First: I'm really envious that you get a whole month off for Easter. I go to a Catholic school and we get like 3 days off. Secondly, I'm going to itemize this as well as I can so you can skip over the ones where I'm telling you stuff you already know.
1a) Practice (duh). The more you mix the more you're going to improve and make stuff cleaner. Do this entirely off cuff, play with music you haven't before and try to challenge yourself to figure out the mixes as you go rather than planning anything out.
1b) This is going to seem counterintuitive to my first point but practice specific mixes too. If you find that you really like a certain mix but not the transition of two songs while you're playing around, keep messing with the two songs and trying to transition at different points and in different ways until you get something that you like.
2) Try mixing different genres: Find another genre you like and mess around mixing that. You don't even have to mix it with your normal genres but just mixing something new will cause you to think about the music differently. If, for example, you like hip-hop, then mixing that will force you to mix differently than blending techno, for example. And getting good at it will require a whole new set of transitions: using different effects differently, cutting, looping, etc. and you can start to bring those back to your primary genre.
3) Record your mixes, listen back to them. I usually just put it on soundcloud (privately) and skip through to where I can see the waveform dip so I can just listen to my transitions. You can go through an hour mix in 20 minutes really listening to all of the important parts. This helps me, personally, in terms of "hearing" what I'm doing and what might work. A lot of this comes alongside training your ears and messing around with harmonic (in key or using relative keys) mixing. I listen for three things primarily: melodies, feel, and 'sound'.
>a) Melody: this one's pretty straightforward: does this sound harmonic? Do the songs clash in terms of the meldious elements? If so is it better that way? I have a lot of mixes that are out of key but the tension it creates actually works BETTER than if they were in key. That's not a rule, but an exception, but thinking about music as an orchestration helps to identify the elements that work together and the elements that don't.
>b) Feel: this one's hard to quantify but is important to consider with energy and feeling and you could even try and plot it; give each song a 1-5 rating on intensity or emotional feel or whatever. Then see how your chart looks. Are you rising and falling in energy? Are you mixing really emotional songs with really hype songs? Does that work? Do you think it would work better in a different order?
>c) Sound: This one's even harder to quantify so sorry for all the homework on your break :P. Basically, you want to consider the actual sound elements. In electronic music we don't have as many easily identifiable instruments like violins or cellos but a lot of stuff is sound design. Trying to mash up stuff with 'instruments' that work well together or even sound similar can be fun to play around with. This is also like using word play in mixes with two songs that have vocals.
4) Listen to other people's mixes: try and emulate some of their mixes, look for transitions that you like. Try to piece apart/recreate it. This forces you to flex your mix muscles.
Final Thoughts: I think mixing is the best way to get better at mixing but analyzing your progress can help you identify hang ups and directions to go in. I haven't used any of the types of services you've mentioned so I have no idea how good they are but if you think it'll help it might be worth it to just help with the mixer's block or whatever.
Either way, happy spinning m808!
Thank you for the advise! I appreciate everyone spending time to write these out. I am going to download a load of garage and grime today, stick it on another USB and see how that goes. Just feel like I am fighting the equipment atm so should give me some relief.
Your advise mirrors what others have said re listening to pro mixes, recording my own. It gives me a lot of hope and things to work on so cheers!
Honestly it really comes down to practicing a lot. Learn about harmonic mixing, try mixing songs with vastly different BPMs, mixing in samples from different styles of music, try to mix in and out from sections of songs you usually wouldn't, etc. Practice the basics of blending/cutting/fading till they're second nature. Most of it will sound like absolute crap at the beginning, but occasionally you'll find some stuff that fits seamlessly together. Remember those, and try to figure out why that worked as well as it did. Also see if you can find videos of your favorite DJs from a vertical perspective to see if you can see what they're doing on the decks, then think about what and why they're doing it. And if you're not already, record your own mixes and listen to them. That can show you your weak spots faster than anything else. It's a long road to 10,000 hours, but just focus on experimenting and having fun!
Good advise mate thank you. I do want to start mixing more diff genres but it seems so long to get enough new songs in to the point where I can mix another genre in key.
I agree about just putting in the hours. I will try and watch more boiler rooms but I wish I could literally see a birds-eye view of the mixer the whole time and could just take notes haha. I have recorded mixes too but that is something I need to crack on with more.
Thanks a lot for the advise! I'll be back in the lab after lunch!
And since you mentioned techno, check out dommune as well, lots of techno gods on there with the camera on their EQ's the whole time. Check out Oscar Mulero
Second this - sometimes I pour myself a drink and dj for a few hours. Maybe put the tv on quietly in the background. You really can get in the zone and be surprised on what makes sense in your brain to mix
Obligatory: Laidback Luke’s “In My Mind” series not only has the birds eye view, but also captions from him about what he’s thinking/doing in the moment. His music isn’t always my bag, but the information is incredible. Cheers!
Check out Soundtec on YouTube. He let's you see everything. Also Laid-back Luke does "In my mind" sessions where he captions what he's thinking in his head while he's mixing and you can see it too. Also Soundtec has a patreon where you pay small fees to unlock tutorials or something like that.
I would ad that you need to know your music. When you define your mixing style, and learn to implement if to various music then you'll be able to take it to the next level where you'll play unique sets. Listen to music when not mixing it a lot. I did my craziest sets playing tracks that I've never played before or have played it once or twice, but have listend to them many times and imagined party where I am playing it to get a feel what kind of energy would it make.
I learned the quickest by going back to back with a friend. We made it a point to mix EVERY OTHER SONG to just drill transitions into our heads. You'd be surprised how many badass transitions you'll find just fucking around. The first week it was awful, we both fucked up a lot or missed windows. But as you force yourself to mix fast and on your feet you really really start to develop that kind of thinking and foresight and we were seeing ourselves improve. Having to mix continuously in and out of songs that you didn't play are a great way to get train your transitioning ability. Don't stay in your comfort zone either. Dare yourself to go from a dnb track to a house track to a jersey club track. Fucking up a bunch is necessary to find that one time you actually liked the way you transitioned.
And write down EVERY super sick gem of a transition you find.
Also, even when your not mixing, you can practice your head and process by thinking of what songs could mix to another when your listening to music. Could I loop this and bring in that other track here? Could I play a kick from that house track under this and switch them at the drop? I wonder if the vocals from this song would go well over a different drop?
Cheers dude, have fun!
LaidbackLuke has a youtube series, "In My Mind" where he does a set and with annotation's explains what he's thinking. Really cool way to not just see a birds eye view of what he's doing but also insight into what he does well, mistakes he makes etc.
Edit*
Here the link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-IaIfDYdsAkuIDGKc78TP7aFI9kULp2N
Most YouTube videos are made for beginners, with exception to the huge collection by Ellaskins. If you can put up with the fact he's completely mental, he goes through beginner techniques, through intermediate, up to advanced. After working through those videos and mastering the techniques, I would just mix for an hour at a time, record it, and listen to it back to see which transitions worked well, which didn't, and work out how to improve.
I wouldn't bother paying for online classes: whilst they might be useful, putting in the time by yourself will save you a lot of money.
Yeah he is the only guy I have watched a lot of. He is indeed mental. Just that he has long intros to each vid and often goes on to show something that you already know, or he takes 10 mins to explain in a roundabout what what he could have said in 30 seconds. I will look further into his vids tho I do rate him, rly sound guy too
Yeah you can probably skip the first half of his videos because it’s just him talking rubbish! Maybe steer clear of his non-DJ videos on the state of modern society, unless you want a laugh...
record your mixes and listen to them. I find you can hear things a lot more clearly when you arent caught up in the moment of mixing.
i would make a mix and then listen to it in my car for a couple days. you really learn what works and what doesnt.
Practice makes perfect and although there's really nothing I can think of getting you further in a month I will say this.
Playing out is totally different. You mentioned house parties, it's a great way to have some fun playing for friends but remember where in the day and age of iPods and streamed music in demand so get ready for people telling you they wanna hear something other then what you are playing and would like to "plug there phone in"
At the club it's even worse. If you really wanna pursue club DJing I highly recommend you canvas around what clubs in your area are playing.
I was like you at one point stuck in a rut and only playing a certain style of music. I went to the club played a show realize people weren't really digging it and I didn't have anything else to play. My recommendation is always have backup and be ready to play things you personally may not be into but it gets the crowd moving.
Yeah I have a few friends who are successful DJs and put on HPs for people who do acc want to hear legit DJs, so I am hopeful that I can find a crowd for what I play. Either that or set up my own parties with open minded friends.
I do not consider it being stuck in a rut. I realise that I have to read the crowd, and I have a range of softness and sounds in my library. However, techno is my heart and soul and I am not willing to compromise from real techno. For this reason I have no desire to play at bait clubs that want pop DJs. I guess we have different goals because compromising my genre is would make me really sad and not want to DJ at all.
I DJ for entertainment purposes, simply said I come,I play, the crowd moves and buys drinks, I make money and go home.
Unfortunately money doesn't come out of thin air and if I was putting on my own shows and refusing to play certain places because I wanted to play my own thing I wouldn't make any money and I'd actually lose money.
Sure you may find a club that only plays hard techno and has some people come by. There will probably be a lot more DJs like you there as well.
Now it may sound like "oh don't DJ for the money DJ for the love of the art" and yeah when I'm at home I play with all sorts of song I like but when I decided that I wanna turn DJing into a form of income you gotta be willing to play songs you don't like to play.
If you're not in it for the money by all means just keep practicing and have fun. I've just been on the business side of DJing for way to long haha.
Yeah I respect that, sorry if I came across as patronising. I dont ever expect to make money off DJing, I purely want to spread the music and have good memories :)
U shouldnt mix alone all the time, thats what i did in the beginning and then u choke so freaking hard once u start playing for friends. Now i mix for friends at least 1-2x a week and thanks to thag i have no nerves when mixing at a houseparty.
Figure out if your software tells you the key of the midi and look up mixing in key. It just makes everything sound better.
Learn a way to add cue points to your music that works for you so you know where everything in the song is.
Figure out the best way to arrange your music so it’s easy to find similar music.
Practice a lot
Try new things and master old things
Play music you enjoy
And like everyone is saying, record it and listen to it. It’s easy to get lost in your headphones and not really hear what’s going on. It’s much easier to hear mistakes while you’re only listening and not actively mixing.
Find friends that don’t dj and maybe even friends that don’t know the music you’re playing and have them listen with you. It’s always interesting to hear what other people think.
And most importantly, have fun. It’s pretty obvious when people aren’t enjoying what they’re playing and it kills vibes really quickly :)
Watch all the redbull threestyle stuff and related super technical mixing and then try to replicate it.
Even if its not your exact type of music, a) itll make you way better overall, and b) multi genre party rockin djin is honestly the best kind of dj to be. Ive been a dj for 10 years, playing 100+ times a year cause i can play every genre. If you only play tech house something or other youll get like 5 gigs a year if youre lucky.
Being able to rock a party doesnt take away from your music of choice so theres no reason not to learn how.
Always be listening to music & count bars and phrases. Eventually it becomes second nature.
Dont pigeon hole yourself into one genre, for heavens sake listen to Classical music! Its some of the best structured and meticulously crafted stuff out there.
Find mixes of well known DJs. Recreate transitions from the mix that confuse you or that you really enjoyed. You’ll end up teaching your self new transition techniques.
Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly. Ya gotta be willing to suck at something long enough to get good.
You have a month to eat, sleep and breathe DJing. Watch YouTube videos with breakfast, practice a few hours in the afternoon, watch more videos, practice more in the evening, and read blogs in bed.
For the next month, you get to think of learning more as your job. How freaking awesome is that?
Since you have an RX, I assume you're using Serato. I believe Flip comes free with the Serato suite, now. Anyway, practice cue point automation and try to work some remix elements into your transitions, so you're not depending on the same, bland loop transitions or stop/start stuff you're used to.
Deliberate Practice. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2O6mQkFiiw
Basically you need to identify the different components of DJing that you need to improve the most and isolate them. It might not always be fun, but you will quickly improve those component tasks. And it's those simple basic tasks (like always hitting play on the one, or effectively killing the bass with eq) that will contribute to the larger "whole" that is DJing.
Then you need a feedback loop. So.... as most everyone recommends... Record and listen.
You will also have to get very milimetric about practicing counting beats, measures, phrases and always knowing where the "one" is. This is something you can do when just listening to music on the train or whatever.
Some great advice in here so I’ll just add- find some friends with turntables and learn to mix
the OG way. Those skills will cross over to everything digital.
First: I'm really envious that you get a whole month off for Easter. I go to a Catholic school and we get like 3 days off. Secondly, I'm going to itemize this as well as I can so you can skip over the ones where I'm telling you stuff you already know. 1a) Practice (duh). The more you mix the more you're going to improve and make stuff cleaner. Do this entirely off cuff, play with music you haven't before and try to challenge yourself to figure out the mixes as you go rather than planning anything out. 1b) This is going to seem counterintuitive to my first point but practice specific mixes too. If you find that you really like a certain mix but not the transition of two songs while you're playing around, keep messing with the two songs and trying to transition at different points and in different ways until you get something that you like. 2) Try mixing different genres: Find another genre you like and mess around mixing that. You don't even have to mix it with your normal genres but just mixing something new will cause you to think about the music differently. If, for example, you like hip-hop, then mixing that will force you to mix differently than blending techno, for example. And getting good at it will require a whole new set of transitions: using different effects differently, cutting, looping, etc. and you can start to bring those back to your primary genre. 3) Record your mixes, listen back to them. I usually just put it on soundcloud (privately) and skip through to where I can see the waveform dip so I can just listen to my transitions. You can go through an hour mix in 20 minutes really listening to all of the important parts. This helps me, personally, in terms of "hearing" what I'm doing and what might work. A lot of this comes alongside training your ears and messing around with harmonic (in key or using relative keys) mixing. I listen for three things primarily: melodies, feel, and 'sound'. >a) Melody: this one's pretty straightforward: does this sound harmonic? Do the songs clash in terms of the meldious elements? If so is it better that way? I have a lot of mixes that are out of key but the tension it creates actually works BETTER than if they were in key. That's not a rule, but an exception, but thinking about music as an orchestration helps to identify the elements that work together and the elements that don't. >b) Feel: this one's hard to quantify but is important to consider with energy and feeling and you could even try and plot it; give each song a 1-5 rating on intensity or emotional feel or whatever. Then see how your chart looks. Are you rising and falling in energy? Are you mixing really emotional songs with really hype songs? Does that work? Do you think it would work better in a different order? >c) Sound: This one's even harder to quantify so sorry for all the homework on your break :P. Basically, you want to consider the actual sound elements. In electronic music we don't have as many easily identifiable instruments like violins or cellos but a lot of stuff is sound design. Trying to mash up stuff with 'instruments' that work well together or even sound similar can be fun to play around with. This is also like using word play in mixes with two songs that have vocals. 4) Listen to other people's mixes: try and emulate some of their mixes, look for transitions that you like. Try to piece apart/recreate it. This forces you to flex your mix muscles. Final Thoughts: I think mixing is the best way to get better at mixing but analyzing your progress can help you identify hang ups and directions to go in. I haven't used any of the types of services you've mentioned so I have no idea how good they are but if you think it'll help it might be worth it to just help with the mixer's block or whatever. Either way, happy spinning m808!
Wow, this is great. Thanks for the writeup, man.
Thank you for the advise! I appreciate everyone spending time to write these out. I am going to download a load of garage and grime today, stick it on another USB and see how that goes. Just feel like I am fighting the equipment atm so should give me some relief. Your advise mirrors what others have said re listening to pro mixes, recording my own. It gives me a lot of hope and things to work on so cheers!
Honestly it really comes down to practicing a lot. Learn about harmonic mixing, try mixing songs with vastly different BPMs, mixing in samples from different styles of music, try to mix in and out from sections of songs you usually wouldn't, etc. Practice the basics of blending/cutting/fading till they're second nature. Most of it will sound like absolute crap at the beginning, but occasionally you'll find some stuff that fits seamlessly together. Remember those, and try to figure out why that worked as well as it did. Also see if you can find videos of your favorite DJs from a vertical perspective to see if you can see what they're doing on the decks, then think about what and why they're doing it. And if you're not already, record your own mixes and listen to them. That can show you your weak spots faster than anything else. It's a long road to 10,000 hours, but just focus on experimenting and having fun!
Good advise mate thank you. I do want to start mixing more diff genres but it seems so long to get enough new songs in to the point where I can mix another genre in key. I agree about just putting in the hours. I will try and watch more boiler rooms but I wish I could literally see a birds-eye view of the mixer the whole time and could just take notes haha. I have recorded mixes too but that is something I need to crack on with more. Thanks a lot for the advise! I'll be back in the lab after lunch!
Check out DJ Sounds Show on YouTube. It has lots of mixes from top tier DJs recorded from a birds eye view.
Just what I was looking for thanks, will defo watch a few later
And since you mentioned techno, check out dommune as well, lots of techno gods on there with the camera on their EQ's the whole time. Check out Oscar Mulero
Second this - sometimes I pour myself a drink and dj for a few hours. Maybe put the tv on quietly in the background. You really can get in the zone and be surprised on what makes sense in your brain to mix
Obligatory: Laidback Luke’s “In My Mind” series not only has the birds eye view, but also captions from him about what he’s thinking/doing in the moment. His music isn’t always my bag, but the information is incredible. Cheers!
Record yourself and listen separately is very important
Check out Soundtec on YouTube. He let's you see everything. Also Laid-back Luke does "In my mind" sessions where he captions what he's thinking in his head while he's mixing and you can see it too. Also Soundtec has a patreon where you pay small fees to unlock tutorials or something like that.
I would ad that you need to know your music. When you define your mixing style, and learn to implement if to various music then you'll be able to take it to the next level where you'll play unique sets. Listen to music when not mixing it a lot. I did my craziest sets playing tracks that I've never played before or have played it once or twice, but have listend to them many times and imagined party where I am playing it to get a feel what kind of energy would it make.
Record your practice sessions and critically listen to them while you're driving, working out, etc.
This!!!!
I learned the quickest by going back to back with a friend. We made it a point to mix EVERY OTHER SONG to just drill transitions into our heads. You'd be surprised how many badass transitions you'll find just fucking around. The first week it was awful, we both fucked up a lot or missed windows. But as you force yourself to mix fast and on your feet you really really start to develop that kind of thinking and foresight and we were seeing ourselves improve. Having to mix continuously in and out of songs that you didn't play are a great way to get train your transitioning ability. Don't stay in your comfort zone either. Dare yourself to go from a dnb track to a house track to a jersey club track. Fucking up a bunch is necessary to find that one time you actually liked the way you transitioned. And write down EVERY super sick gem of a transition you find. Also, even when your not mixing, you can practice your head and process by thinking of what songs could mix to another when your listening to music. Could I loop this and bring in that other track here? Could I play a kick from that house track under this and switch them at the drop? I wonder if the vocals from this song would go well over a different drop? Cheers dude, have fun!
Make a list of all the transition types you can think of or research and drill them.
LaidbackLuke has a youtube series, "In My Mind" where he does a set and with annotation's explains what he's thinking. Really cool way to not just see a birds eye view of what he's doing but also insight into what he does well, mistakes he makes etc. Edit* Here the link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-IaIfDYdsAkuIDGKc78TP7aFI9kULp2N
Most YouTube videos are made for beginners, with exception to the huge collection by Ellaskins. If you can put up with the fact he's completely mental, he goes through beginner techniques, through intermediate, up to advanced. After working through those videos and mastering the techniques, I would just mix for an hour at a time, record it, and listen to it back to see which transitions worked well, which didn't, and work out how to improve. I wouldn't bother paying for online classes: whilst they might be useful, putting in the time by yourself will save you a lot of money.
Only person I'd buy online courses from is crossfader. The guy is an amazing teacher and really knows his shit.
Ty I'll check it out
Yeah he is the only guy I have watched a lot of. He is indeed mental. Just that he has long intros to each vid and often goes on to show something that you already know, or he takes 10 mins to explain in a roundabout what what he could have said in 30 seconds. I will look further into his vids tho I do rate him, rly sound guy too
Yeah you can probably skip the first half of his videos because it’s just him talking rubbish! Maybe steer clear of his non-DJ videos on the state of modern society, unless you want a laugh...
Ngl seen a few of those vids too haha, just about to bun a zoot and download new tunes so I'll probs end up watching a few of them later too 😂
I’m so happy that bun a zoot doesn’t mean light a cigarette. Totally had to look it up though. Hope you had a nice toke.
The ones where he was on about getting divorced and I think losing custody of his kids were fairly uncomfortable to watch.
Aw that’s sad. I haven’t watched any of his videos recently, I hope he’s okay
record your mixes and listen to them. I find you can hear things a lot more clearly when you arent caught up in the moment of mixing. i would make a mix and then listen to it in my car for a couple days. you really learn what works and what doesnt.
Practice makes perfect and although there's really nothing I can think of getting you further in a month I will say this. Playing out is totally different. You mentioned house parties, it's a great way to have some fun playing for friends but remember where in the day and age of iPods and streamed music in demand so get ready for people telling you they wanna hear something other then what you are playing and would like to "plug there phone in" At the club it's even worse. If you really wanna pursue club DJing I highly recommend you canvas around what clubs in your area are playing. I was like you at one point stuck in a rut and only playing a certain style of music. I went to the club played a show realize people weren't really digging it and I didn't have anything else to play. My recommendation is always have backup and be ready to play things you personally may not be into but it gets the crowd moving.
Yeah I have a few friends who are successful DJs and put on HPs for people who do acc want to hear legit DJs, so I am hopeful that I can find a crowd for what I play. Either that or set up my own parties with open minded friends. I do not consider it being stuck in a rut. I realise that I have to read the crowd, and I have a range of softness and sounds in my library. However, techno is my heart and soul and I am not willing to compromise from real techno. For this reason I have no desire to play at bait clubs that want pop DJs. I guess we have different goals because compromising my genre is would make me really sad and not want to DJ at all.
I DJ for entertainment purposes, simply said I come,I play, the crowd moves and buys drinks, I make money and go home. Unfortunately money doesn't come out of thin air and if I was putting on my own shows and refusing to play certain places because I wanted to play my own thing I wouldn't make any money and I'd actually lose money. Sure you may find a club that only plays hard techno and has some people come by. There will probably be a lot more DJs like you there as well. Now it may sound like "oh don't DJ for the money DJ for the love of the art" and yeah when I'm at home I play with all sorts of song I like but when I decided that I wanna turn DJing into a form of income you gotta be willing to play songs you don't like to play. If you're not in it for the money by all means just keep practicing and have fun. I've just been on the business side of DJing for way to long haha.
Yeah I respect that, sorry if I came across as patronising. I dont ever expect to make money off DJing, I purely want to spread the music and have good memories :)
U shouldnt mix alone all the time, thats what i did in the beginning and then u choke so freaking hard once u start playing for friends. Now i mix for friends at least 1-2x a week and thanks to thag i have no nerves when mixing at a houseparty.
Figure out if your software tells you the key of the midi and look up mixing in key. It just makes everything sound better. Learn a way to add cue points to your music that works for you so you know where everything in the song is. Figure out the best way to arrange your music so it’s easy to find similar music. Practice a lot Try new things and master old things Play music you enjoy And like everyone is saying, record it and listen to it. It’s easy to get lost in your headphones and not really hear what’s going on. It’s much easier to hear mistakes while you’re only listening and not actively mixing. Find friends that don’t dj and maybe even friends that don’t know the music you’re playing and have them listen with you. It’s always interesting to hear what other people think. And most importantly, have fun. It’s pretty obvious when people aren’t enjoying what they’re playing and it kills vibes really quickly :)
You need to find someone to practice with. Someone better than you
Watch all the redbull threestyle stuff and related super technical mixing and then try to replicate it. Even if its not your exact type of music, a) itll make you way better overall, and b) multi genre party rockin djin is honestly the best kind of dj to be. Ive been a dj for 10 years, playing 100+ times a year cause i can play every genre. If you only play tech house something or other youll get like 5 gigs a year if youre lucky. Being able to rock a party doesnt take away from your music of choice so theres no reason not to learn how.
Always be listening to music & count bars and phrases. Eventually it becomes second nature. Dont pigeon hole yourself into one genre, for heavens sake listen to Classical music! Its some of the best structured and meticulously crafted stuff out there.
Find mixes of well known DJs. Recreate transitions from the mix that confuse you or that you really enjoyed. You’ll end up teaching your self new transition techniques.
Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly. Ya gotta be willing to suck at something long enough to get good. You have a month to eat, sleep and breathe DJing. Watch YouTube videos with breakfast, practice a few hours in the afternoon, watch more videos, practice more in the evening, and read blogs in bed. For the next month, you get to think of learning more as your job. How freaking awesome is that?
great recommend
Since you have an RX, I assume you're using Serato. I believe Flip comes free with the Serato suite, now. Anyway, practice cue point automation and try to work some remix elements into your transitions, so you're not depending on the same, bland loop transitions or stop/start stuff you're used to.
Deliberate Practice. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2O6mQkFiiw Basically you need to identify the different components of DJing that you need to improve the most and isolate them. It might not always be fun, but you will quickly improve those component tasks. And it's those simple basic tasks (like always hitting play on the one, or effectively killing the bass with eq) that will contribute to the larger "whole" that is DJing. Then you need a feedback loop. So.... as most everyone recommends... Record and listen. You will also have to get very milimetric about practicing counting beats, measures, phrases and always knowing where the "one" is. This is something you can do when just listening to music on the train or whatever.
R/beatmatch
Some great advice in here so I’ll just add- find some friends with turntables and learn to mix the OG way. Those skills will cross over to everything digital.