eContact! 14.3 — Turntablism (January 2013) [Return to issue…]

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Turntable [wiki]: Performance Techniques

From Beat Juggling to Scratching

Beat juggling is the technique and sound that started Hip-Hop, DJing and Turntablism. Less glamorous than scratching, beat juggling often goes unnoticed to the untrained ear, however, it rivals scratching in its demand for skill and is an essential ability for any DJ using vinyl. At its most basic, beat juggling is the use of two copies of the same record to produce a loop of a particular section or phrase of music within the recording. DJ Kool Herc, a DJ involved in the inception of beat juggling, gained his fame by “building excitement through the breaks alone” while performing sets that “drove the dancers from climax to climax on waves of churning drums” (Chang 2005, 5).

Beat Juggling Explained

Imagine, for simplicity’s sake, that the DJ has a four beat loop, in 4/4 time. Beat one is marked with a piece of tape and the same marking exists on the second record. With the cross fader set to the left (i.e. Deck A on the left is at full volume, Deck B on the right is muted), the DJ starts the recording on beat one on Deck A. As the recording plays, the DJ has beat one on the second deck cued silently, and holds the record in place with light pressure of one or more right hand fingers as the turntable platter continues to rotate beneath the record. When record A reaches the end of beat 4, the DJ simultaneously releases the record on Deck B (allowing the rotating platter to whisk it away) and slides the cross fader rapidly to the right in order to mute the sound of Deck A and bring Deck B into the mix. This way, beat one of the same phrase is heard rhythmically in time, but on a different record.

At this point, the DJ has two rotating turntables and must reset this rhythmic puzzle to repeat the beat juggle. S/he now manually spins record A backwards to realign it at beat one before the end of the measure playing on Deck B. At the end of the measure on record B, the DJ releases the record on Deck A and again makes a cross fader cut. To put this in perspective, the two measure phrase as described above at 120 bpm would last four seconds.

It was this technique that DJs like Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash employed to take popular or obscure music and loop phrases, or “breaks”, and create Hip-Hop. Beat juggling did not plateau at repeating breaks. DJs, especially in the competitive scene, began to experiment with taking these loops and developing it into a novel musical idea.

Juggling and Tap Pausing

Juggles increased in speed to shorten breaks down to as short as a single beat and later, down to eighth notes. Conversely, with a suitable recording, turntablists developed “tap pausing” — a technique where the turntablist pauses the record with their hand between sounding notes. Typically paused between strong beats and often for the duration of one beat, this effectively drops the recording into cut time. During a tap pause, the DJ is challenged to pause the record between whatever gaps of silence exist; it is imperative that the record not progress far enough for the next note to begin to sound, however when the record is released, it should be as close as possible to the next audible event to prevent the introduction of any latent notes or beats. This offshoot of beat juggling remains one of the unsurpassed skills to display as part of a competitive routine. DJs such as DJ Mista Sinista prioritized this technique as a means by which to prove to their audiences and judges within the competitive DJ scene (Carluccio 1997). Still, tap pausing has more potential than simply putting a recording into cut time.

During tap pausing, the DJ has the length of silence s/he inserts at their creative disposal. Adding embellishing percussive scratches is one popular, yet possibly a more challenging and creative approach involves adding found notes or sounds of the other record to truly alter the original track’s content. One example includes offsetting two records such that if both records were released, beat one would sound on one record while the other would sound on beat two. The DJ instead, can allow beat one to progress, tap pause it and then fill the silence with beat two from the other record. This pattern can continue such that we hear beat two of the first record followed by beat three of the other. This staggering of beats is only the beginning of what this technique makes available to re-contextualize the content of recorded music. Rapidly returning one record to various known sounds within it while the other progresses in the tap paused technique is one of many examples where both records do not simply progress, but are reorganized based upon the will of the DJ.

Juggling and Scratching

Scratch performances are often performed on one turntable while the other record plays a simple backing track. The performer can augment the performativity of their shows by challenging themselves against a record that must be looped manually via beat juggling to provide the groove over which they wish to display their scratching prowess. This often breaks up the scratching into phrases, while the DJ diverts his or her efforts towards resetting their backing track. The process of rewinding the break does not have to be silent nor as simple as spinning the record back to beat one. The record can be moved rhythmically backwards while altering the cross fader to perform a phrase of scratching in the few seconds available until the groove demands the record be reintroduced into the mix.

Scratching

As the most recognized element of the turntableism performance, scratching has evolved significantly since its introduction by artist DJ Grand Wizard Theodor. Mark Katz when describing the modern scratch performance states, “It takes extraordinary coordination and an exquisite sense of timing to fashion such intricate rhythmic and contrapuntal structures from rotation pieces of vinyl” (Katz 2011, 140). During an interview, Grand Wizard Theodor’s scratching epiphany is told as he recalls:

I was playing music a little bit too loud and my mom came and banged on the door. Boom boom boom boom, “If you don’t cut that music down, you’re gonna” have to cut it off.” So while she was in the doorway, you know, screaming at me, I was still holding the record and rubbing the record back and forth. And when she left, I was like, hmm, that was a pretty good idea. When she left, I experimented with it you know, for a couple of months, a couple of weeks, [and with] different records. And then when I was ready we gave a party and that’s when I first introduced the scratch. — Grand Wizard Theodor (Pray 2001)

As mentioned previously in this paper (in “The Mixer”), the cross fader revolutionized scratching. On his 1981 release The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel (1981), early famed turntablist Grandmaster Flash demonstrates scratching without aggressive cross fader use over the bass line of Another One Bites the Dust. Though the album is one of the most revolutionary to the genre of turntablism, scratching proved to become a larger part of the Hip-Hop æsthetic and an esteemed element of the DJ performance (Covach 2009, 499).

Cross Fader Techniques

While scratching a DJ will, for almost all of the performance, have one hand on the record and one on the mixer — typically operating the cross fader. As the record is moved back and forth at varying speeds to achieve fluctuations in pitch, the cross fader is used to mute the turntable’s output and return to full volume (opening the cross fader), or cutting. This combination of gestures can bring about a plethora of expressive rhythmic possibilities.

The Crab

One example of extended cross fader techniques is “the crab.” This technique differs form typical cross fader cutting in that the DJ does not tap the cross fader with one finger followed by releasing the fader to allow for the same finger to repeat this rhythmically. This technique uses two or more fingers — often all four — to strike the cross fader, follow through, and swing past the paddle of the cross fader. The motion is much like snapping one’s fingers with the paddle of the fader between the thumb and the fingers, however the crab requires the “snapping” of up to all four fingers. The technique is comparable to a classical guitarist using four fingers to maximize the speed of their plucking. The crab, depending on what direction the fingers are striking the fader, can cut in or cut out the record at 64th note quadruplets (using four fingers), triplets (using three fingers), and duplets (using two fingers). Or if repeated at a continuous speed, can exceed groupings of four. Added to a well-trained wrist and fingers capable of virtuosic speeds on the cross fader, the crab can often amaze audiences with modulated percussion performances at ultra fast sequences.

Right and Left Hand Record Manipulation Techniques

While this cross fader dexterity occurs, the record hand is hard at work lining up samples on the record and generating its own rhythms by stopping and starting movement or changing directions. A talented turntablist will also be comfortable moving her or his rhythms at high and low record speeds. This does not mean the rhythms themselves are slowed, but that the record does not need to be moving quickly to generate fast and discernable rhythms. A very light touch is required to keep a record at low frequency and it is very easy to move the record such that the pitch jumps into the very biting stereotypical scratch sound. The most musically convincing “scratchers” are able to perform their very fast rhythms while fluctuating the frequency of the record over a wide range. More than just a percussive performance, scratching is a modulated percussion performance, and to achieve the most expressive performance demands the performer have finesse and speed.

Not all record hand movements are as simple as moving the record. Some techniques require unique motor skills and practiced gestures to successfully execute. Some of these extended record techniques challenge the most skilled cross fader masters with their rhythmic potential and sonically curious outcomes.

Scribble

One example of extended record techniques includes the “scribble” or sometimes known as the “uzi”. The names are fairly representative of the sound created by the technique. The scribble is performed by placing one finger on the record, usually the middle or pointer finger, and vibrating the wrist and finger as fast as possible. The performers finger is kept almost locked, while the flesh of the fingertip oscillates the record back and forth at distances within millimeters. Though this skill is honed by developing the highest angular velocity of the record, the most difficult aspect involves initiating the vibrations in one’s wrist suddenly, without allowing the wrist to accelerate slowly to velocities qualifying as a scribble. To abruptly go into a scribble during a scratch performance is a difficult maneuver. Furthermore, incorporating a scribble into a repeating riff where the scribble returns predictably proves ones control over the technique and can be a tasteful embellishment when incorporated in time with the music.

Hydroplane

The “hydroplane” is one of few techniques that requires both hands to interact with the record and temporarily abandon the mixer. The hand manipulating the record is used to push the record forward while the other hand places one finger on the opposite side of the record, such that the finger points in the opposite direction of the record’s rotation. The DJ’s two hands end up moving circumferentially towards each other. When the perfect amount of pressure is placed on the finger running against the record, the fingertip begins to jump off the surface of the record as the friction between the two surfaces undergoes the transition from static to kinetic friction. The effect is analogous to when a car tire screeches, or even the principles of physics that a bowed string instrument relies on. As the bow of a stringed instrument is drawn across the strings, the bow initially has static friction — the friction force that prevents objects from slipping as a force acts on the object.

Once an object is in motion and is moving against a frictional surface, the drag force is caused by kinetic friction. The bow for a stringed instrument will have just the right coefficient of friction (adjusted with rosin) that when moved across the stings it alternates between static friction and kinetic friction, the bow is drawn such that it is near the threshold between the two frictional forces. At this threshold, since the two forces are not equal, the switch causes the bow to suddenly loose contact with the strings and strike the strings. At extremely high frequencies, this functions to excite the strings.

The DJ’s finger running against the record jumps off and falls back to the records surface only to repeat this cyclically just like the bow of a stringed instrument, but at a much lower frequency. This cycle occurs at some frequency beyond any rhythmic significance, but causes the turntable’s needle to loose contact with the record — causing a warbling effect. Despite the seemingly abusive physics taking place at the inappreciable level, the musical outcome is not abrasive and instead is quite curious. If done over a recognizable vocal sample, the hydroplane can even elicit a humorous outcome.