Right, please hold on tight and try to follow.
Writers sometimes suffer from Writers Block, can DJ's suffer with DJ Block?

The reason i ask is that a couple of times in the past few months i've been in mid-swing at a gig then all of a sudden,- i can't think of anything to play, shouldn't happen i know, esp as i've been at it 10 years but for some inexplainable reason my mind just goes blank. then a few minutes later, sometimes 30, it all comes back to me.

In a bid to tackle this rare event i have penned a list of my 200 most played tracks to quickly run over should the brain shut-down, but even after reading my brain still says no!

Is this just my brain playing tricks or is it common amongst us?- perhaps to many late mornings followed by even later nights?

I would be interested to hear if anyone else has suffered with this?

Advice and comments! (nice ones!!! )

yep it happens regularly, but some how the right track does normally pop up with a few seconds to spare

Yes!! and that's when the little (well A4) book comes out with about 30 of the top tracks of each era/genre. Usually enough to get back in the groove.

Jim

Happens to me quite often. My wife says I'm losing it all the time...lol

all the time !

Wait till you get to my age

I'm just grateful when I get the odd gap in the block and the brain suddenly shows a glimmer of life.

I think it happens to all of us from time to time..

this is one of the reasons I love to have my CD's in folders to flick through...

Yep.. happens to me as well...

which is while i like to have plenty of folders on PCDJ to flick through

Nik

And we can look through "logs" from previous gigs for inspiration.

yes, happens to me too!

Yup hapeens to the best of us as they say that's why I take Ali with me.

Have to say we work very well together can bounce off ideas to try etc.


Pete

All the time

Yep, i get this too.. Last friday in fact! Sometimes with 20 secs to go deck 2 is still empty and i can't find anything i want to play next next! Cue the sweaty palms....

Just remembered this: (see what I mean about the old brain )

Probably the best gig I ever had was a wedding where I had a block all night. I just couldn't seem to stitch 2 tracks together all night, and was dropping the next track in with about 10 seconds to spare all night. But what a fantastic night. Dance floor rammed all night, and loads of thanks at the end of the night.

Oh yes, especially as I don't get out half as often as I used to.


Sad I know - but I have literally had nightmares about exaggerated forms of this.

Some of the worst dreams are where I'm fishing out old rubbish to play and cannot for the life of me figure out anything even remotely half decent to put on. Then a record runs out and I'm totally clueless as to what to sling on next.

Or is that just memories of the last gig I did ...

Same happens to me thats why i have most of my songs catalogued,artist,name.bpm.

Yep, I agree with High Fidelity At my age my brain is addled. Can remember every song title, artist and all the words to songs I heard in my youth, yet can't remember things I heard yesterday. Working from a lappy the worst is when you can hear the perfect song in your head, but can't remember the artist or title. Or trying to remember a particular track with the current one blaring through your head. What were we talking about..... I forgot.

Spot on Gary

I'll think to myself - I'll play this track followed by that track, and by the time I've loaded the first track, I've forgotten what I was going to play after it.

So I'm not the only one that needs to switch to auto pilot from time to time......

Happens very often! Especially when tired! Just flicking through some recent compilations usually gives inspiration, failing that I have a note book of some some good sequences that work well!

Cheezy
Nightsounds

Auto pilot......Noooooooooo

Just have 4 CD players and have a couple of tracks cued up ready to go...

And me too.
Looks like it's a common thing then.

As others do, I carry a list of better tracks classified in decades - 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, nineties etc to act as a memory jogger if at a loss.

No! this never happens to me Just joking of course it does, my memory is nearly as old as me, now what was the question

It happens all the time, and that's the beauty of it. We get to play unpredictable sets.
Here's where "reading the crowd" comes into it's own.
Let's say that the majority of your crowd are in their 30's.....so they were 18 in about 1995 or less......look up your 90's tracks (folder in PCDJ in my case - "Best of the 90's" CD in yours, possibly).....choose track that you think would inspire the punters........play track and bathe in the "ooh's and aahh's" as they realise that you've just dropped the track that they adored from the best decade of their lives.
Just my thoughts!
Clive.

But you've just played your 5 best 90s tracks and the blighters are still dancing - what do you do then??

I sometimes suffer from Dj block, but normally within a few minutes my mind clicks back, if not mr mrs would shout at me or thrust a cd infront of me nose and shout a randon number at me.

When at a gig my partner is always there and her musical background is very good, Shes never let me down yet! lol

Bless, sounds like a love story dont it.

Yup, happens to me sometimes.

Recently I've been getting brain f4rts with gear.

Look down at mixer and it's seem alien and takes me a few seconds to remember what it is I'm actually trying to do. LOL

Then you play something really obscure - gives them a chance to go to the bar, see!

Clive.

Happens to us all......... well, you mere mortals, obviously!

DJ Foureyes,
Gotta love that Avatar - weren't you on Celebrity Big Brother until recently ?
Clive.

Feel sorry for Brandon Block.

I sometimes get the reverse problem - where can't remember the track I've just played.

I'll start the next track, take out the CD that's just finished, be putting in the next CD (that I was selecting earlier) then be thinking about the track to put on after that, when someone comes up and says "what was the track you just played"? And I've got absolutely no idea!! I'll explain to them that although to them it's the last track they heard, to me it's like 3 tracks ago - and they look at me like I'm crazy!