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

[Vekked]

props to you sir, had been trying out beat juggling recently, managed to do some tap pausing and basic chasing, next step pushing

as you mentioned the tutorials are few and far between and is nice to hear someone try to break it down to the fundamentals

Cool, good luck man! I think the best way for someone to learn beat juggling right now is to try and learn routines from the X-Ecutioners (namely Mista Sinista, Rob Swift, and Roc Raida) from 1990-1996. Most beat juggles from that era were pure fundamentals. Once you get into Craze/A-Trak and those guys there's a lot of stuff that's beat dependent or just way too technical to worry about for a while... amazing jugglers just not the best for learning from.

[rdej47]

Haha how funny that we just talked about this gemini mixer an hour ago. It was great chatting with you man.

[haze324]

This dude is dope for those that don't know him. Props for making this thread.

Tutorials: One thing I find many tutorials skip out on is Scratch Theory. Many focus on how to transform, stabs, chirps, etc. but not how to effectively use that when you play out at a night club. Qberts Skratch U has a pretty good tutorial on timing, and half's, and not halfing on time, etc. to create different sounds but putting it together there is some scratch theory behind it that takes knowledge and practice.

I consider myself an expert novice scratch DJ. I don't do anything much more than a few stabs and a babyscratch like a novice, but the intent is not for a battle, but to use this when dropping tracks at a set at a club. When really there are more DJ's playing at clubs than there are entering battles.

I think it would be beneficial for a tutorial on enhancing your gig set with certain scratches and the theory behind it (bars, counts, timing, dropping on the 1, etc.) I've only found one on Q's site.

Great thread man.

[Vekked]

Yea, like some more practical videos on how to put the scratches in action, when to use them and when not to, as opposed to just dry technique right? Definitely important stuff to learn for sure... I hear plenty of guys at bars/clubs/in mix competitions who can scratch at an ok to decent level but choose really bad times to use it. I think it results in a lot of DJs saying you shouldn't scratch in clubs/mixes/etc, or being afraid to scratch in those situations, because so many DJs do it poorly.

[haze324]

Yeah exactly man. There's tons of videos explaining transform.......big deal. True application and how it applies to the music you are playing or your set is something that I haven't seen many tutorials on (only Q's Skratch U). I think for you personally these types of tutorials would also go a long way as there are no other ones posted for folks to check out.

[rdej47]

So far i've found the only way to learn the proper placement for scratching is by listening to guys like Craze, who can seem to scratch with any genre and it works.

[sarasin]

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 . 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.

Nice bro!

Like Smitten...I am too on my journey to be a DMC champ...perhaps the oldest...if i beat Smitten.



I dont have a hell of a lot of time to practice these days, but when I do..its only scratching.

I been playing since '96. Started on vinyls and moved to CDJ's and then Controllers and lastly incorporated DVS.

I would also love to see your tuts and learn more.

Thanks for the offer dude!

[sarasin]

I agree with Haze.
Implementation would be a GREAT tut!

I am not battling either...and do scratch when I play out, when I backup my mate who plays his music live.

I would love to end up being a backing DJ for a band etc.

I can mix and blend and 4 deck etc...so that is old hat to me know.
To keep myself interested in the art of DJing, I have started scratching.

So this would really be a lot of help to me!

I can do the basics, but using it during a set would be great to learn more on.

[Vekked]

ok cool, I'll have to do some thinking about practical club/mix scratching ideas. I think with certain styles of music there's a lot of room for it nowadays too, like a lot of Trap is super scratch friendly, whereas a lot of Top 40/music with plenty of vocals there's not as much room outside of the odd transition unless you get creative with instrumentals/acapellas/etc.

[haze324]

Sarasin ---- yes I'm with you man!!

Q's tutorial that discusses theory talks (and I'm going off memory here) about scratching in bars, counting the halfs, counting the halfs of halfs, so that your scratches are not just on time with the beat but also in phrase and thats how you create the use of an instrument with scratching. He also says that halfs of halfs don't have to be on time and swithcing up tempos within the bar. This way you can spice up the same scractch and still drop on the 1. It's a really good video, but the ONLY one I've ever checked out that goes into that level of detail, maybe there's more, but not many readily accessable. So yeah, when playing out it would be great to learn some theory putting this together into a set vs. just learning a crab scratch.

Some ideas for you Vekked. Thanks again for this post.