Waaaay back in May last year, Dingo sneaked into an internet cafe on a beach in Ibiza and arranged a gift for me. We were in the middle of a holiday in Ibiza, renting out a villa and enjoying the food, beaches and clubs that the island had to offer. I had my DJ gear and was mucking about on the decks a couple of the nights - and Dingo got the idea for a gift.
She presented it to me and I fell over with surprise and excitement. The gift: a 5 hour DJ Academy session at Ministry of Sound. Booyah! The Dingo rocks!
Fast forward to today and there I was, behind the decks in the main room (The Box), mixing a couple of CDs in front of seventeen other budding DJs and five cool as piss pros. What a blast! What a buzz! They even had the lasers and smoke going to make it feel authentico.
At the start of the DJ Academy session, the "students" were split into four groups and allocated a professional DJ to show them the basics, using the real equipment in one of the four rooms of MoS. We rotated once and then once again into one of the four rooms - The Box, The Loft, Room 103 and BabyBox.
The DJ went through the basics of beatmatching and gave all of us a go, using the music from our own collections. It was so good to get some hands on guidance on how to beatmatch - even though I have been mucking around on the decks for some time now, I still learnt a hell of a lot - practical "experience" counts for so much.
The final part of the session was to move into the main room and as a group of four, put together a 15 minute mix to play for the other students. Our group was kicking it and we did really well - enjoying the music and clapping the transitions. So much fun!
It was the perfect present: lots of fun, lots of learning, and a chance to do what all DJs worth their salt have done - play at Ministry of Sound.
As I loaded the next track and cued in the music, I thought - this one's going out to the Dingo. Kick it!!
