scratching is just not clicking

[DJArmani]

I've been practicing scratching lately, and no matter how much I try my scratches still sound robotic, and boring. I've been doing the basics since the start, and haven't moved on because i feel I'm not advanced enough because my basic scratches sound so shitty. But at this point the basic scratches sound extremely boring and simple, making me want to practice less even she I find a great beat to scratch over. aid feel like I've dug myself a hole with learning basics and the fact that i can't my progress from about fall of last year until now and it still sounds so novice.

[DJ Boom Bap]

C'mon, you are one of the dudes that do your own thing. Watch some videos or something man
Battle someone

[akswun]

don't be discouraged. I was/still am on a 'basics' flex right now. What have you been working on specifically?

I started with babys then tears then chirps then one-clicks then 2 click flares. Kinda stuck right there at the moment but I've been cleaning it up and can do any of those stated at any time. I've been working on getting my 2 clicks faster.

As for repetative and noob sounding sessions. Its going to be like that... for a long time! I try to dedicate at least 30mins a day to just basics and getting the hand/wrist movements down and the only way to do this is by repetition. Don't worry about it not sounding 'cool' you're working on cleaning up your scratches. The 'freestyle' or 'cool' shit will happen in time. It takes 'years' of practice to get as good as the people you look up to.

If you want to have variety try doing combos. Or if you want to really challenge your practice try doing this....

qRzQXPUmVF8

but instead of one clicks try doing any of the scratches you were practicing with the original track.
which is this
cJl6E1eUv0E

if you can keep up with any of your scratches that you've been practicing try to double time it. I'm about to make a #practiceyocuts video soon. I'm still pretty intermediate right now but have progressed in some ways. Had a battle earlier this year and I submitted a session that is pretty much what you described, boring and noob sounding. Give me a couple of days and I'll show you where I'm personally at.

Keep the faith buddy and #practiceyocuts

[DoomJockey]

I suck at pretty much every scratch, but I've been concentrating on just making babies sound dope. I mess around with the fader every now and then for when I prepare to move on to bigger and better stuff but to me it from some videos that I've seen, people make their scratches sound awesome while using nothing fancy. Maybe you should give that a whirl?

Don't get discouraged. You should just try a different method of practicing or learning so you can see things from a different perspective that may work better for you.

[TheRabbitMonk]

sometimes just a break and a step back helps.

[DJArmani]

My problem is that all of my sessions are becoming to sound the same in the same order and whenever I try practicing differently I end up back in the same place. I'm literally stuck on transformers because I can do them best, and all of my scratches eventually sound like transformers with forwards & baby scratches. I can't seem to grasp the flares or anything super advanced & I've been at this for 2.5 years now. @DJBoomBap I have battled and I've watched more videos than I could think of, I eventually become discouraged when I watch someone like Qbert and when I go scratch I still sound the same :lol:. I've lost every scratch battle I've been in so far btw. I'm also stuck scratching over the flare sound & suck at scratching over any vocals such as the "aw yeah" sound. I've become so used to scratching over a flare that when I try any other sample I'm horrible. Akswun what sample is that guy using to scratch over in the numark vid btw?

[akswun]

Sounds like a higher pitched 'ahh'. But the sample doesn't matter. Just have a longer sample like the regular 'ahhh' sound which is what i use. When you use smaller samples it becomes harder.

Man, as for just doing transformers, I think we all started like that thinking we were awesome. I highly suggest practicing on chirps strictly for a couple of weeks. Its the opposite of what the transformer is. Learning/training your brain/body to 'close' the fader when doing a 'forward' motion is the key. After you've mastered, and when I say mastered, I mean being able to do it whenever you want at any speed or tone. Then you can move on to the next scratch.

All this can be learned from QSU, which I'm NOT a student of. You have to train your brain and arm/wrist/fingers to work in sync. This is done by repetition or muscle memory. You can watch all the videos in the world but wont gain anything unless you attempt and practice to do it.

Check out this guys Practice blog from Turntablistworld.com It'll give you an idea of how to structure what you're looking to accomplish, which is sick cuts!
http://turntablistworld.com/forum/index.php?threads/practice-blog.283/

[TheRabbitMonk]

i use to live on Mix Master Mike and Q bert vids. Told myself to stop because it was demotivating, those guys are like the Godfather's of scratching. They've been at it for about 30 years and that is there full time job.
What i realised is I will never be as good as them, because once you have 30 years of experience, they'll have another 30 years to add to that.
Use them for tips nothing more.

[Hightopfade]

i use to live on Mix Master Mike and Q bert vids. Told myself to stop because it was demotivating, those guys are like the Godfather's of scratching. They've been at it for about 30 years and that is there full time job.
What i realised is I will never be as good as them, because once you have 30 years of experience, they'll have another 30 years to add to that.
Use them for tips nothing more.

Back in the day, they were practically my neighbors. Very discouraging.

[DJArmani]

Appreciate the feedback guys, thanks!

[DjLiquitATL]

Once you have all the basic scratches down to a decent speed just work on combos and speed control. Vekked had mention on one of my videos to add more chirps and manipulate the speed of the record so that it doesn't sound as repetitive.

I just started back after a 6 month job transition where I was pretty much in the same place. I actually thought I sounded better in previous videos... Now everything is getting better on the daily