Apply this to scratching:
“Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and soul can be a true master. For this reason mastery demands all of a person.” – Albert Einstein
Very often you’ll see blog posts or books teaching you to “master” a skill in only 10 days, or 3 days … in fact, it used to be 30 days but the time frame to master something seems to be shrinking rapidly.
I’ve even seen tutorials claiming to teach a skill in just a few hours. Pretty soon we’ll be demanding to know how to do something in seconds.
Instant mastery of skills and knowledge! Hey presto!
Unfortunately, the reality is something a little less magical. Or maybe that’s a fortunate thing.
There’s only one way to become good at something:
1. First, you must learn it by reading or listening to others who know how to do it, but most especially by doing.
2. Then do some more. At this point, you’ll start to understand it, but you’ll suck. This stage could take months.
3. Do some more. After a couple of years, you’ll get good at it.
4. Do some more. If you learn from mistakes, and aren’t afraid to make mistakes in the first place, you’ll go from good to great.It takes anywhere from 6-10 years to get great at something, depending on how often and how much you do it. Some estimate that it takes 10,000 hours to master something, but I think it varies from person to person and depends on the skill and other factors.
Want to be a great writer? It’s possible to be great within a few years, if you have the God-given talent of Fitzgerald or Shakespeare, but most of us toil for over a decade and are still trying to get better. We’re still learning, to this day, and if we look back on our first few years of writing — of any kind — we’ll tell you we sucked (for the most part) back then.
Want to be a great blogger? Same deal. I’ve been doing it for almost three years, and I’m still only competent. Gruber’s been doing it for, like, 7 years and he’s still only … well, he’s pretty great by now. You have to do it, make mistakes, learn, really begin to understand it, and someday, if you stick with it, you’ll be great.
There’s no one who is great at his profession who hasn’t been doing it for at least 6 years — no designer, no programmer, no carpenter, no architect, no surgeon, no teacher, no musician, no artist … you get the point. I dare you to name one. Most have been doing it for over a decade, and are still looking to improve.
It takes desire, it takes drive, it takes lots and lots of doing.
So here’s the thing: don’t get discouraged if you’re just starting out. Have fun, like we all did in the beginning. If you have fun, you’ll learn to love it, and THAT’S when it clicks. When you love something, you’ll want to do it all the time, sometimes late at night and often, you’ll jump out of bed and want to do it before you move your morning bowels.
THAT’S how you get great. By loving it so much your morning bowel movement takes second seat.
“Everybody has talent, it’s just a matter of moving around until you’ve discovered what it is.” – George Lucas
Find that desire. Do it, don’t just read about it. Don’t buy a single product or book or magazine that claims to teach you something in minutes, hours, days. They’re lying to your face, with a hand in your pocket at the same time.
Do it, keep doing it, then keep doing it some more. It’s the only way to get great, but the good news: anyone can do it. It just takes some time and some doing. Hey presto.
When the world says, “Give up,”
Hope whispers, “Try it one more time.”
~ Author Unknown
Adapted and amended from a post by Leo Babauta which is uncopyright.
Whilst my tutorials are designed to get you going with scratching. It will take time!
I get many emails from people who are frustrated that they have not become “good” at scratching in the first month. Refer back to this post often and get back to having fun! I personally have been scratching for 10 years and I have so much to learn and still struggle with certain scratches. I will be refering myself back to this article on the regular!
Happy Scratching!
– Short-E
Image by Ivan Zuber
Been practicing on scratching for more then 3 years and still not that good. This is à text I will read à lot. Exactly what i needed! Thx
Now back to the turntables and PRACTICE!
i wanne be good at it and i will be!!
yes Broken Cutz! keep on. After 3 years I felt like i was just about getting it but not where i wanted to be so i can def relate! – Short-E
in kungfu you get tought that to learn a motion properly, you will need to do it about 10000 times (or more) to get it into your muscle memory and to be able to use it as a reflex.
if you hasten it and learn it sloppy youll have to do the learning prozess again.
btw. kung fu means originally “hard work” and is just nowadays used as general therm for martial arts, so scratching is actually kung fu as well 🙂
Hey kapn kutt! Awesome comment! Kung Fu scratching! I love it!
I’m scratchin’ since 10 years.
And it took TWO years to get the level to START to expressing myself…
And yeah Kapn Kutt! Kung Fu means hard and regular work.
PEACE Short-e !
xo
whats up claim! thanks for sharing!
Love what you’re saying.
I’m also trying really hard on my skills,
but sometimes i get really frustrated,
Want to try something different, but i find myself scratching the same rhythms…
Hey FRC
I must put together some combo idea videos with different patterns to try. maybe that will help…
Thanx! Can’t wait for the videos
brought a tear to me eye that! goona keep on going! its gettin on me tits! but im goona nail this shit. luv u short e xxx
Nice one bigneptizzal keep going!
Great post!
I have been a DJ for 21 years now! I started of as a Hip-Hop DJ back in 1988 when transforming was the sick technical scratch of the day! I learned basic scratches back then, cutting, chirps and stabs etc but kinda got sidetracked with the house/rave scene in the early 90s and never developed my scratching skills any further.
I only really got back to scratching seriously in 2007, and even though I had been following the scene from afar and knew what crabs, flares and other new scratches were, I didn’t really know how to do them, I’m still trying to perfect my skills to this day, and as I turn 40 this year I don’t see myself giving up any time soon.
Some people play guitar, piano, drums etc and do it for as long as they can, for me, the turntable is my chosen instrument, I love scratching and always will!
Stay fresh people!!
Hey Welly! thanks for sharing your story. keep on cutting!
“How To Become Amazingly Great At Scratching”
is a really good article about how to learn scratching.
I start before 1 month with scratching after 7 years of beat matching.
learn learn and learn doin doin doin and one time comes a breakthrough…and we can go to another level…with the grace of God.
Studio Scratches website and all the videos are really a blessing for me. be encouraged`
Hey Heiko!
Thanks for getting involved on the site. Keep scratching!
You know, you are absolutely right in that it does take a lot of time to develop the skills and knowledge pertinent to whatever skill one is trying to perfect. Reading that bit about practicing before the morning bowels…just about made me fall of my chair! Ha ha ha!
I appreciate all the tutorials, beats and articles you provide for everyone! I find it all very useful and look forward to reading more articles and watching tutorials whenever I can.
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” Benjamin Franklin
Keep scratchin’ people!
Thanks so much for reading and dropping that quote, great stuff!
i have this prob with scratching,i can do it in my head and i think about it constantly.but as soon as i jump on to the turns i get stuck on the same scratch routines and theirs no flow at all