing rather than trying to focus on trying to get the people sitting down up to get up and dance.
2 Good Reasons To Do This
Now there are two reasons for this, number 1 is that you don’t want to lose the very few people you have on the dance floor or soon you’ll go back to having an empty dance floor, and number 2 is that the people sitting down will see the people who are up dancing and eventually they will begin to feel like they are missing out on all the fun and wanna get up and dance too. I mean, it’s not exactly exciting sitting in a chair staring at the walls, but when you see a group of people not caring what others think, letting go and having fun then what happens is THEY wanna join in the fun and have a dance too, this is what happens in people’s minds as they begin to lose their inhibitions. I’ve seen dance floors where at first you have a minority of the room on the dance floor and before you know it the minority are the people sitting down (and they start looking like party poopers). PLUS you should reward your first dancers with more music they like, if they respond to RnB, play more good RnB, if it’s some older people and they get up and dance to the Disco, keep playing more Disco, after all they got up first and helped kick start your dance floor make them have a good time so others will see and feel like they are missing out. So just remember this next time you are DJing to “Focus who’s on the floor, not who’s NOT on the floor.”
Bonus Tip How to get a dance floor started (by knowing when to drop the latest track). Think of it a bit like fishing . .
?A good way to think about how to get a dance floor started is to think of it a bit like fishing. I like to use this analogy because it has a similar process, when fishing you put your bait on the line, you cast it out to sea, wait for some nibbles and when the time is just right you pull hard on the fishing rod and reel that fish in. If you yank on the rod too soon your fish will get away, or it if you leave it too long the fish will take your bait and run.
?This is the same way a dance floor works, your bait are the songs and the people you attract to the dance floor are the fish, different genres of music will attract different types of people just like different types of bait will attract different types of fish.
?So you play different songs and genres of music in the early part of an event to see what is going to get you some nibbles or reactions. You don’t want to play music that’s too loud and dancey early on or you will scare the fish away, you gotta play some groovy tracks to get people in the mood to dance and entice them onto the dance floor.
?You start getting some bites and notice your fishing rod is starting to twitch, that’s your cue. When the fish are nibbling you gotta yank that rod, hook them fish and reel them in. This is the same as as playing your hottest dancing track. You don’t wanna play your best dancing track when there is no one on the dance floor as that would be like trying to reel in your fish before they are hooked, you gotta wait for the right moment. That moment when a few people are on the dance floor and the rest of the room is just watching over them deciding if they should join them or not.
?SUDDENLY you put on that hit track and all attention goes straight to the dance floor. People look over and see those on the dance floor having an awesome time to the number 1 sog on the charts right now and they can’t resist but to get up and dance. A flood of people run to the dance floor and you’ve successfully kick started the dancing segment of your event.
▶️Play that hit track too soon and it will flop, no matter how good the song is you played it too early, that’s why you must think of DJing a bit like fishing, first you need to play a few warm up tracks, get some nibbles, wait until the fish are hooked and THEN yank that line in and watch them people come running to the dance floor.
Conclusion
Anyway thanks for reading this blog and if you found the information useful then please SHARE this on on social media and leave your comments below (all comments will be moderated, no spam please) and I will be glad to hear from you and even answer your questions.
Paul Anthony is the Managing Director of Event Master Pro and Discosource DJ’s based in Phuket, Thailand. With over 20 years experience as a Professional DJ he built a nation wide DJ service across every major city in Australia teaching over 50 DJs his craft and now developing the EMP online application for DJs.
