Scrolling through thousands of tracks trying to find what to play next? That’s no way to DJ! The solution is simple: stop thinking song-to-song and start organising your music into “minisets”.
In this free lesson from our Mixing For Mobile & Wedding DJs course (just one of the full suite of DJ and production courses you get with an All-Access Pass), we show you how to group tracks that work well together, so you can move through your sets with confidence.
To get started, watch the training video below, then return to this guide as needed.
What’s a miniset?
A miniset is a small group of tracks (think 3-5 songs) that work well together. Instead of preparing individual tracks and then panicking about what comes next, you’re preparing little sections that appeal to specific parts of your audience or fit particular moments in your set.
Think about wedding gigs: these DJs aren’t playing one genre all night. They might play some classic soul, then switch to current chart hits, then drop some 90s throwbacks…all minisets waiting to happen. Organising your music into minisets means less time scrolling, more time mixing, and a better dancefloor experience.
Read this next: 7 Ways DJs Know What To Play Next
The beauty of minisets is simple – once you’re in that crate or playlist, you’re good to go. Everything in there just works together. You’re not scrolling through your entire library trying to figure out what fits. Instead, you’re in the flow, enjoying the set, picking from tracks you’ve already decided belong together.
Building your first miniset
Start with transitions you’ve already learned. When you practise a transition at home and think, “I like that!” – those tracks belong in a miniset together. Create a playlist or crate in your DJ software, add those tracks, then look for more songs in that style to build it out.
Your minisets can be based on anything: era, vibe, audience type, musical key, genre, energy level…whatever makes sense for how you play. The key is that everything in each miniset should flow naturally together, so when you’re in that playlist, you know any track you pick will work.
As you add new music to your library or tidy things up, keep building your minisets. Every time you discover tracks that mix brilliantly together, get them into a miniset straight away. That’s how you’ll gradually organise your entire collection in a way that actually helps you perform.
Next Steps
Keep it simple and get started with one miniset. Pick a style of music you play often, add the tracks you already know work well together, then build it out from there.
Once you’ve got that sorted, build another. Before long, you’ll stop thinking song-to-song and start moving miniset-to-miniset for less panic, better mixing, and more confidence.
This lesson is from Mixing For Mobile & Wedding DJs, just one of the full suite of DJ and production courses available to All-Access Pass members.
