DJ Turn the Learning Up

Last Thursday evening in the Mather Junior Common Room, a small group of students armed with laptops gathered around a table and started learning to DJ. The event was organized and led by Sarah E. Hankins, a music grad student and non-resident tutor for Mather, who sometimes goes by another name: DJ Super Squirrel.

In her junior year of college, Hankins studied abroad in southern India. One day, she was listening to a folk song by Dar Williams on her headphones and suddenly heard a Tamil film song playing on the radio simultaneously.

“These two songs were playing that sounded totally amazing together,” Hankins said. “I decided that nothing would bring me greater happiness than doing this myself—basically, making mashups.”

Hankins said she wanted to “spread the love” and teach Mather students how to DJ, so she planned Thursday’s DJ training session to go over the basics of production and turntabling. Only seven students went to the session, but their feedback was enthusiastic.

“I’d never actually played with turntables before, so it was a completely new experience,” said Ahmed S. Belal ’12. Belal had previously played around with music production software, but never had the chance to use turntables or to get a thorough walkthrough to mixing and producing songs.

Another Mather junior, Jonathan O. Kola ’12, had also dabbled in mashup production. “It was very cool to scratch, to touch some new turntables, and to hear from DJ Super Squirrel,” he said. Kola, a violinist, hopes to save up and buy some turntables of his own.

Due to the success of Thursday’s event, Hankins said she might host a larger, more widely advertised training session for Harvard students in general.

“Everyone can DJ,” Hankins said. “And it’s a fabulous activity that provides endless enjoyment.”