A doctorate in DJ arts

This is serious business, this school for future DJs called the Institute of Mixology. The compact classroom is barely big enough to contain a dry-erase board, two turntables and Elmar Diment, a burly, techno-loving version of the nutty professor who has so many students waiting to take his classes that he’s created a home-study course. That’s because DJing is blowing up. At near-celebrity status, top-notch DJs now charge anywhere from $40,000 to $100,000 for a two-hour gig.

In the past five years, a few DJ schools have cropped up in Florida, New York and on the Web to serve wannabe DJs. Diment probably led the pack when he founded the Institute of Mixology on Melrose Avenue 10 years ago. “DJs are the rock stars of today,” says Diment, who moved the school to Sherman Oaks seven years ago. “It’s the trendy thing now to own a couple of turntables and do some mixing and call yourself a DJ. For me, this is an art form.”

At the classroom he operates in a studio a few storefronts from his vinyl record store, Groove Riders, Diment treats his turntables like musical instruments. He teaches music theory and how to listen for beats, harmonies and breaks, as students mix one song into another.

“I play the drums and consider myself a musician,” Diment tells his students on a recent Saturday. “But when you’re playing an instrument, you need the rest of the band to make a tune. You have all the music right here, baby, underneath you fingertips.”

A Russian emigre who has lived in Los Angeles 11 years, Diment learned to mix from master DJ Jelly Bean Benitez in New York City 15 years ago. When he moved to Los Angeles, he opened Beat Non-Stop on Melrose, the first vinyl record store that catered to the club and DJ culture by carrying equipment, club fashions and graffiti art. There, Diment was struck by the idea of building six DJ booths with turntables, mixers and speakers and calling the finished product a classroom.

He wasn’t the only one to see the need for schooling would-be DJs.

Ryan Burger, a veteran DJ deep in the wilds of Des Moines, helped create the online DJ University in 1998, a free virtual classroom that offers more than 100 classes. The site records an average of 50,000 hits a month.

“It’s helpful for people to find information and read up on what more experienced people have done,” Burger said. “You can learn techniques from someone, but the business aspect of this you learn in different ways.”

Shirley Knouse, a lover of trance, house and jungle music who owns her turntables, turned to Diment to help her spin her hobby into a money-making career.

“I feel like it’s inconvenient to ask my friends to teach me, so I’d rather pay for it,” said Knouse, 29, of Redondo Beach. “It’s also been good for meeting promoters for different parties who can help a woman start out in this industry.”

No longer a boys club, the class has more female students than ever, Diment says. One of his best alumni, he says, was a 58-year-old woman who taught him about trance music. His students average in age from 18 to 40, but Diment accepts future DJs as young as 12.

Diment’s home-study course includes five instructional videos or DVDs as well as exercise records for $100. The set will soon be available at www.mixxandtrixx.com.

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Institute of Mixology

Where: Groove Riders, 14566 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks

Contact: Elmar Diment

Cost: Five sessions, $295

Info: (818) 981-3366