Scratch techniques

The scratching techniques have a name and they are categorized. There is the category faderless which concerns the scratching techniques without crossfader.

These are just movements of the vinyl record. Then the techniques that combine the vinyl and the crossfader (simple techniques), which allows to cut the sound at certain moments. The crossfader is used to cut the sound, as a switch.

In open position the sound is transmitted, in closed position the sound is not transmitted. An example of a combination, the forward scratchThis consists in dropping the vinyl and opening the crossfader simultaneously.

Finally the combinations (combo) combine the first two categories, to create sequences of techniques of scratch.

Faderless techniques

These techniques of scratch are the easiest to achieve. The faderless is the variation of the speed of the vinyl, the back and forth, and the stops. One or both hands are used to perform the faderless techniques.

The goal is to create sounds in rhythm with the music, simply by the actions made on the disk. The names are diverse and varied, and so are the sounds produced.

The baby scratch for example is one of the first scratch invented, it is a faderless scratch.

The scribble scratch, lazer scratch, zig-zag scratch, one hand phasing scratchare scratching techniques quite simple because the crossfader is not used.

Simple techniques

Now we combine the crossfader and vinyl movements. We produce more elaborate and difficult sounds. It's a hand-synchronization job for some techniques.

There are several levels of difficulty, some techniques of scratch require more training than others. For example the transform, is the cutting of the sound at the crossfader in rhythm, giving this chopped sound effect.

We do this effect by fast movements of the crossfader, and the return of the vinyl is rather slow. The dissociation of the hands is important because we have to go fast with one hand and slow with the other.

To make the backward scratchWe have to do the opposite of forward since we only hear the return of the record. We will see that it is difficult to do the opposite movements of what we have already learned.

The combinations

The combinations will come after learning the scratch techniques, we can create our sequences by combining the faderless and simple techniques.

So we combine two techniques and then three and so on, like telling a story. It's a construction like writing or composing a piece of music.

The boomerang scratch, horse scratch, autobahn scratch, swing flare scratch are combinations of techniques.

To conclude, scratching is learned step by step, and must be a pleasure above all!

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