How to be a sxratch DJ – The Beginners’ Guide Almost everyone on the DJ circuit today, regardless of genre, attempts to add some sort of sxratch routine into their set. Unfortunately, not many people are able to do it with much success. Just because you can sxratch doesn’t mean you can do it well, and most people should certainly practise a little bit more before using it whilst playing out. This little guide should help you pick up the basics so you don’t make a monkey of yourself. The records When you sxratch, you need a record to sxratch. The best place to start is to buy one of the hundreds and hundreds of sample records available. Go to your local record shop and go to the ‘turntablist/battle records’ section. Try and avoid DJ Rectangle battle weapons and look for Dirtstyle records, especially Backsliding Turkey Kuts. Have a listen to the record before you buy it and suss out if it has a good collection of sounds on it. Once you’ve bought your first battle record, you’re going to need to get sxratching. These records take a lot of abuse and are meant for sxratching, so don’t be afraid to use them for this purpose. You cant be timid in your approach. Where to start You need to be able to count and keep time effectively. Sxratching off beat is one of the most common problems DJs have. The best records for sxratching to are hip hop breaks. Find an instrumental, if you have one, or go out and buy a set of battle breaks. Battle break records will be choc-a-bloc with breaks, but have a listen first so you know you’re getting a good buy. Next up, you need to figure out which hand you are going to use on the cross-fader and which hand you are going to use to move the record. Generally speaking, you will use your strongest hand on the fader and your weaker hand on the record, because you will need a greater degree of control on your fader hand. Try both ways and figure out which is the most comfortable for you. Terminology Fader open/on – this means that the cross fader is letting sound in. Fader closed/off – when the fader is closed it means sound is not coming out. Clicks – a click is the process of ‘clicking’ the fader from open to closed to open again in one movement. One movement is one click. The baby sxratch Suitably named, and the very best (and only) place to start. This sxratch was accidentally discovered by the legendary Grand Wizard Theodore when he manually stopped a record so he could talk to this mum. You will only need to use your record hand, as the fader isn’t needed for this sxratch. The baby sxratch involves slowly dragging the record back and forth. Try it without a beat first. Cue up whatever sample it is you want to use, and just move your hand back and forth, with just your fingertips on the record. Don’t move too fast, and just get used to the motion. Once your happy with this, start your beat playing. Move the record in time with the beat. On each beat move it forwards and then backwards on the following beat. It’s crucial that you can do this in time and on beat, otherwise more complicated sxratches won’t come together. As you progress, you will be able to alter the movements. For example, on one beat you could do both a forwards and backwards motion, and then continue with one movement on each beat. Mix it up and experiment, but remember, STAY ON BEAT!!!! The skribble sxratch Invented by none other than DJ Skribble, this sxratch is basically the same as the baby sxratch, just done faster, emulating scribbling with a pencil on a piece of paper. It’s simply a fast back and forth hand motion, again, without any need for the fader. Try skribbling one back and forth motion for each beat continuously. The similarities between the baby and scribble sxratch mean that the two can be easily combined, so try alternating back forth between one and the other. Forwards/Backwards These simple sxratches involve opening the fader and playing your sample either forwards or backwards repeatedly. Thus, if you are doing forwards, you would open the fader to let the sound play forwards, close the fader to drag the sound back, and repeat, creating a continuous stream of forward sounds. Try doing one sound per beat initially, and then try and vary the points in the track that you cut your sample in. The key here is to have good fader control so as only to get a forwards or backwards sound. Transforms Once you can move the record in time with the beat, you should now be ready to try and use the fader. The transformer sxratch is very simple. Basically, all it involves is moving the record and moving the crossfader repeatedly on and off, with the rest position seeing the fader closed. The key is not to move the record too much. Simply drag the record slowly back and forth, and for every beat of the track, cut the sound in once. As you get better at this, try and vary the cut points at which you bring the sound in. At a beginners level, you should try and master these simple sxratches first, and then try combining them, by doing one pattern and then going straight into another, varying it up. Home > Music > ^top