15 Levels of Turntable Scratching: Easy to Complex | WIRED

Turntablism is the art of using the turntable as a musical instrument. DJ Shortkut explains turntablism in 15 levels of difficulty, from easy to complex. Shortkut starts with the very basics of scratching all the way to complicated techniques like beat juggling.

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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[dj_skratchmo]

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!

[solrac]

I love how he intersperses a little bit of hip-hop history, crediting the creators of various techniques.

[JadeEyeland]

This is legitimately better than most turntablism focused channels. Huge ups dude

[TobyKBTY]

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

[llama]

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

[breakitdown]

Never realized DJ Jazzy Jeff was such a pioneer. He really invented a lot of techniques.

[MileHighGrowler]

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!

[Gollumfili]

Love it how they just let him get on with it and explain / demo his craft. Brilliant.

[coach_paul_t]

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.

[DJDestructionOfficial]

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! 👊🏼

[Kazuya]

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. ✌🏽

[phonologic]

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.

[noddy]

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.🤗

[cleangoblin]

I really miss turntable in modern music.
This needs to comeback

[karlmay]

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.

[djcarlo]

This is so awesome! Kudos to Shortkut and the team!

[nargeta]

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

[patrickbuswell]

I was lucky enough to see him live a few times. The guy is a legend! Thank you wired for this video

[tom.allez]

I like how Shortkut was thorough with each lesson. Definitely a true legend. This brings back memories watching shigger fragger show and all the videos they used to put out in the 90’s

[ArnoldVeeman]

I am a big fan of hiphop and rap music, went to countless of concerts of many amazing crews/bands.
One thing I never understood is how one actually did this scratching. I knew it sounds cool but that was it.
Over the many years I learned how to play all kinds of instruments and even studied music composition and orchestration which is what I do for a living now.
But... scratching was still a mystery until I found you/this video.

I am not aspiring to be a scratcher/turntablist but to actually see how it's done is a different story. Enlightening too!

Thank you for sharing this information. I know I could have found tips and tricks anywhere else, but today I stumbled across your video and it amazed me, realizing that this was a blind spot for me.

Awesome 😃🤘🏾