I'm learning to DJ. For now, I'm calling myself DJ Mart. These are my newbie notes.DJ BasicsThere are lots of good resources online to figure out DJing and I won't do better here. I will just say that DJ controllers have a few basic elements that are core to the practice, everything else is basically fancy flourishes on top.This is my DJ controller:There's a left side and a right side, with symmetric controls. The whole art of DJing can be reductively summed up as transitioning the song on the left side to the song on the right side.This is the software I am using that came with my controller:The software again, has a left side and right side, and the two stacked waveforms represent the left and right. The other buttons are just software representation of what's on my control, and there's a tracklist, where I can load songs on both sides.Again, this won't turn into a DJ tutorial, but know the bulk of what DJ Mart will do in your party involves:Play one song with with full volume to the speaker (on the slider near the center labelled either "1")Play the other song, but with the slider "2" set to zero, and play it only to my headphonesUse sliders labelled "tempo" to get the beats per minute to match (the exact number is visible on the software)Use the spinwheel to position and get the beats to line upPlay with the other knobs (most of the time the three EQ knobs in the center for high, medium and low frequencies) to mix the two songs properlyAt some point turn up "2" and turn down "1", and swap out the song on the left sideRinse and repeatDoing a basic transition isn't too hard. Doing an amazing one can be pretty hard though, to me the whole game is being able to find two songs that work well together in a way that generates delight. There are some basic rules of thumb (like there are keys that harmonise well together, etc), but for the most part I try to optimise for my own amusement.I personally enjoy poppy-ish tracks rather than rave or techno type stuff, and I don't worry too much about drops. I try to maximise fun and surprise overall. The measure for fun is "whatever I like."I might record some stuff someday of my sets, but as I was learning and practising, I saw potential in or enjoyed these transitions:Queen - Another one bites the dust → Bombay rockers - Rock tha partyMIA - XR2 → JID - 151 Rum (you can kinda transition so many things away from XR2 tbh)Little Simz, Obongjayar - Point and Kill → MIA - GalangIt's the time to disco → Cotton Eyed JoeModest Mouse - Dashboard → PinkPantheress - Girl Like MeArca - Mequetrefe → Las Ketchup - the ketchup songFcukers - Play Me → jpegmafia - baby im bleedingStarjunk 95 - Spectra Ocean Dream Circuit → Ik JunoonPixies - U-Mass → Gwen Stefani - Hollaback GirlKailash Kher - Tauba Tauba → Brockhampton - GOLDNinajirachi - Fuck My Computer → Tinashe - MelatoninSkrillex - Rumble → Little Simz - Venom → flux Cocoon - iglooghostSajna Ji Vaari Vaari → Britney Spears - Toxic (can't remember how well this went, but I think it worked)Danny Brown - Copycats → Vengaboys - We Like To Party (I think I did this?)Tyler the creator - New Magic Wand → Kendrick Lamar - N95Carly Rae Jepsen - Higher → Blondie - Heart of GlassJust about anything → Burial - Untrue (also one of those hack songs that are easy to transition to from most other tracks)I had done something good with Cascada - Everytime We Touch but can't remember, and another one with The Strokes - You Only Live OnceSome other long-ish chains I could string together:Another One Bites The Dust → Rock Tha Party → The Black Eyed Peas - Bebot → Kendrick Lamar - King Kunta → Brockhampton - GOLD → Kailash Kher - Tauba Tauba → FKA Twigs - hondaBurial - Archangel → iglooghost - flux/cocoon → Ninajirachi - Fuck My Computer → Vengaboys - We like to party → Tinashe - Melatonin → Charli xcx ft shygirl - 365 remixI have a pretty big DJ bank which I throw into this playlist, and generally spend most of my time messing around to find unexpected magic.In general the way I'm going about things is going to irk pro DJs very much, but I don't care, DJ Mart only aims to please himself. Most DJ Mart sets to date have been played to an audience of just himself and has been well received.That's all for today, more DJ Mart updates later, I don't have much else to say here.