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What do you consider to be basic skratching techs?


Graft

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Everybody is talking about that one should learn the basics before moving to the more advanced stuff. But what is basics?

 

I've just been involved in a discussion at another (norwegian) board about basic scratches. In my opinion techniques like babies, forwards, stabs, tears, chirps and maybe transforms are among the basic techniques (the first ones more basic than the last ones). However, I see that some peeps (mostly new school cats?) consider even crabs and flares to be basic techniques. They consider combos of techniques to be advanced techniques.

 

What do you think?

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Guest Deeswift

Flares and crabs are most definately not part of the basics. Only a n00b would say they are. Basics are the ones you mentioned -- forwards, baby, stab, military march, chirps, transforms, tears, etc.

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agreed. I wish i could perfect chirps cause mine suck, they sound dope if done right and quick. MY favortie scratchw ould have to be the transform tear though. Anyways yea, i think the problem today is everyone wants to be the next Qbert and Deeswift, the thing they don't get is that there are progressive steps. Also, if you're a dope scratcher, you can still sound dope with jsut the "basic" scratches, you wouldn't need to do the octopuss scratch to sound good.

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Guest Deeswift
Flares and crabs are most definately not part of the basics. Only a n00b would say they are. Basics are the ones you mentioned -- forwards, baby, stab, military march, chirps, transforms, tears, etc.

 

Can I quote on that on the other board?

 

Yeah, don't need to ask.

 

@ Gabe -- Military march is like a baby scratch, but closing the fader at random to make a kind of military sounding rhythm. Did you ever see Turntable Wizardry Volume 1? Qbert explains it on that vid, with Babu performing the cut. It's a very simple scratch, but I remember as a total beginner that it wasn't as easy as it sounds.

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I don't see why a flare can't be called a basic technique. If you were to teach someone who'd never cut before how to flare, it would be no harder for them to understand than a chirp. The only reason it's hard for some people is because they spent a long time clicking the fader on to get sounds, rather than off to insert gaps. I used to scratch with Grae before the flare had been discovered and later I found it hard to learn because it was a kind of alien concept at first. If I was to teach someone now, I'd definitely mention flares and the concept of them near the beginning so they understood that the fader can be used both ways to make sounds.

 

I would go for these to begin with: -

 

Baby

Forward

Stab

Drag

Chirp

Tear

Tip

Long Short Tip Tear

 

Then these: -

 

Transform

Flare

Crab

Fade

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steve... forwards v stabs? any difference?

 

Dee... you think cats don't wanna sound like you? You'd be surprised! (I'm not @ all exagerating)

 

Military scratch = Combo of Forwards & Babies to your liking (according to DIY)

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Forwards are playing the record at it's set speed and usually you'd play the sample longer as in "cut cut cut cut like a guillotine". Stabs are catching just the start of the sound and can be done at various pitches.

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i think everyone should start learning prisms and delayed techniques.

 

lol

 

nahh on the real, myself like alot of others started learning the hard shit first b4 getting the basics down. others start with the basics then the harder shit.

 

all in all everyone sorta levels out in the end...

 

 

cuz, the people like how i used to be will for the 1st 12mths sound unclean but more technical, others will sound clean but very basic...but peops having good flow.

 

 

after a few yrs most ways of learning for peops will catch up with each other when the time is right.

 

 

as everyone says...

 

 

do what u wanna do at the time...

 

if u wanna start learn flares before transforms then great, if u wanna learn transforms b4 babies and drags then fine, the whole thing is one big learning curve.

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cuz, the people like how i used to be will for the 1st 12mths sound unclean but more technical, others will sound clean but very basic...but peops having good flow.

 

after a few yrs most ways of learning for peops will catch up with each other when the time is right.

 

as everyone says...

 

do what u wanna do at the time...

 

if u wanna start learn flares before transforms then great, if u wanna learn transforms b4 babies and drags then fine, the whole thing is one big learning curve.

 

Of course people should do what they feel like. The problem is that most beginners want to be the next world champ in a week and start with the advanced stuff and end up sounding like shit for a long time. I've experienced myself how hard it is to get rid of bad habbits because of moving ahead technically before being ready (I had the basics down hampster style, but changed to regular style and started learning all the tech ish before learning all the basics over again regular style).

 

Flares are more technical than a lot of the basics, but I actually think it's harder to get transforms down tight and sounding right at various tempos than one click flare orbits. Same goes with chirps and tears. But flares has a much more complex sound and it takes much more practice to hear what sounds right and tight, both when others do it and (especially) when you do it yourself. It's much easier to sound like shit when it comes to flares. If you do some of the basic techniques you can actually be a little sloppy and still sound pretty good, because we're all used to old school cuts which tended to be a bit sloppy sometimes. You can get pretty "soulful" with sloppy chirps and transforms while it's pretty much impossible to sound good with sloppy flares.

 

When learning all the advanced stuff first I think the whole learning process takes much longer time because of two things: You need to get a much higher understanding of how scratching "should" sound to even do anything that sounds good (to a trained ear), and you probably have to learn a lot of shit over again because you have so much bad habbits and all your "fundamentals" (which you in fact lack) is mad sloppy and untight.

 

I'd rather listen to someone who has been scratching for 3 months who are basic and clean than someone who has been scratching for 1-2 years (or more) who are technical but unclean. Peeps in the last category is mostly what I hear, and they totally doesn't understand it themselves.

 

Of course this is a bit individual, I've heard peeps who has been scratching for a short period who only do advanced stuff and still sound good. But generally I think most people are better off starting with the basics.

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Really, Really good scratchers can sound awesome without using advanced techniques. I realised that cutting with DAredevil the other week. He is also imense with the advanced shit but there would be times when for a long period he'd just bust transforms ect and sound a million times better than me doing my multiclick shit over and over.

 

Basically watch Qbert pre 1995 or listen to DPSM. He does a million variations of the same techniques where as most people can only do 1 or 2 if you are lucky.

Everyone should try recording a file without any flares, crabs ect. It's fucking hard. I did one yesterday for an old school sounding section on a mix tape and it is solid to make it sound really good and varied.

 

Also finally, the amount of prople who think they can do flares but can't and just hit the fader out of time is stupid.

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