Be the life of the party: Intro to DJing at the Beat Refinery.

It’s easy to envy DJs, who get paid to work crowds into sweaty, dancing throngs. But breaking into DJing has long required roughly the same process as becoming a kung fu fighter in the movies: To learn the way of the DJ, you’d have to find a learned master of the ones and twos, and hope he or she would teach you something.

Enter the Beat Refinery.

At the DJ school, which opened last year at Bach to Rock (B2R) music school, working club DJs are the teachers — Chris Stiles (a.k.a. DJ Stylus Chris) and Brian Sadiarin (better known as DJ Geometrix) oversee the two schools in Bethesda and Herndon. No need to stalk them in a crowded club for a lesson; you simply sign up.

A few weeks ago, I found myself at the Beat Refinery, in the first session of its four-week Intro to DJing class. With the swiftness of one Speedy Gonzales, Artit Sriboonruang (DJ As-One) efficiently ran through the basics of DJing — and DJing, according to Beat Refinery founders, means learning the much-used DJ software Serato Scratch Live. Thirty minutes later, our teacher had shooed us to the turntables.

Were we ready? Not really, but it was moments before Sriboonruang, a nationally ranked battle DJ, was by my side with suggestions.

Kim Venetz, 24, was a shy newcomer to Washington when she signed up for the Beat Refinery as one of its first students; a year later, you might find her at the Georgetown Madewell, Eden, Science Club or on the roof of Public, spinning as DJ Alkimist. When I caught up with her after class, she tells me it clicked for her because “you can learn by doing.”

As my class wound down, I rummaged through my electronic music “crate,” determined to try out my new skills. I picked two songs with roughly the same mellow beat, and listened as Slick Rick’s “La-Di-Da-Di” flowed into my headphones. When I heard my opening, I let the other record fly — in came the opening drum salvo of a Tribe Called Quest’s “Oh My God.” Somehow, it worked: I had managed to mix 10 seconds of a perfectly decent club jam.

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