DJ Schools are cropping up all across the country, but their worth and legitimacy is a matter of hot debate. Although America has been slow on the uptake compared to nations like Canada, Australia, and the UK, innovative stateside turntablists have realized the immense market potential of passing on their know-how and have started offering classes aimed at assisting wannabe DJs. The majority of DJs are exclusively self-taught, so the idea of a more formal education in this field is ripe with controversy. Is the resistance legitimate, or do these schools really infuse students with the skills and confidence they need to hit superstar status?
Vancouver has the Rhythm Institute, South Africa has the DJ Mix Club School, and Australia has the United DJ Mixing School. Each institution promises to educate students on core DJing skills, and some offer advice on the business side as well. America’s top choices include the DJ Mix Academy, based in Boston, and Scratch DJ Academy, which first formed in New York in 2002 and now has branches in Miami and Los Angeles. Scratch is by far the most prestigious, partly because of its Co-founder, the late/great “Jam Master Jay” of Run DMC fame.
Michael Cannady, Director of Business Development for Scratch, helps to shed light on whether or not such structure and format actually help to improve their students’ chances for a successful career, “Scratch DJ Academy was created to lower the barrier to entry for people interested in the art forms of DJing and music production,” he says. This brings up an imperative point—while the club scene is littered with young hopefuls who eye DJs with envy, getting the necessary goods can be expensive and overwhelming. But enroll in just one class at Scratch,” says Cannady, “and you’ve got the keys to the electronic kingdom.” That’s because at Scratch, you get to use the gear. ”[Students] are given unlimited access to our equipment while you’re enrolled,” Cannady says, “If you don’t have the money to invest in turntables or beat-making equipment, Scratch is a great way to learn basics [and at the same time get] access to the necessary equipment.”
It’s a point well made, as a class here costs far less than the purchase of an entire DJ set-up. Courses run about $300, including “DJ boot camps” that cater to beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels. They even feature private one-on-one sessions for about $90 per hour. Compare that to an average of $1,000 or more to construct a full turntable, mixer, headphones, and speaker set-up, and it represents a substantial discount, provided you’re only seeking a minimal amount of training out of the gate. Consider this a much less expensive way to discover whether or not DJing is truly your calling; it sure beats selling your equipment online at a massive loss, if and when you discover it’s just not your game.
So what do these courses teach you that your DJ buddies can’t? “Our curriculum was designed to help students learn both correctly and quickly. It’s true that you can learn a lot of these skills from a friend who DJs or maybe even on your own, but learning from Scratch is quicker and [we] make sure you learn the right way.”
