Mary Droppinz went from juvie DJ sets to global stages — now, her Virtual DJ University is giving others a head start

Mary Droppinz, Virtual DJ Academy.

It’s been about a decade since Mary Droppinz first took her place behind the decks. In that time, she’s gone from a local DJ in LA to a Twitch partner and international touring artist, performing at Lightning in a Bottle, Infrasound Festival, Shambhala, Friendship, Coachella’s Do LaB, and many more.

Before she was a mainstay on the road, Mary (real name Alyssa Johnson) DJ’d somewhere most people work all their lives to avoid: juvie. For two years, she worked with Give a Beat, an organisation that offers music and arts courses to “communities affected by incarceration.” Through this program, she went to juvenile detention centres to teach incarcerated youth how to become a DJ.

“They obviously struggle — they’re stuck there, locked up,” Johnson tells MusicTech. “To hear them say, ‘I can’t wait to get my DJ equipment when I get out,’ to give them hope and something to work towards, is really special.”

Sharing that hope through knowledge has been an essential aspect of her career. Now, she’s started Virtual DJ University — and she wants her students to find success much sooner than she did.

“If I’d known the stuff in this course when I first started [as an artist], I’d be where I’m at now five years ago,” Johnson says.

To make it work, Johnson developed the DJ training course to dive into the entire process and lifestyle of becoming a headlining DJ. With the help of production studio Killed With Kindness, she filmed a series of videos to comprise the curriculum, allowing students to move through the course at their own pace.

There are lessons on preparing for a set, such as finding new tracks, picking the right USBs and headphones, and organising playlists in Rekordbox. For when you’re actually on stage, the Virtual DJ University has tutorials for switching between genres, using DJ mixer effects, strategies for reading the crowd, and how to play best as an opener or headliner. Moving into the business aspect of DJing, Johnson explores topics like branding and finding a manager and agent.

“I’m very good at simplifying and sharing things that seem complicated”, Johnson says, doing her best to appeal to her students as both a teacher and a friend. “The best way to learn to DJ is one-on-one with someone you’re hanging out with who knows how to DJ. I’m their friend, teaching them what I know and how I learned it.”

But after so much time learning the craft on her own, Johnson knows that to fast-track success, a DJ has to understand their inner self in addition to having technical skills and a professional network.

“My thing is healing blocks”, she says. “I really explain in the University, ‘Find what your story is’. A lot of people are like, ‘Pick a lane,’ so everybody’s built up these walls. I’m trying to break them all down and plant the seed — let your flowers grow wherever they may.”

Johnson’s confidence as an educator comes from being involved in teaching since 2017. In 2020, she started teaching with Femme House, LP Giobbi’s platform for giving women, gender-diverse, LGBTQ+, and BIPOC people more opportunities in electronic music. Today, she is the organisation’s DJ curriculum director.

“[Giobbi] and Lauren [Spalding] from Femme House were the first ones to say that I’m a gifted teacher. When I heard them say that, I was like, ‘Maybe I am?’” Johnson says. “My mom was a teacher. My aunt was a teacher. My grandma. All these women in my family were teachers. So it’s actually not so random anymore to me. I just didn’t realise it. I know I’m a DJ teacher and not a first-grade teacher. But still, I’m a teacher.”

Learn more about Mary Droppinz’ Virtual DJ University.

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

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