From your first record to full mastery.
The Master Plan is my complete, one-on-one journey into the craft, culture, and performance of vinyl. It is built entirely around you: your taste, your instincts, and the story you want to tell through music. This is not a course you complete. It is a foundation you carry for life.
BEGIN YOUR APPLICATION
Vinyl demands something of you: attention, intentionality, focus, dedication, discipline. In return, it gives you so much more.
Working with me one-on-one, you will move from the culture and history of the format, through complete technical mastery of mixing by hand and by ear, into the curation and set-building skills of a working DJ.
Vinyl Culture and Lifestyle
Every serious foundation is built on understanding, not just technique. Before you touch a fader, I immerse you in the history, heritage, and meaning of the format, and in the communities and rituals that surround it.
- The Vinyl Story. The history and heritage of the format, what it represents, and why it matters.
- The Rituals. Your first hands-on experience with vinyl. Handling a record with proper care, placing it correctly, and understanding why the format's demands are the very things that make it matter.
- The Community. The culture and etiquette of crate-digging, grounded in an in-person record store visit with me. Countless records never made it to digital. This is how you access that hidden archive.
- Listening as a Practice. Targeted sessions where you learn to evaluate a record on pressing quality and sonic character, and to hear its structure: where the hooks are, what makes it work, and where it belongs in a set.
- Taste and Identity. Understanding not just what you like, but why. We connect your musical choices to memory, identity, and personal story, and begin shaping your signature sound.
- Your Vinyl Manifesto. A working session to articulate the records you want to buy, the story you want to tell, and the identity you want to build. This document becomes the filter for every decision that follows.
Beatmatching, Mixing on Vinyl
This is where technical mastery is built, entirely by hand and by ear.
- Command of the Equipment. Complete mastery of your signal chain, turntables, and mixer, plus the fundamentals of maintaining and troubleshooting your setup.
- Cueing. Finding the first beat of any record and mastering clean, silent cueing under headphones, including reading grooves visually.
- Beatmatching by Ear. The heart of vinyl mixing. Tempo matching and position adjustment with no screens, no sync, and no BPM counters, drilled until your ears lead your hands.
- The Blend. Bringing two records together musically, not just technically. You will learn to read what a transition calls for and shape EQ, timing, and technique to serve the music.
- Recovery and Pressure. Building the calm and composure to handle mistakes, skips, and problem records in real time.
- The 30-Minute Mix. A recorded assessment. You walk me through your track selection, then record a clean, continuous 30-minute mix entirely on vinyl, reviewed and critiqued in full.
Curation and Set Building
With technical skill in place, this phase turns you into a curator and a storyteller.
- Curation Philosophy. Putting your Vinyl Manifesto into practice: the habits, rhythms, and instincts of an active collector.
- Style Development. Developing your own mixing style and telling the kinds of stories that are genuinely yours.
- The Hunt. The practical craft of sourcing records, online and in person: Discogs, auctions, estate sales, flea markets, and how to assess condition and pressing quality.
- Local Digging Trip. A full-day, in-person excursion with me to one or two record stores, with live coaching in the racks on what to pull, what to pass on, and how to negotiate.
- Organization and Care. Cataloging, storing, cleaning, and protecting a growing collection, with a system that lets you build the right set for the right night.
- Collection Strategy Session. Documenting your long-term plan: what you own, what you are hunting, and how you will keep building.
- Track Selection. Learning which tracks work together, which don't, and why, so you build sets with intention.
- Set Architecture. Building a journey through energy, tempo, tension and release, and learning to read a room and adapt in real time. This is the difference between playing records and telling a story.
The Master Plan is by application only, and I accept a small number of clients at a time.
If this is the journey you want, I would like to hear your story.
BEGIN YOUR APPLICATION