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qbert misleads with the Joe Cooley?


ericuk

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I was watching shorte just now and her Joe Cooley tutorial. I'm not convinced she's doing it right so I thought I'd check qbert instead. He explains that the technique is chirps and swirls. I don't know what a swirl is but he describes it as a fast tear motion yet when he performs the scratch I'm certain he does something different, more similar to very fast babies. Im not so hot with names but I know the sounds and how to achieve them, and in my opinion it sounds like the explanation doesn't match what he's doing.

 

If I was with my decks I'd do a video. What do you guys think?

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Guest It'sPhilFromThursdays

A swirl should be one tear forward and two back, i believe. It should sound a bit like a reverse og flare.

 

I've heard some people say Joe Cooley's are a scribble and chirp combo, but it's slightly different, i believe.

 

This is what people miss from not coming from the old skool hip hop/hip hop loving route into scratching, i reckon. Those cuts were just an intergral part of what i thought scratching sounded like when i was a young shrimp.

 

I COULD BE WRONG ABOUT THIS, AS WITH ALL THINGS.

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It should be called the Howie Tee really. He was the first I ever head do that combo in 1986 at 3:10 in this: -

 

 

Joe Cooley used to do the classic "electro style" scratching where he'd do that same scratch as Howie Tee, but he'd do alternating patterns of high and low pitched chirps, single time tears, and he'd do that thing where you release the sample, pull it part of the way back, let it play part of the way forward, then pull it all of the way back.

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Short-E doesn't have a clue about the originators so she listens to what ppl like Qbert say and then makes her own tutorial video based on that. The real Joe Cooley scratch can be heard in the intro on a cut called "Your Chance To Rock"

 

I already mentioned the Howie Tee scratch in some old thread last year, he inspired me to chirp like that.

 

Here is the Joe Cooley transform i recreated, i believe he was the first to do the double speed like that

 

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I'm clueless about the history and perhaps I'm guilty of believing what I've heard from others, factual or not, so I can't comment on origins but can anyone else confirm the clear difference in the technique explained and what is performed on qberts video?

 

Im sure it's not intentional on his part but for someone who is making a living out of defining scratching and teaching it, Q often says one thing and then does another. Obviously we have to take individuality into account but it can make learning (my goal) confusing.

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I think you're right with your comment on youtube but it's not the worst Q-Bert tutorial I know. He always goes back and forth between insanely fast stuff. If you want to learn something that can be pretty enfuriating, especially with the material being part of the Scratch UNIVERSITY - no one teaches like that. Same goes for the Dirty Digit videos I've seen and some others. They should just do the combos cleanly and without showing off for a minute.

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I think you're right with your comment on youtube but it's not the worst Q-Bert tutorial I know. He always goes back and forth between insanely fast stuff. If you want to learn something that can be pretty enfuriating, especially with the material being part of the Scratch UNIVERSITY - no one teaches like that. Same goes for the Dirty Digit videos I've seen and some others. They should just do the combos cleanly and without showing off for a minute.

 

You must have tried to show someone a scratch though right? Limiting yourself to only your most basic cuts is almost impossible to do!

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If you're getting paid to teach an instrument, I expect the teacher to present clearly what he wants to teach you. Variations should be shown but not just randomly thrown into the presentation. Sure, it's easier said than done but those guys are making a living off that stuff. Chile offers a lot of tutorial for free and he shows the scratch slowly and cleanly, then he doubles the tempo with animated TTM showing where you are in the combo - way better than talking about whatever, scratching for 5 seconds and probably doing something else later.

In case you've called on me to do it better: I've only made one short video showing a scratch combo and I fuck up the pick up towards the end but I just did this to ask people on here if they already know it. That's all. I'm not taking away anything from Q-Bert's skills - of course he's one of the best scratch DJs ever but his teaching is pretty mediocre.

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May be,

 

I guess all I'm saying is the better you are the harder it is to know what's basic enough for someone to learn + your hands just seem to want to do other stuff (must be way hard for Q).

 

Plus you could argue it's not good to teach someone a technique so ridgedly, else you end up with a load of robots. Which frankly is what has happened it would seem.

 

Gotta remember on QSU that you can send videos to q bert for him to critique, making the necessity to have tutorials as clean as Chile's some what less. You could just send him a video asking him if you think you're doing it right.

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if you teach people the standard techniques, you can then progress onto the deviations. Teaching one technique and then performing a mixture of techniques clouds learning.

 

A grand master in martial arts should be able to teach a beginner the fundamentals. Q with such developed skill should be able to teach the Joe cooley (or any basic scratch) correctly.

 

I agree about not wanting to produce robots, but surely this comes down to creativity once a student has learned?

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