Hey folks!
Welcome to Day 11 of 30 Days of Scratching. For a full overview and instructions on how to join in please visit 30 Days of Scratching Day 1.
Day 11
Beat used: Me Or The Papes Instrumental by Jeru The Damaja (produced by DJ Premier).
Scratch Record Used: DJ Vajra Cuts & Drums
Background Info
It was a lazy morning of scratching at the slow pace of 85 BPM. Slower beats give you more space to breathe but you have to be more precise as you cannot hide any mistakes by scratching fast.
I have looped up the mid section of the instrumental.
I used Serato Scratch Live to record and play the beat and samples.
Todays Quote:
Consider how you can apply this to scratching:
“To me, ultimately, martial arts means honestly expressing yourself. Now, it is very difficult to do. It has always been very easy for me to put on a show and be cocky, and be flooded with a cocky feeling and feel pretty cool and all that. I can make all kinds of phoney things. Blinded by it. Or I can show some really fancy movement. But to experience oneself honestly, not lying to oneself, and to express myself honestly, now that, my friend, is very hard to do.”
– Bruce Lee
Reflections On Todays Video
- When recording, it is easy to default to your standard cuts you know you can do rather, than push the boundaries. I do this myself. When I am not recording I am more experimental. The challenge is to try things when you are recording even if they are not perfect and also to remember all the scratches you can do and mix it up to keep it fresh.
- I was inspired to use the chirp scratch quite a bit in this video, as it is one of DJ Premier’s signature scratches and he produced this track. Listen to the full version of the track featuring his scratching.
- I had some positive comments on yesterdays video, along the lines of people enjoy just listening to my scratching. One of my aims when scratching is to make it musical and interesting enough that people that don’t scratch enjoy listening to it. In this way, scratching is like a rhythmical addition to the music, like some percussion, rather than just a show off of techniques that only scratch DJs understand.
- I use the delay effect built into my mixer on my videos as it is fun to play with. I will share the settings in a separate post.
- This video reminds me that it is good practice to use different samples of varying length. This forces you to cater your scratch techniques to the samples you are using. For example, short word / vocal samples work really well with scratches like the chirp and stab. Longer samples like “ahhh” allow space for longer more complex techniques such as the flare, crab, transforms etc.
- Todays lesson – think about the samples you are using and which scratch techniques work best with them. Experiment and see what you come up with.
Official 30 Days Of Scratching Playlist
You can see all of the videos here: 30 Days Of Scratching YouTube Playlist
Your Turn!
If you would like to join me in this challenge throughout October / November, post links to your own practice videos in the comments below. Tag your videos on social networks with #studioscratches and #30DaysOfScratching. You don’t have to do the full 30 days so feel free to dip in and out posting your videos where you want to, but it would be super awesome to have you along as company for the full 30 days! Who knows where you might end up!
If you have a beat suggestion or want to send me cool beats to use in this challenge, please email me via the contact page.
If you have any questions please let me know.
See you Tomorrow!
Happy Scratching! 😀
– Emma Short-E