15 Levels of Turntablism: Easy to Complex

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.