- This is DJ Shortkut
and you're watching levels, levels, levels of turntablism.
Today, I've been challenged to explain turntablism
in 15 levels of increasing complexity.
[hiphop music]
A lot of the stuff that turntable encompasses
come from the foundation of DJing.
Turntablism is the art of using the
turntable as a musical instrument to
produce entirely new musical compositions.
The two most known sounds that we use
in scratching is fresh,
and ah.
"Fresh" and "ah" comes from a song called
"Change the Beat" by Fab 5 Freddy.
The sounds fresh and ah are pretty sharp and pretty clear.
From the minute you release the record
just on the release alone,
you know how sharp it comes in.
This is level one, the baby scratch.
This scratch was invented
by Grand Wizzard Theodore from New York.
There's two types of baby scratches,
a short one otherwise known as tip.
I look at the platter as a clock.
I have a line on my record.
The mark will show us where each sound is.
Position wise, it would be from 12 o'clock to one o'clock
and a long baby scratch,
which would be from 12 o'clock to two o'clock.
I'm applying enough pressure
on the record where I could still see the slipmat
right under the record, still rotate.
For the baby scratch, My fader stays open
and my hand stays on the platter.
With the baby scratch, you wanna make sure
that you get a little bit of the air right
before the sound starts so you can hear the sound in full.
Now let's do a combination
of both baby scratches with a beat.
[hiphop music]
One of the things to keep in mind
is there's four beats to a bar.
1, 2, 3, 4,
2, 2, 3, 4.
Counting bars help us keep time
to when we scratch to these beats,
whether you tap your foot, nod your head,
move side to side, sway back and forth.
That's how you keep time counting bars.
For level two, we're increasing complexity
by manipulating the amount of pressure on the platter
while using the crossfader.
Level two: push, release, and drags.
A push scratch creates a higher tone.
A drag scratch produces a lower tone.
And a release scratch produces a mid tone.
To do these scratches,
we start with the fader closed.
With level one, we use the light amount
of pressure on the platter.
With the push, my hand position is at nine o'clock
and I'm pushing the record forward,
applying a good amount of pressure
onto the platter to produce a higher pitch.
For the drag scratch, we add pressure
to the platter to create a breaking sound.
I'm moving the crossfader
from the closed position to the open position.
And I'm moving the record
from 12 o'clock to about two o'clock.
A release scratch requires you to release the record,
right when the sound starts to play at its normal speed
while moving the crossfader to the open position.
And this is what it sounds like with a beat.
[hiphop music]
The most common mistakes when we do these scratches,
is your hand placement on the record.
You wanna make sure your hand is
in the nine o'clock position.
That way you have enough space between nine o'clock
so about 12, and then back to six o'clock where
you don't end up knocking the needle off the record.
For the next level, we're going to increase complexity
by adding speed and sharper cuts.
This is level three, the stab scratch.
This scratch starts with the fader in the closed position,
kind of similar to the push scratch.
My hand's on the nine o'clock position.
And I'm moving forward while moving
the crossfader into the open position.
Right away, I'm pulling back the fader
to the closed position while moving the record
back to the original position.
The difference between the push scratch
and the stab scratch is I'm adding a little bit
of speed while using the crossfader.
My hand never leaves the record.
As I'm pushing the record forward,
I'm moving my crossfader to the
open position at the same time.
But right away I'm pulling the record back
and the crossfader back to the closed position
without hearing the reverse sound.
And this is what it sounds like with a beat.
[hiphop music]
A common mistake is not moving fast enough
and hearing the reverse sound.
Right there, I'm hearing the reverse sound,
which you're not supposed to do in a stab scratch.
In this next level, we're about to
increase complexity with our crossfader.
This is level four, the chirp scratch.
This scratch was made popular by DJ Jazzy Jeff
in the song, "The Magnificent Jazzy Jeff."
So my fader starts in the open position.
As I'm moving the record forward,
I'm moving the crosser back to the closed position.
The crossfader functions like an on and off switch.
The coordination between the fader
and the record is important to practice
in order to catch the beginning
or the tip of the sound producing the chirp.
The second part of the scratch is moving
the crossfader back to the open position
while moving the record back to the top of the sound.
Now, this is what it sounds like with a beat.
[hiphop music]
The most important thing to remember
about this scratch is your coordination
between the record and the fader.
For the next level, we're about to increase complexity
with our timing and hand control.
This is level five, tears.
Similar to the baby scratch,
your hand never leaves the platter for the tear.
But what's different with the tear scratch
is adding an additional push
which sounds like a split or tear in the sound.
The most common tear scratch is the
motion of moving the record forward
and moving the record back twice.
My hand position's at nine o'clock,
marker's at 12 o'clock and my crossfader is open.
The most common mistake when doing the tear scratch
is not accentuating each movement on the platter.
This is what the tear scratch sounds like with a beat.
[hiphop music]
In the next level, we're about to increase
complexity with speed and rhythm.
This is level six, the transform scratch.
That name would come from the
sound the robots would make
from the early eighties cartoon, "The Transformers."
This scratch has been associated
with DJ Cash Money and Jazzy Jeff.
So what we're doing here is using the
crossfader as an on and off switch
while moving the record back and forth.
My hand position's at nine o'clock
and I'm moving the record back and forth,
pretty much a baby scratch,
while moving the crossfader off and on.
We'll do this with two clicks.
Now to get a circular motion in that sound,
we'll move the record back and forth,
clicking the crossfader twice in both directions.
Now you can add more clicks to
this scratch to get different patterns.
For the transform scratch, if you use longer sounds,
you'll be able to add more clicks within that sound.
This ah sound starts from 12 o'clock to about five o'clock.
I'll add as much clicks as I can within that,
moving the record back and forth.
This is what the transform scratch sounds like with a beat.
[hiphop music]
So with this scratch, the principle rhythm maker comes
from your movement on the crossfader.
Level seven, fades.
The fade scratch is a combination of either doing tears
or babies on the platter while
moving the volume control from 10 to one,
giving it that loud to soft effect.
The speed can change depending
on what tempo you're scratching to.
This is what the fade scratch sounds like with a beat.
[hiphop music]
In the next level, we're gonna do a combination
of all the techniques we've learned so far.
Level eight, a combination of levels
one through seven, over a beat.
[hiphop music]
One of the most common mistakes when you do combos
of all those scratches is not being able to pace yourself.
In the next level of increasing complexity,
we're about to take on one of the most
difficult scratches involving the crossfader.
Level nine, the crab scratch.
The origins of the crab scratch came
from the UK by a DJ named DJXL who named it "the twiddle."
He was using both of his fingers
on the crossfader while using his thumb
as resistance to create off and on sounds.
Qbert came up with the idea to utilize all his fingers
from his pinky to his index finger
to skate across the in and out position
as your thumb acts like a spring to close the fader back.
My hand's on the nine o'clock position.
I have my sound starting at 12 o'clock.
The platter movement is basically a baby scratch.
So basically I'm rolling and clicking
my fingers from pinky to index finger.
As my thumb works as a spring to
move the fader back to the open position.
This is what the crab scratch sounds with a beat.
[hiphop music]
The most common mistake when you do crab scratch
is not sounding fluid with it.
You try to get every click in there.
Some people actually use their ring finger
to their index finger while doing the crab scratch.
I like using all four fingers
from pinky to index to get that full effect
and to get all those clicks in there.
This is what it sounds like from your ring finger
to your index finger.
But when you add your pinking in there,
you get a lot more clicks in there.
In the next level, we're about to
increase complexity with our fader control.
Level 10, the one-click flare.
So we start with an open fader.
After doing a chirp forward,
immediately reopen the fader.
The second half of the scratch is rewinding the record
back to the top of the sound,
the fader's open, and do a reverse chirp
and immediately open the fader.
This is how we do the one-click flare with a beat.
[hiphop music]
So the one-click flare is definitely a
hard scratch to get right away.
It's gonna take a lot of practice
'cause you have to be in sync
with the fader and the platter movement
to get that one-click to make two sounds.
We're about to increase complexity
by adding more clicks to the one-click flare.
This is level 11, the two-click flare
otherwise known as the orbit scratch.
The orbit scratch, or the two-click flare,
was created by a DJ named DJ Disk
from The Invisibl Skratch Piklz.
Just like the one-click flare,
we add one click and made two sounds.
Now we're adding two clicks to create three sounds.
You're starting your crossfader in the open position.
As you move your platter forward,
you're clicking the crossfader twice
but ending again in the open position.
Now to complete the scratch,
we're gonna do the same motions back and forth.
Two clicks forward, two clicks backward
but ending the crossfader in the middle position.
This is what the two-click flare sounds like over a beat.
[hiphop music]
One of the most common mistakes
when you do a two-click flare,
is it kind of might sound like a
transform as it comes out first.
It's one of those scratches where
you have to find your sweet spot.
You'll know you'll have the two-click flare,
when you hear kind of a rolling, circular motion.
That's why it's called an orbit,
where it's just kind of traveling.
When I do the two-click flare,
I kind of do a galloping motion on the crossfader.
Da-da-da-da, da-da-da-da.
And you'll find that role somewhere
as you move the record back and forth.
For the next level, we're about to increase complexity
by layering multiple scratch techniques.
Level 12, the rhythm scratch.
The rhythm scratch was a popular scratch
done in the eighties by DJs like Jazzy Jeff,
Magic Mike, DJ Aladdin.
The rhythm scratch is made of five baby scratches.
Two normal babies.
One short baby.
Another normal baby.
And one short one.
When you put all those together, it sounds like this.
With this scratch we don't use the crossfader.
It solely relies on your hand motion on the platter.
For this demonstration, I'll be using the pitch control
to move the beat from a slow BPM to a faster one.
[hiphop music]
For the next level, we're increasing complexity
by making a beat off of one turntable.
Level 13, drum scratching.
One of the first times I heard drum scratching
was Jam Master J on a Run-D.M.C record
called "Here We Go [Live at the Fun House]."
In the beginning of that record,
Jam Master Jay would grab a kick
and a snare off one record and make a drum beat.
Boom, ba-cha, boom, boom, ba-cha.
I have my kick at 12 o'clock
and my snare at about two o'clock.
We have to be very accurate while doing drum scratches
because if you get it in the middle of the sound
it'll sound kind of sloppy and muddy.
You wanna get even a little bit of that air
before the sound starts to get it crispy
or going back and forth from sound to sound
and holding those sounds and isolating them as we go.
When you do the drum scratch,
you definitely have to have some
kind of internal metronome in you.
Swaying back and forth, tapping your foot.
You don't really see any live drummers
just kind of stiff and just doing that, right.
They're are still kind of grooving.
Same thing applies when we do the drum scratch.
Knowing the position where you are
on the record using the clock system
knowing where your marks are at is key to this scratch.
[hiphop music]
So while doing the drum scratch,
I wasn't using the crossfader.
I was using the volume control to
be able to go back and forth from kick to snare.
That's just my preference.
Or you could use the crossfader.
[hiphop music]
In this level, we're about to increase complexity
with one of the most advanced art forms in turntablism.
Level 14, beat juggling.
One of the first times I heard be juggling was
from a DJ named Steve Dee from New York
from the X-ecutioners, originally known as the X-Men.
Basically, he was creating a new
pattern from existing records
and doing live manual remixing back
and forth from turntable to turntable.
Normally done with two of the same copies of records.
For this demonstration, on my left turntable
I'll have a kick
and on my right turntable, I'll have a snare.
I'll basically make a pattern
and creating a complete bar.
Going back and forth from kick to snare.
Think of beat juggling as a cut and paste method.
You're continuing the beat pattern
from where you left off on one turntable
by moving the crossfader to the other turntable
in order to resume the sequence.
Doing this, you'll have to have a good amount of
cadence, rhythm and have that internal metronome
like we did with drum scratching.
Basically it's drumming but with two turntables.
It's also important not to hear any residual sound
from the turntable that you just moved the crossfader from
so that you complete a clean transition
from one platter to the other.
[hiphop music]
For this final level of increasing complexity,
we're about to do everything that we
learned right now all in one.
This is level 15, a combination of all levels.
[hiphop music]
So with everything we learned today,
like I said it takes a lot of practice,
a lot of patience and a lot of focus.
I hope watching this video inspires you.
You'll never know what you'll find out
messing with two turntables.
Either whether you scratch or make beat juggle routines up.
Stay true to what you're doing.
Stay true to the craft.
Once you find something out
that maybe no one knows,
share that with people
because that's what makes this art form evolve and grow.