Welcome to Starter DJ!

Beginner DJ Lessons Review (Phil Harris)

Learning how to DJ is fun, but it’s also not the easiest thing to do. A DJ course is one of the best decisions you could make, if you want to learn to DJ properly. In this post we’re taking a look at the beginner DJ course by Phil Harris.

When I first started DJing, this was the first course I ever bought and used this DJ course to begin to learn to DJ myself. In this article, I will review Beginner DJ Lessons, and tell what you can expect and give you my opinion and recommendation.

Key Takeaways

What I like about the course

  • Uses the music producing software Ableton to give examples of different sounds and counting music, I thought that was clever and it’s good to have visuals when learning
  • Provides samples to use for practicing

What could be better

  • More explanation on different genres, it’s mainly about dance music.
  • Some topics are not covered or not enough, like different styles of mixing

Recommendation

Beginner DJ Lessons does offer a nice foundation for beginner DJs to start DJing. The fundamental skill of beatmatching is covered very well and the exercises are very good. Also the samples provided in the course to use for practicing are a nice, because you can really follow along with the teacher.

Would I recommend this course to beginner DJs? In my opinion the price is not worth the value of the course. I think this is a good beginner DJ course if you want to be a bedroom DJ and don’t have any real ambitions, however, the question is if you’re willing to pay $97 for this course if you’re not that ambitious.

If you’re a bedroom DJ that wants to learn how to mix your favourite music, create make your own mixes for fun and maybe DJ your own parties like a birthday or some other private event, than I do recommend this course. That is if you can afford the $97 easily.

Beginner DJ Lessons Full Course Review

In the next few chapters you will find my full review on the different aspects of this course.

General Info

Teacher: Phil Harris

Total video length: 03:48:00

Price $97.00

Beginner DJ Lessons is a DJ course for aspiring DJs that have no previous knowledge. It’s contains 22 videos with a total video length of 03:48:00. The main part of the course is aimed at learning how to beatmatch and learning the EQs, and phrase mixing.

Your teacher for this course is Phil Harris is a DJ and Producer from the United Kingdom who has gained popularity through his Youtube Channel.

He started out as an event DJ, having gigs at weddings and corporate events. Now he has grown into a Youtube Influencer where he teaches everything he knows about DJing and music production.

Topics and video length

TopicNumber of VideosTotal Video Length per Topic
DJ software (Serato)114:57
DJ Decks 101240:06
Cue button & hot cues214:06
Beatmatching216:62
Using headphones when mixing106:44
Using EQ’s329:51
Beats, bars, and phrases348:66
Sync button18:19
Song transition techniques213:48
Mixing in key18:28
Advice for DJing on stage19:45
Totals19 Videos3 hrs 48 minutes
Overview of Beginner DJ Lessons Video Topics and Video Length

Course Structure

The structure of the course is pretty solid. There is a good build up in the topics and the sequence makes good sense. The 3 main topics of this course, beatmatching, mixing frequenties and phrase mixing are covered in depth, especially the first 2.

After that you can learn a little bit about transitions and some additional tips.

My Experience with the Course

For the absolute beginner, this course is a good starting point. In my opinion, Phil is a down-to-earth guy that does things his own way, including teaching this course.

His course is very different from other courses in that there is a very casual vibe. He is not about ” DJ rules”. For example, the sync button has been bashed by some DJs because, according to them, ” Real DJs don’t use it”. Phil doesn’t do this and actually teaches how you can use it to your advantage.

Also, some transition techniques that other DJs would bash, Phil harris teaches them because they could come in handy and are a good tool to use.

He is honest about the DJ industry and how the people on the dancefloor don’t care about your DJ transitions or techniques. They just care about having good music to dance to.

The course itself is reflecting his casualness. It doesn’t look like a professional teacher has created this course, but rather someone with a passion for DJing that wants to share his knowledge.

He talks about how beginner DJs probably have to play a lot of pop/commercial music but doesn’t talk a lot about mixing that type of music. That is something that was the biggest disappointment for me personally.

Also, everything he teaches can be found for free on the internet. However, this course provides a little bit more detailed information than the free stuff and it’s always better to learn things in a structured way, step by step.

Other DJ Courses You Might Be Interested In

Scroll to top