Welcome to the Complete DJ Crash Course

Are you an aspiring DJ but don’t know where to start? We’ve put together this free DJ course that covers the core skills you need to become a DJ and start dropping tunes like a pro!

Here, we go through basic skills to start mixing, promote yourself, find gigs and move over to professional gear.

This page includes a selection of free beginner DJ lessons from across our most popular courses and are designed to help you succeed as a DJ, no matter where you are in your journey.

But if you’re serious about learning to DJ properly, this is just the beginning.

When you create a free Crossfader account, you’ll unlock your complete DJ learning journey. We’ll build a custom roadmap based on your gear, music tastes and experience to help you meet your learning goals, no matter what level you’re at. You also get two extra free, fully structured courses on how to DJ on a laptop or a mobile device, so you can get started even if you’ve not got any gear yet.

You can get a taste of things by diving straight into the free lessons below, or sign up now to unlock the full experience.

Lesson 1 – Free tools & downloads

To begin your DJ journey, you’re going to need some music.

If you’ve already got a killer music selection, you’re off to a great start! But if you don’t, that’s not a problem.

We have a music pack readily available for you to download. It’s full of exclusive tracks from our friends, great for kick-starting a music library if you’re a new DJ! This is the music we use throughout our tutorials, so it’s also helpful to have for following along.

There’s something for everyone, from hip-hop, afrobeats, R&B, house and garage to bass, trance and tech house bangers!  

Download the music pack here, and let’s get started!

Lesson 2 (FLX4 tutorial) – Perfect your timing 

The saying that a DJ must “drop it right” is accurate.

DJs must play the right song at the right time to create the right vibe. And from a technical standpoint, they need to press play on the decks at the exact right time!

The foundation of any DJ at any level is the ability to perfect and understand timing when mixing. You can’t progress without this core skill.

In this lesson from our Pioneer DJ DDJ-FLX4 course, follow along with Jamie as he teaches you how to get your musical timing right and what to do if you don’t quite hit play at the perfect time!

Lesson 3 (Techno Course tutorial) – Slow Mixing with EQs 

It’s time to turn to the mixer and begin experimenting with EQs. The EQ controls are found vertically running down every channel on virtually every DJ mixer.

In a lesson here from our Techno Mixing DJ Course, Danny teaches you how the HI, MID and LOW EQ pots affect the sound of the music and how to use them as a sound-sculpting tool to create a seamless blend that goes from one track to another, and then back again!

This crucial technique separates a track’s bass, vocals and treble to create a pro-sounding, polished mix.

Lesson 4 (Serato DJ course tutorial) – Performing an extended DJ set 

This lesson is always the most rewarding as you progress throughout our DJ courses. This is really when it all starts to ‘click’, and instead of learning how to DJ, you are DJing!

Now is the really exciting part, where we get to combine all of our DJ skills in an extended mix!

Performing an extended set lets you see how the isolated techniques you’ve learned work together to make a bigger picture.  

Watch and follow along with this lesson from our Serato DJ Beginner Course as Lawrence explains his thought process for each improvised mix performed, with tracks taken from the ‘House’ folder of our Music Pack.

Lesson 5 (Hip Hop course tutorial) – What Makes A Good Mashup?

Most of our students enjoy learning how to mix multiple genres of music. It’s something that we regularly encourage. In this lesson, taken from our Hip Hop Mixing DJ Course, we dive into the world of ‘mashups’ and how they can add creativity to your sets.

Mashups are becoming increasingly popular following the introduction of Serato Stems in 2022, but we’ve been championing this practice for years! 

They often go down so well because they offer the audience something completely brand-new yet recognisable to listen to simultaneously. They’re also a great way to pack plenty of genres into sets.

Here, Lawrence walks you through how to make a killer mashup.

There’s a lot to consider when making a mashup, including the key and original BPM of each track you use, so it’s worth knowing how to put complementary tracks together to make your mashups and sets stand out! 

Lesson 6 (Transitions tutorial) – Low To High BPM Change

Keeping with the theme of multiple genres, one of the most frequent things we get asked about is how to transition between them seamlessly.

Our DJ Transitions Course covers this extensively, and in this lesson, you will learn how to go from an R&B track into a house track. 

Jamie breaks down a killer technique for going from a low BPM to a much higher one. A transition trick that can easily disrupt the flow of your set if not performed correctly.

Watch as he demonstrates the easily made mistakes involved when doing a BPM jump like this and then gives some excellent techniques to follow for pulling off an awesome-sounding energy step-up!

Lesson 7 (Getting Gigs tutorial) – Posting to Mixcloud

Once you feel comfortable on the decks, it’s time to put yourself out there and try getting some gigs.

We’ve all been there and know the most effective ways to get your foot in the door, and that’s why we’ve dedicated an entire course to doing this called ‘How To Get DJ Gigs.’

One of the quickest ways to get DJ work is by creating and sharing your mixes. And no other platform can do this better than Mixcloud! Mixcloud is a platform where you can upload mixes, and it’s our preferred pick as it has been designed for DJs by DJs.

You can upload mixes without worrying about your mix being removed for copyright. Mixcloud allows you to build a fan base and promote your mixes. Crossfader customers get 30% off their first 6 months of MIxcloud Premium.

This lesson will show you how to upload a mix to the platform.

Lesson 8 (CDJ Masterclass tutorial) – Moving from controller to CDJ

When you start playing regular gigs, you may find that most venues use Pioneer DJ CDJ equipment. This may pose a problem if you have only used your controller until now.

This lesson will enable you to transition from your controller to a standard club setup seamlessly and comes straight out of our CDJ Masterclass, where we show you how to apply all you’ve learned to the flagship club players.

With complete walk-throughs and tips and tricks for setting up and using the kit, you’ll learn everything you need to know to play confidently on professional decks.

Lesson 9 (Music management tutorial) – Automate your DJ Library

Being a DJ is more than learning to mix and showing up to gigs. It’s a daily grind of tasks. One of those tasks is how you manage your music regularly.

This is undoubtedly one of the most important tasks you will busy yourself with for as long as you’re a DJ!

But there’s help out there to make the process easy and seamless.

Did you know that you can set automation in Rekordbox so that when you download a track, it will automatically get added to various playlists in your DJ library?

In this lesson from our Music Management For DJs course, we show you how to automate library management tasks to free up your time to get on with the fun parts of DJing! 

Let us know which lesson you’ve found most useful in the comments below and what you’d love to have seen covered.

Ready to make your DJ dreams a reality?

If you’ve followed these nine lessons, you’ve already taken the first step towards becoming a DJ, and you’ve got a great foundation to take your skills to the next level! 

We’re here to help you make a real success of your passion for music. It’s what we do and love!

When you create a free Crossfader account, you’ll unlock a personalised learning roadmap and two full beginner courses. These step-by-step video lessons are designed to help you build confidence and mix properly, whatever gear or software you’re on, or even if you’ve not got any gear yet.

All our lessons are taught by real DJs with years of experience, and over 15,000 new DJs in more than 120 countries have used Crossfader to start their careers.