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

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DJ Battling, Scratching, Beat Juggling, Trick Mixing - Ask me anything
Posted on: 26.06.2013 by Nelida Ghouse
There have been some articles on these topics lately on the main page and it's stuff I believe 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.
Nelida Ghouse
26.06.2013
Originally Posted by P4ULSON
So i notice you scratch Hamster. What made you go with that vs regular? My open fader scratches come out cleaner in hamster but my stabs and forwards are much faster in regular. I'm currently working on Boomerang Chirps and i got Rang chirp part but no boom Guys take advantage of this not to many cats gonna take their time to help you with this stuff.
Haha thanks man.

Pretty much I went with hamster partially because I didn't know any better and partially out of necessity because faders were so bad before they came up with optical/magnetic/digital faders. Q-bert and Mix Master Mike were the first DJs I ever saw scratch on video and they were both hamster, so I hadn't even seen any DJ scratch otherwise until long after I started. Also my fader would constantly bleed on 1 side of my Gemini mixer so I had my right turntable hooked in my left side to scratch on the side that didn't bleed.

No matter which way you start you're going to have strengths/weaknesses doing the opposite techniques. Like stabs and forwards regular are the same movement as chirps/flares hamster and vise-versa so it just means you're stronger at moving your hand inwards than outwards. You just have to focus on your weaknesses harder at the beginning but eventually they even out and it's possible your weaknesses now will become your strengths one day and you'll have to work at the other stuff to get it back.

There's no real advantage or disadvantage to scratching normal or hamster in the long run, you can do everything no matter what way you scratch you just might have a faster or slower start depending on what way you chose.
Maile Dekerlegand
26.06.2013		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

def keeping an eye on this thread
Wilson Durrum
26.06.2013		This thread could not come at a better time. I picked up an Z2 a few weeks ago and looking to pick a turntable this week after being on my friends Technics last weekend.
nayit ruiz jaramillo
26.06.2013
Originally Posted by P4ULSON
So i notice you scratch Hamster. What made you go with that vs regular?
Wondered exactly the same thing.
Arnulfo Morten
26.06.2013		Vekked!!! what up ninja Thanks for coming on here man. This community was definitely missing turntablist. So i notice you scratch Hamster. What made you go with that vs regular? My open fader scratches come out cleaner in hamster but my stabs and forwards are much faster in regular. I'm currently working on Boomerang Chirps and i got Rang chirp part but no boom Guys take advantage of this not to many cats gonna take their time to help you with this stuff.
Nelida Ghouse
26.06.2013
Originally Posted by HighTopFade
Did you try out for Master Of The Mix?
I don't believe you can in Canada, and most likely wouldn't anyways cuz it seems like a farce.
Nelida Ghouse
26.06.2013
Originally Posted by botstein
What is your practice like?
I practice anywhere from 5-10 hours a day, avg 5 days a week. As far as what I focus on, it really depends on the time of year. The closer it is to a battle, the more I'm focused on material and routines, and the farther I am from battling again the more I'm focused on technique and developing things I can use in future routines. I usually don't add anything to routines that is more recent than 6 months unless it's really easy to do since there's a gap between learning something and being able to do it competently live in front of a crowd. In the month before a battle I'm pretty much only doing the exact routine that I'm going to do that day.
Rena Estabrook
26.06.2013		Did you try out for Master Of The Mix?
Ervin Calvery
26.06.2013		What is your practice like?
Rena Estabrook
26.06.2013		Very good of you to offer tips and advice.
Dia Laryea
26.06.2013
Originally Posted by Vekked
There's a lot of things, and I believe 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 believe 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 believe 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 believe 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 believe 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.
Never thought of it this way, thanks for this!
Nelida Ghouse
26.06.2013
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...
Word! Well that gives me some good direction for what I should do for a tutorial . The number idea is decent, maybe I'll cook up my own beat and sample that to help out or something.
Nelida Ghouse
26.06.2013
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?
There's a lot of things, and I believe 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 believe 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 believe 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 believe 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 believe 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.
Brunilda Kora
26.06.2013		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...
Nelida Ghouse
26.06.2013
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.

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!
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 believe a good tutorial/video would be MUCH more beneficial. Beat juggling is more of a "feel" thing and I don't believe 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 believe of it as just drumming. I do a bit of pad drumming on MPC/Maschine and I believe 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
Dia Laryea
26.06.2013		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.
Brunilda Kora
26.06.2013		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.

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!
Nelida Ghouse
26.06.2013
Originally Posted by nudedudewithattitude
What's Canada like?
LOL, too cold 90% of the time.
Marcelina Hanaway
26.06.2013		What's Canada like?

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