Ambidex Scratchers: How you teach your other side?

[Vekked]

For anyone else who can scratch on their weak side, or is learning, do you or did you have a method for learning on that side? Are you trying to copy your strong side or trying to make them different?

 

I've been learning to cut on my weak side and it's starting to get halfway competent. I've noticed I get little hiccups in the learning curve when I'm stuck for a tiny bit, but overall my weak side is learning wayyy faster than my strong side. I think part of it is that I'm able to look back over learning with my strong side and I know what to focus on to gain control quicker. I'm spending 90% of my time working on stabs and chirps, and I'd say I'm easily better than I was 1-1.5 years into scratching after a few months of practice (been longer, but I go for a week or 2 sometimes not cutting on that side at all). It's a lot easier now knowing now that learning 79 different techniques is worthless compared to having 3-4 techniques that are impressive.

 

I'm also trying to train my weak side to scratch differently than my left... like focusing heavy on basics, and then throwing in techniques that I can't do as easily on my strong side more frequently (woodpeckers for example, I never do them on my left side, so trying to get good at them on my right). I'm starting to get the feeling that my right side will end up being better at some stuff because of all the bad habits I was able to avoid... my chirps already have potential to be better than my strong side which is kinda cool, but annoying at the same time that I've spent so long on my strong side and they come so much more naturally on my weak side. It's possible they will peak eventually too though, who knows.

[ericuk]

I started with the intention of learning equally but i think the development of each deck will always be different due to physical strengths and weaknesses.

 

strong hand on record will always dominate record movements (as we know) and dem clicks and cuts is easier with our strong hand on the fader.

 

keep us posted with dat progress.

[Mike-L]

I've had a set up with two mixers and a turntable in between for quite a while.

[Vekked]

I've had a set up with two mixers and a turntable in between for quite a while.

Mmm, not a bad idea.

 

Nowadays what I do is load a beat into the sample player on Serato and then put scratch records on both sides so I can scratch on both sides simultaneously. You can even set up a loop on 1 side then draw it into the sample player and the beat keeps looping if you don't wanna restart the beat every so often.

[Dopez]

I've been going at it and it's a little more natural for me, but getting those clicks is still hard for me. I can do a somewhat fast two click left hand on the fader, but I have trouble doing a slow two click flare, specifically getting the first sound. It's so frustrating because I know I can cut perfecly fine right on fader, but I've already gotten used to right on record to get those dope phrases.