PHOTO : PETER SAVIC
DIGITAL MUSIC
DJ Vekked is a multi-DMC and IDA champion , having won a pair of solo titles and a team title as The Fresherthans with DJ Brace at the 2015 DMC World DJ Championships . He plans to drop an album later this year . You can find him @ Vekked on Twitter or at www . facebook . com / djvekked .
By DJ Vekked
Scratch Notation & The Boomerang Scratch
Ever since turntablists started using the turntable as an instrument to make music rather than just play music , we have tried to apply as much theory to the instrument as possible to both formalize it and make it more practical to make music and talk about technique . One of the biggest innovations in turntable music theory was notating our record and fader movements in a simple way so that it was possible to learn techniques graphically . It ’ s commonly called “ scratch notation ” or TTM ( turntablist transcription method ).
Notation In its most basic form , scratch notation simply shows the direction of the record movement and the position of the crossfader on the mixer ; however , it can get far more complex with marking for speed , rhythm , time signature , pitch , record speed , and other funky record techniques that aren ’ t the typical forward / backward movement .
Here , I ’ m just going to give a bare bones explanation , which in my opinion is the most practical for using scratch notation anyways . The three basic visual elements you will see on any scratch notation drawing are : 1 . Forward movement , represented by a diagonal line upwards and to the right .
2 . Backwards movement , represented by a diagonal line downwards and to the right .
3 . “ Clicks ,” or the crossfader position , represented by dots or lines . ( Some people choose to use dots and some choose to use straight lines up and down , but they both mean the same thing .)
To explain it more clearly , I ’ ll include one of my favourite techniques and break it down for you . This scratch is called the “ boomerang ” scratch . It ’ s considered one of the more modern / advanced scratches and became popular in the last 10 years . Most other modern scratch techniques are often just a specific combination of a few basic techniques , or they contain four or more notes , making them less versatile and expressive than techniques that are one or two notes long . The full boomerang scratch is six notes long , but it ’ s very easy to stop mid-scratch or change the note durations within it to make it useful over a variety of tempos and rhythms . Also , it combines very smoothly in and out of the classic “ chirp ” scratch since the first two begin the same way as a chirp .
Here is what the boomerang looks like as a scratch notation drawing :
In this drawing there are six straight lines , representing six total record movements . You read it left to right , so it goes up , down , up , down , up , down . This represents the forward and backward movements of the record . In other words , for the full technique you would move the record forward , backward , forward , backward , forward , backward .
If you ignored the dots and did this , you would be doing three of what we call “ baby scratches .” What makes it a boomerang scratch is the specific series of fader “ clicks ” represented by the dots .
Each dot stands for a closing of the fader once , which mutes the sound . In this scratch , the mute is only at the very end of each back and forth movement , and the sound becomes un-muted as soon as the direction of the record is changed . So if we follow the diagram starting at the left , the movements for each of the six notes in the boomerang scratch would be as follows : 1 . Move the record forward ( diagonal line up / right ). Close the fader to mute the sound while still travelling forward , unmute just as you begin to pull the record backwards ( the dot ).
2 . Move the record backwards ( diagonal line down / right ). Close the fader to mute the sound while still travelling backwards , unmute as you begin to push the record forwards . 3 . Move the record forward . 4 . Move the record backwards . Close the fader to mute the sound while still travelling backwards , unmute as you begin to push the record forwards .
5 . Move the record forward . Close the fader to mute the sound while still travelling forward , unmute just as you begin to pull the record backwards . 6 . Move the record backwards .
So that is basic scratch notation in a nutshell . It ’ s a really useful way of talking about techniques and explaining them without having to explain or type everything like I just did up there . It ’ s also a handy tool for writing down techniques or combinations that you stumble across so that you can remember them . There are also plenty of resources online with techniques already noted so that people can learn known techniques , or double check that they ’ re doing them right without having to seek out a video or rely on having it explained to them . Happy scratching !
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