DJ Battling, Scratching, Beat Juggling, Trick Mixing - Ask me anything

There have been some articles on these topics lately on the main page and it's stuff I think I have some knowledge to share, so just putting the offer out there if anyone's interested in any of this stuff. If not then nothing lost :D. I also plan on doing some tutorials myself at some point so this might help me get an idea of where to direct that focus.

Short bio: I'm 3x Canadian DJ champ (2x DMC, 1x IDA), and 2x world champ (2012 DMC Supremacy, 2012 IDA). I've been DJing for 9 years and won my 1st ever DJ battle in late 2011... so a lot has happened in the past 1.5-2 years and I'm definitely no natural at this stuff. Not gonna post links cuz I'd rather this topic be about the art, but if you wanna see stuff that I do and have questions about it look up Vekked on youtube.

What's Canada like?

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Originally Posted by nudedudewithattitude

What's Canada like?

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LOL, too cold 90% of the time.

Vekked - I will HAPPILY take you up on your offer!!! (I don't need to look up any of your vids - I've seen most of 'em and they ALWAYS leave e with my jaw on the floor!)

I would LOVE a detailed break down of some beat juggling routines. I've always found it really difficult to visualise what is happening when a DJ juggles. Simple looping/backspinning is not a problem, but stuff like the strobe pattern and the 1-2 pattern have always baffled me. :cursing:

Do you have a way to describe beat juggle routines, if possible, with diagrams - maybe a time line, with cue point indicators on?

I'm really glad you're hanging around here! :thumbup:

Hey, it's pretty cool what you're doing right now, sort of like an AMA, thanks for that!

I started getting into music production/DJ'ing in December last year, and I'm still pretty new to this whole new scene, my question is, what would make a DJ unique? Is it his playlist, his scratches, his gear, what exactly?

I know music producers are unique because they all have their own style of music when creating it, but what differs DJ's from one another?

Thanks.

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Originally Posted by Patch

I would LOVE a detailed break down of some beat juggling routines. I've always found it really difficult to visualise what is happening when a DJ juggles. Simple looping/backspinning is not a problem, but stuff like the strobe pattern and the 1-2 pattern have always baffled me. :cursing:

Do you have a way to describe beat juggle routines, if possible, with diagrams - maybe a time line, with cue point indicators on?

I'm really glad you're hanging around here! :thumbup:

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Haha, thanks! Beat juggling is really tough to learn/teach/talk about because most of the techniques and ideas don't even have names, let alone tutorials. A lot of people try to learn it like scratching too and it doesn't really translate to learning techniques and "expanding your vocabulary" like scratching.

The fundamentals of beat juggling (IMO) are:

Pausing/tapping - stopping the record after each individual note to slow it down and add an extra note. Can be done with 1 record.

Storbing (aka chasing) - alternating 2 notes at a time back and forth between sides and progressing through the song as opposed to backspinning to the beginning every time.

Pushing - pushing the record forward 1 beat and taking away a note. The opposite of pausing.

These give you the tools to manipulate the timing/rhythm of the song. You can add a note with a pause, take a note away with a push, and replace/double/triple a note with a chase. Now the way in which beat juggling is different from scratching is that you don't really learn 100 techniques, you learn 100 ways to use that technique. With pausing the most basic pattern is (comma = pause):

1, 2, 3, 4 (on the left)
1, 2, 3, 4 (on the right)
1, 2, 3, 4 (on the left)
and so on

Then you would learn

1, 2, 3 (on the left)
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (on the right)
and so on

Basically any combination of notes that will give you 8 notes total, or 2 bars of 4/4 time. Then you move to 4 bar patterns, and 16 bar patterns, and throw in pushing/strobing to multiply the possibilities again.

As far as notation/diagrams. There isn't any sort of system for beat juggling, but I think a good tutorial/video would be MUCH more beneficial. Beat juggling is more of a "feel" thing and I don't think it's terribly complicated once you get the foundation shown to you. The toughest part with learning beat juggling is the extreme lack of any half decent tutorials. I learned from copying other people's routines until I found out the techniques that I kept running into.

The one thing that helped me the most for learning beat juggling is to think of it as just drumming. I do a bit of pad drumming on MPC/Maschine and I think pad drumming and beat juggling are extremely closely related. If you can take a kick and a snare on pads and turn it into a drum beat, take a kick and a snare on 2 records and try turning it into the same beat... that's the basic idea of beat juggling, except that you can throw scratching in it :D

What would REALLY help me, would be to see video tutorials of all of the standard juggle patterns, but ALL done with the same tune.

Maybe even done with the same simple drum pattern.

I did see a couple of useful juggle tutorials that were done with the Public Enemy 123456789 sample (from the start of Biggie's 10 crack Commandments). That helped!

I'd love to see a video, accompanied with a diagram showing numbered cue points on a timeline...

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Originally Posted by Danek

I started getting into music production/DJ'ing in December last year, and I'm still pretty new to this whole new scene, my question is, what would make a DJ unique? Is it his playlist, his scratches, his gear, what exactly?

I know music producers are unique because they all have their own style of music when creating it, but what differs DJ's from one another?

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There's a lot of things, and I think it depends a bit from scene to scene as to what people value in terms of uniqueness.

Like in the DJ battle/turntablist scene I think it's on 1 extreme side where a lot of people place little value on track/sample selection, and more on what you do with it. So it's HOW you play, not WHAT you play

In club DJing often times it's heavily weighted towards track selection, reading a crowd, etc, and is more concerned with WHAT you play, not HOW you play.

I would say that it's all of the above that makes a DJ unique. In certain contexts certain things might not be valued as much so they're not necessary, but I think in terms of being the best DJ all around you need everything. If you can have original selection AND play them in a way that no one else could or would think of, then that's the goal.

So yea, track selection and technique are the basis of what separates a DJ, then you have all degrees of style differences and things that can still set you apart but aren't as valuable artistically such as stage presence and crowd interaction and live show skills. I don't think gear really sets a DJ apart from another in any meaningful way, after a certain point as long as you have decent quality gear it's not the gear that makes the DJ.

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Originally Posted by Patch

What would REALLY help me, would be to see video tutorials of all of the standard juggle patterns, but ALL done with the same tune.

Maybe even done with the same simple drum pattern.

I did see a couple of useful juggle tutorials that were done with the Public Enemy 123456789 sample (from the start of Biggie's 10 crack Commandments). That helped!

I'd love to see a video, accompanied with a diagram showing numbered cue points on a timeline...

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Word! Well that gives me some good direction for what I should do for a tutorial :D. The number idea is decent, maybe I'll cook up my own beat and sample that to help out or something.

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Originally Posted by Vekked

There's a lot of things, and I think it depends a bit from scene to scene as to what people value in terms of uniqueness.

Like in the DJ battle/turntablist scene I think it's on 1 extreme side where a lot of people place little value on track/sample selection, and more on what you do with it. So it's HOW you play, not WHAT you play

In club DJing often times it's heavily weighted towards track selection, reading a crowd, etc, and is more concerned with WHAT you play, not HOW you play.

I would say that it's all of the above that makes a DJ unique. In certain contexts certain things might not be valued as much so they're not necessary, but I think in terms of being the best DJ all around you need everything. If you can have original selection AND play them in a way that no one else could or would think of, then that's the goal.

So yea, track selection and technique are the basis of what separates a DJ, then you have all degrees of style differences and things that can still set you apart but aren't as valuable artistically such as stage presence and crowd interaction and live show skills. I don't think gear really sets a DJ apart from another in any meaningful way, after a certain point as long as you have decent quality gear it's not the gear that makes the DJ.

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Never thought of it this way, thanks for this!