15/12/2025
*UPDATE: Emily's Battle with Batten/The Amber Trust*
It’s been a few months since my last post about Emily’s progress with learning to DJ. I was waiting to hear from The Amber Trust regarding my registration and future funding.
For anyone who is interested in teaching someone with sight loss to mix, here’s how I’ve been teaching Emily:
Using the Track Search button, Emily can simply select the next tune from a crate rather than fumbling with the Rotary Selector (which on first rotation does not necessarily scroll). It helps if she is familiar with the tunes in the crate.
We also use the Sync button because matching tempos using the Tempo Slider is extremely difficult, although in the future I intend to teach Emily to beat-match using only her ears.
For now, the focus is on improving accuracy of timing, particularly with ‘dropping on the 1’. Training the ears is crucial in learning to mix. Once Emily has developed the understanding of what a good mix sounds like and feels like, we can move on to the challenge of beat-matching without Sync.
Having done 10 lessons together now, I realise the importance of fun over development and progress. For Emily, this is very much an opportunity so sit down, relax, play some music and forget about her hectic lifestyle! The last thing she needs is me demanding progress!
So, I demonstrate what good timing sounds like, and encourage her to work towards it, but also allow plenty of time for Emily to have as much fun on the FX Pads and/or with cutting faders as possible. It’s about finding a balance between what I would like to happen and what Emily wants.
That being said, by the time I post again next year, there must be progress. I won’t accept people saying “Isn’t she good... for someone who”. I want people to hear her DJ, and simply say “She’s good”.
