15 Levels of Turntable Scratching: Easy to Complex | WIRED
1,518,894
Published 2022-06-27
Director: Tim Cruz
Director of Photography: Grant Bell
Editor: Cory Stevens
Talent: DJ ShortKut
Producer: Adam Davis-McGee
Line Producer: Joseph Buscemi
Associate Producer: Melissa Cho
Production Manager(s): Peter Brunette, Andressa Pelachi
Casting Producer: Nick Sawyer
Camera Operator: Oliver Lukacs
Audio: Paul Cornett
Production Assistant: Eric Bittencourt
Props: Modernica Props
Post Production Supervisor(s): Nicholas Ascanio, Alexa Deutsch
Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant
Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen
Assistant Editor: Billy Ward
Music Supervisor: Lindsay Capacio
Archive Credits: Getty Images
Special Thanks: True Sound Recording
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All Comments (21)
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The legend Shortkut!!! For those who don't know, this man was part of an influential group of Bay Area DJs in the 90s called the Invizibl Skratch Piklz, which included other legendary scratch DJs such as Q-Bert, Mix Master Mike, D-Styles, Yogafrog, Flare, and Disk. The level of influence these guys had on modern DJing cannot be understated. Couldn't have picked a better DJ to break down the theory of turntablism and scratching! Thank you Wired for this video!
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I love how he intersperses a little bit of hip-hop history, crediting the creators of various techniques.
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This is legitimately better than most turntablism focused channels. Huge ups dude
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Me: I should go to bed early tonight and get a good night's sleep. Also me, not a DJ, no record player or records watching this at 12:40am: ah yes, the transformer scratch
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Never realized DJ Jazzy Jeff was such a pioneer. He really invented a lot of techniques.
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Grew up hearing jokes and old memes saying “scratching records ain’t talent” but I’m so glad I grew up and opened my mind. These things definitely take a lot of skill and originality to pull off. This was sick
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I remember when I was 15 trying to learn this on my own alone in my bedroom in the 90s on two of the cheapest turn tables I could save up for. People today are blessed to have easy access to videos like this.
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I'm a "traditional" musician, playing guitar and drums. This was so cool, though. I think a lot of people overlook the artistry involved in scratching at a high level. Awesome look and appreciation gained!
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This is so awesome! Kudos to Shortkut and the team!
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Love it how they just let him get on with it and explain / demo his craft. Brilliant.
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It should be noted that levels 8-11 the cross fader is in reverse mode. You can also see him switch the fader controls when he begins his freestyle in level 15 after the beat juggle intro. This greatly changes the way you manipulate the fader. Fantastic video. ✌🏽
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Dude who taught me to scratch made me learn beatmatching, flares and crab scratches straight off the bat. I can't dj, but I can do a bunch of difficult tricks. It's like how I used to fail all the easy parts of maths exams but i'd always get the complex reasoning part right. It's neat, but it doesn't help a lot.
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While this doesn't look like something I'd like to get into, this video definitely gave me a lot more respect for DJ's
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I’ve been listening and watching Skortkut scratch for 25 years. He was a major influence, along with the Piklz into getting me started with scratch djing. The funny thing is Qbert or Mixmaster Mike were the showmen, and Shortkut would generally be considered the ‘Ringo’…this is one of the first times I’ve heard him explain scratching and it’s miles clearer and easier to understand than the many vids I’ve heard listening to Q, Babu, or D-Styles trying to explain the techniques.
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I’ve been cutting and scratching since the 80’s and this by far is the best tutorial. I’d recommend this video to anyone wanting to learn this art form. Big up Shortcut! 👊🏼
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I really miss turntable in modern music. This needs to comeback
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I've always been amazed by the DJs making the cross-fader look like it's springloaded. Whenever I touch a cross-fader I get frustrated by it being static. It simply never 'feels' the way my brain tells me it should.😳 I stick with my amazement and enjoy the art, while i leave the turntables to the artists.🤗
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It made no sense until it got to beat juggling. And then it all made sense, forcing me to re-watch the video. Very interesting, and really hard to appreciate without knowing the complexity of it. Its a different kind of world if you think about how much skill and practice this would require, really would not have thought about it before. I'll certainly me seeing hiphop differently now.
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I was lucky enough to see him live a few times. The guy is a legend! Thank you wired for this video
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I've been doing this since 1998. Much love to Wired for giving our artform some much needed attention. If there are any folks with questions about all this, please reply and I will answer!
