Boulder, CO’s own Superstar Duck La Rock offers both group and individual DJ lessons for tweens, teens, and adults in Colorado’s Front Range.
Group and individual lessons are available, as are one-time, recurring, all-digital, all-vinyl, and hybrid options.
Booking & Questions: Contact us!
Rates
We offer individual and group instruction for new DJs using either digital controllers or an all-vinyl option where students use turntables and mixer.
Our digital DJing options include…
Individual Instruction, Digital
- One Hour Lesson: $50
- One Hour Lesson x 5: $200 (1 lesson free)
Group Instruction, Digital (5 students maximum)
- Three Hour Lesson: $300
- Three Hour Lesson x 5: $1,200 (1 lesson free)
And all-vinyl Djing options are available!
Individual Instruction, All-Vinyl
- One Hour Lesson, $100
- One Hour Lesson x 5: $400 (1 lesson free)
Group Instruction, All-Vinyl
- By special arrangement. Let’s talk!
Booking & Questions: Contact us!
DJ Instruction
Our approach centers on the reality that anybody can be a DJ and frames DJing as an act of service, creating a sense of “place” for an audience or community ranging from simple moments of connection between friends to a community event or important family occasion.
The first skill we focus on is selecting music to suit a mood, then how to add those songs to a playlist, and then how to select and play those songs one after another using a controller and software. Many great DJs “end to end” their sets rather than mixing so once students attain this knowledge, they are a DJ.
If desired, we then proceed to the fundamentals of beat-matching (finding the beat, counting bars, and simple controller techniques like the use of the control platter, pitch controls, cue points, and loops). Most of the DJs mentioned in the program during the short lecture on history and purpose are LGBTQ+, BIPOC, or both.
Students are also given a pathfinder handout with recommended readings on the history and craft of DJing available via libraries in the Front Range. A second handout provides ideas for inexpensively sourcing entry-level equipment so students can continue practicing at home.
Booking & Questions: Contact us!
But Is This Duck Qualified?
Duck La Rock’s real name is Pete Welsch. He is a full time, professional DJ with nearly 30 years of experience and plays regularly at community events in the Boulder, CO area.
He has played the Boulder Creek Festival’s Creekside for Kids stage for the past 5 years, Tube to Work Day for the past 4 years, events at Heatherwood Elementary for the past 3 years, Horizons K-8 Charter School fundraisers for the past 2 years, the Ironman 70.3 Boulder awards ceremony at Avery Brewing for the past two years, a monthly all-ages happy hour at the Junkyard Social Club, and more. He’s a regular host of KGNU Community Radio’s morning and afternoon music programming and recently began working as a DJ and announcer at cycling events for Without Limits Productions.
Prior to becoming a full time DJ, Pete was classroom instructor for a required 300-level technology course while pursuing his MLS / MIS at IU Bloomington (2005), where he taught computer and network basics including Unix and HTML. While working in the Obama White House (Deputy Director of Online Platform, White House Office of Digital Strategy 2011 – 2014), he hosted and MC’d the first two official White House hackathons. He holds a BA in history from St. Mary’s College of Maryland and studied medieval and Renaissance history at a program affiliated with Keble College in Oxford, England.
Booking & Questions: Contact us!
Mission & Impact
Our program intends to teach the technical basics of DJing, framing the act of DJing within the larger purpose of providing shared experiences and building community through music.
DJing has been a core element of global popular culture since the 1970s, being central to both dance and hip hop music and related arts. The DJ is a bricoleur, creating a sense of place for their community by selecting, playing, and recontextualizing prerecorded sound. We frame this as an act of service — the DJ selects music to help their community have fun and build connections together — and suggess that being a DJ is accessible to anyone who loves music and wants to share it.
This program provides students with hands-on experience using simple, low-cost DJ equipment in a supportive environment that rewards experimentation, trial and error, and what children’s author Barney Saltzberg calls a, “beautiful oops.”
Along the way, students experience a fun and engaging way to put STEM principles into practice, using technology such as digital controllers and software to engineer smooth transitions between songs along with their mathematical skills when identifying beats per minute and making tempo calculations. As engineers, the students problem-solve by selecting and blending tracks that flow well together and they engage in system design to manage the energy and mood for their listeners.
Booking & Questions: Contact us!
Booking & Questions: Contact us!