Hello Scratch Geeks,
Scratching is hard. It takes time and deliberate practice on specific techniques. Many people don’t know where to start and how to progress through the scratches accordingly.
Millions of tutorials have been done and these scratches are not new. We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel here at Scratch Geek but we want to give you guys a starting place with some additional commentary on how to begin to learn how to scratch and how to progress to an intermediate and advanced level quickly.
We’re curating our favorite videos on learning the basics of scratching.
This post is lengthy and its meant to give you everything you’ll need to get started in scratching from setup, to samples and records to technique. This is NOT a post that you should try to finish and learn in one day, but one you should revisit as you progress through the techniques and become a better turntablist.
If you already know some basic mixing and know how to set up your turntable and mixer as well as tone arm, cartridge and stylus so they are optimized for scratching you can continue down the article to get into the scratches.
Before set up if you want to learn about some basic history of turntablism you can check out our previous post.
Equipment and Set Up
First you’ll need some equipment, if you do not know where to start in purchasing dj equipment, www.djturntablereview.com has a great list of turntables from different price ranges and discusses an indepth guide to portable turntables here which are a great cheap introduction to the scratch world. You’ll also need a mixer and some speakers
For those that need help setting up their equipment for optimal performance check out these videos below:
Setting up Needle and Catridge :
You may notice some people set up their cartridge a little differently but I would say the video above is the most correct way to set up your needle and cartridge (though the sadly M44-7 have recently been discontinued).
These next two videos will also help with learning the Basics of Turntablism and setting up you’re equipment.
Getting Started in Turntablism :
Setting up Mixer for Scratching :
Now that your equipment is set up correctly you’ll need some samples. If you have Serato you can find the basic scratch samples here.
Scratch Samples :
With the download link: http://www.mediafire.com/file/scxgde70xtasd5z/Serato+Scratch+Sentence.wav
If you do not have Serato we recommend buying some battle records many of which are skip-less for scratch samples and break beats.
We recommend:
12″ Scratch Records for Regular Turntables: Thud Rumble Super Seal- Skratchy Seal Vinyl ;
7″ Scratch Records For Portable Turntables: Practice Yo Cuts Vol. 5 ; Baby Seal 3
Scratching Hand Placement and Philosophy
Before getting into these tutorials, I want to start by saying you’ll see people with all sorts of different hand placements on the record and cross fader. Many people have different philosophies on which hand should be on the record and which should be on the crossfader. Some believe that your writing hand (dominant hand) should be on the crossfader so you can move it faster and then there’s the opposite school of thought that believes your dominant hand should be on the record to better express your sounds. This decision is ultimately up to you as there is no right or wrong answer. You can always develop either hand to be proficient in either position.
The other thing you may notice in these videos that there are two styles of cut on the crossfader: regular or hamster style (reverse). Again no right or wrong answer, do what feels right initially.
Basic Scratch Tutorials :
We are going to start with the most basic of scratches. The movements from these basic scratches are the foundation of every scratch afterwards and will not only help your scratching but will also help your mixing and cueing.
We will start with Faderless scratches and getting more control with your record hand. We believe that it is important to get your record hand comfortable before even touching the crossfader in your scratches.
3 Basic Scratches: Baby Scratch, Scribble, Drags
The Baby Scratch is the foundation of all other scratches, so definitely become proficient with the scratches above before moving on.
Tear Scratch :
Basic Scratches Starting with a Closed Crossfader :
Now that we have some decent control with our record hand we can start learning how to involve the crossfader. The first scratch anyone should learn with the crossfader is the stab. Even if you only mastered this one scratch you could make very articulate sounds. (If you scrolled through the ScratchGeek instagram page you’d see Stab Challenges where top scratchers create full freestyles just with the Stab Scratch)
Stab Scratch :
Transform Scratch
We believe that next in your progression you should learn the transform scratch, this next video goes in depth on the different patterns you can perform with the transform scratch and brief history of the scratch.
Open Fader Scratches :
I’m going to link two videos for the Chirp Scratch and the reason is because I feel that this scratch will open the door to begin to add texture and funk to your scratch sessions.
Once you’re good at the chirp scratch you can really jam with anyone. Here, though subtle, you can actually see two different ways of closing the record open and closed. So either with your wrist (SkratchBastid video) or Fingers (Archie Reyes demonstration at ~10min mark). I feel that this distinction is key to point out early in your scratch career. We at ScratchGeek feel that while there is no absolutely correct way between the two, being able to chirp with just your fingers as opposed to involving the large wrist movement will help your future progression through scratch combinations.
The Chirp Scratch :
One-Click Flare :
The next scratch we will discuss is the One-Click Flare scratch, this is the simplest of the Flare Scratches and is a true open-fader scratch. Getting this scratch down is the key to progressing to intermediate scratches. We again want to make the distinction of scratching with your wrist and scratching with your fingers so we will provide two examples here.
Scratch Combo
This is your first scratch combo, and shows you the possibilities that come with expanding your scratch vocabulary and linking scratches. There will be many more scratch combos in future posts, but getting this combo down will help you express your scratch skills.
The Chirp-Flare Scratch
The Next Post continues the discussion with Intermediate Scratches