developing patterns in scratching

[DJArmani]

So I've been scratching about 9 months and sound like complete shit still. I can barely do any faderwork. I record myself every month and it kind of sounds the same. My problem is making patterns when it comes to scratching. Does this develop over time? I start off transforming and stay on transformers for like 10 min, then chirp, then baby+drop+chirp but it comes out sloppy all the time. And when it comes to transformers, they sound offbeat like just random sounds. I've tried 2,1,2,1 or 3,2 but then as soon as I stay on one pattern I can't switch.

Also just out of curiosity how much time do you think scratch kings like A-Trak, Craze, Qbert put in a day to practice scratching? I feel I'm not practicing scratching enough to develop skill. I practice about an hour of scratching on weekdays (3 weekdays) then on weekends I practice about 2hrs on fri-saturdays. My main goal isn't scratching but I want to be good enough to be able to scratch when someone wants to talk shit.

[DJ-Veaux]

I feel you man. Hopefully someone like Sigma will shed some light on this.

[Sigma]

It definitely is something that develops over time. Learning more scratches is like learning new words, which you need to do in order to form sentences, so keep adding new scratches to your arsenal of cuts when you can and work on the ones where you're weak, because sometimes if you're weak at a scratch you'll avoid throwing it into your combos. What I used to do when I first started is try and copy scratches I heard DJs doing on tracks - literally copying the whole scratch solo they were doing. That sort of thing forces you out of that repetitive pattern.

Q&Aing with another DJ is something that helps too. Did you ever see that scratch combo generator program I posted up here once? Unfortunately, it only works on Windows XP and lower as it hasn't been updated for years, but it allows you to select certain scratches that you can already do, then you literally Q&A with it like you would with a real person with the idea being that it does a particular string of scratches that you would attempt to copy, which also forces you out of being repetitive.

As for well known scratch DJs, it's hard to say how much practice they put in. Qbert was pretty much obsessed with scratching and he was in a car accident that left him house bound for quite a while and all he did was cut, so I'm sure he would have put in hours and hours of practice a week. Plus, these guys are naturals at it, and in Qbert's case he's been scratching for over 25 years and earning a living from it, so it's something he's constantly doing.

You'll get there in the end though man. Being able to identify your weaknesses is a skill in itself, so don't be too disheartened. You know where you're going wrong, so you need to be more mindful of trying to make your cuts more varied, while working to add new cuts to your repertoire as well as making sure you work on ones where you're weaker.

Also, bear in mind that as you hear your own scratching every time you do it, you might not notice the progression compared to someone who hears you scratch now, then hears you again a few months later. Try recording what you do, then listen back to the stuff you've recorded now in a couple of months time and you'll almost certainly hear progression. For us mere mortals that aren't blessed like Qbert, D-Styles et al, scratching takes years to get good at!

[Nies One]

Great post from Sigma, lots of history and the piece about learning new scratches to add to your arsenal is crucial as it will open up your scratch vocabulary. Also If you hear the actual story on Q's accident, it's pretty crazy. He broke his leg while chasing after some guy that stole his car. Additionally that combo generator is hella fun, wish it would get updated.


Anyways another idea that could help would be organizing combos around bars to form 4 bar patterns. Not sure if you know how to count bars but it's definitely something you should learn if you don’t, as it will help greatly in scratching. In this concept you'll want to make a one bar combo, for instance chirp /chirp/ transform is a combo that could easily fit in 1 bar (we’ll call this combo a). Next you'll want to make another one bar combo, for instance chirp / chirp/ forward / forward (this will be called combo b)... Now you can flip / alternate these 2 combos over 4 bars as you chose, for example A,A,B,A or A,B,A,B or A,A,A,B , these are just few of the many you can come up with on your own to flip between your combos. But write them down and have the paper near your tables to help you remember. This helped me with ideas and flows on patterns, so maybe it will help with you.

[DJArmani]

Great post from Sigma, lots of history and the piece about learning new scratches to add to your arsenal is crucial as it will open up your scratch vocabulary. Also If you hear the actual story on Q's accident, it's pretty crazy. He broke his leg while chasing after some guy that stole his car. Additionally that combo generator is hella fun, wish it would get updated.


Anyways another idea that could help would be organizing combos around bars to form 4 bar patterns. Not sure if you know how to count bars but it's definitely something you should learn if you don’t, as it will help greatly in scratching. In this concept you'll want to make a one bar combo, for instance chirp /chirp/ transform is a combo that could easily fit in 1 bar (we’ll call this combo a). Next you'll want to make another one bar combo, for instance chirp / chirp/ forward / forward (this will be called combo b)... Now you can flip / alternate these 2 combos over 4 bars as you chose, for example A,A,B,A or A,B,A,B or A,A,A,B , these are just few of the many you can come up with on your own to flip between your combos. But write them down and have the paper near your tables to help you remember. This helped me with ideas and flows on patterns, so maybe it will help with you.

Sigma,thanks for your input! Always a great response. & +rep to Nies One, I'm actually starting to do that with my transformer scratches like 1,2,1,2 when it comes to moving the fader. And I can count bars so I'll be trying out what you recommended!

[DJhalf]

practice the same small routine. Make it muscle memory until you have learned as much as you can.

[djslik]

can you repost that q&a software I would love to have an electronic battle bot to practice with