Hello Scratch Geeks,
This post is going to be long, with hours of videos linked to it. Again scratching takes time and as we get to harder scratches, these techniques take a while to wrap your head around and to develop the muscle memory. This post should take you time to complete and you should revisit regularly to help you progress through the more advanced techniques.
Intermediate Scratches cannot be showcased before discussing the importance of getting the next scratch down. Two-click flares are the most important scratch to learn after your basics scratches. This two-click motion will open the doors to all the advanced scratches and can provide endless variations to your scratch vocabulary. It is for this reason that I am going to link multiple videos of two click flares to show you all the different ways to add this to your aresenal.
I am also going to add that while there are variations that make this scratch easier (twiddle method) I found, personally, that learning that method first hindered my development into advanced scratches and it took me a long time to overcome that. For this reason, while I think you should learn all the ways to do a two click flare, it is most important to learn the first method shown here
The Two-Click Flare (also known as the Orbit Scratch)
If you’re struggling with the first method this may help:
Another in-depth look with a different way of thinking of the scratch (looks more like the tapping method, I believe the previous videos are less complicated but some people like this type of breakdown):
Here is a look for Both Regular and Hamster Style (Reverse) Scratchers:
Twiddle Method :
Here is the Twiddle method for two click flares (thought by many to be cheating) but this can also open up different possibilities for you. As stated earlier, I wish I learned the methods shown above first, as I had trouble with more advanced techniques because I learned the twiddle method first. With that being said this is what it looks and sounds like:
Once you get good at both of these two click motions, the possibilities really become endless.
This is a preview of what learning the first two click flare motion can help you learn:
As you can see the door is wide open once you learn this two click pattern, but we will go in depth more in all the scratches in the video above in a more advanced post.
The Crab Scratch
Some people throw the crab scratch before all of these, but I find that djs who learn this scratch too early rely on it heavily and it hinders their development. The crab scratch sounds best when used in combinations with other scratches to add flavor and funk. There are a few variations of the crab scratch depending on the number of fingers you use and whether you start with the fader on or off.
Crab Scratch Technique:
Three Finger Closed Crab Scratch
Hamster Stye (Reverse) Open Crab Scratch
Regular Open Fader Crab Scratch :
My advice to begin to learn this technique is to practice without the crossfader by tapping your pointer finger, then middle finger, then ring finger to your thumb separately to build strength.
The Swing Flare
Though we did not specifically talk about dicing or slicing the record, you’ve been doing this already if you have practiced different stab variations, reverse stabs, and chirp variations. The Swing Flare scratch should NOT be learned before the 2-click flare. It uses the same fader movements but combines previously shown hand movements.
This is an intermediate scratch that shows how the foundations of previous scratches can create new sounds.
Original Flare (OG Flare)
Reverse Original Flare (Reverse OG Flare)
That will conclude this intermediate scratch post, If you’ve progressed through all these scratches more advanced scratches can be found in the next post.