Advanced Professional Skills Training 

Our Advanced Professional Skills Training is designed for DJs ready to elevate their technical skills and performance savvy to professional levels. This comprehensive program, available exclusively to Penn students who have completed our introductory sessions, encompasses a broad range of advanced techniques and industry-standard practices.

Advanced Training Curriculum

  • Digital Mastery

    Gain expert knowledge in digital setup using Rekordbox, Lexicon, and Mixed in Key, including advanced tagging, sorting, and playlist management. Explore alternative software options for a versatile DJ setup.

  • Deck Proficiency

    Master your equipment with in-depth training on deck functionalities, troubleshooting a "messed up" deck, and understanding all external connections.

  • Advanced Mix Techniques

    Learn traditional beat-match by ear, pitch-shifting without nudging, and explore various mixing techniques like seamless fade, drop mixing, and backspin for dynamic live performances.

  • Hot & Memory Cues

    Advanced utilization of hot cues and memory cues for precise track manipulation, including sample usage, memory looping, and creative track jumping.

  • Performance Recovery

    Develop critical skills for emergency situations including managing poor transitions, cutting sound, and recovering from equipment failures to maintain performance continuity.

  • Live Set Dynamics

    Enhance your live performance skills with techniques in improvising sets, planning while playing, coordinating smooth transitions between DJs, and integrating live instrumentation.

FULL ADVANCED CURRICULUM

Frequently Asked Questions:

  • Typically, members start the course from Class 1. If you’d like to join late, please reach out to a member of the Training Committee.

  • No. We provide professional club-grade Pioneer DJ® equipment, including DDJ-400s, FLX4s, FLX10s, and XDJ-XZs. However, we strongly encourage you to bring your deck along if you have one. All members are required to bring a laptop and headphones at a minimum.

  • No. All DJ@Penn courses are only available for current Penn students – more specifically, members of our Slack community (which Penn students can join here).

  • We encourage all DJs without formal training, even those who have plenty of experience, to complete our training course or to find a similar one on their own.

    • Many nightclubs and bars require certain skills of DJs who they allow to use their equipment.

    • This Introductory Training course provides a great baseline of knowledge, history, fundamental skills, and standardized language for further training.

    • Many of the most well-known DJs got their start through professional courses like ours, which is designed to match or improve upon competing DJ schools.