spinning drum blog

ah blah practice day. I feel stationed in a plateau, more psychological than physical, as I have observed my breathing and scratch are more relaxed; and my chirp has improved, even my crab for that matter. The later I don’t practice that much as I haven’t been sold on its sound advantage. While I admire the creative finger play, it seems more show than anything. Still, I try at least to keep it in my repetoire. It could be that perfecting the crab is like a lot of skilz cultivation in that you don’t get it till you got it. Anyway, my approach needs a recharge. I need to see something new, not just better, but new- conceptually.

Oh great selectah in the sky, I’m looking for another ah ha moment.

Having said that, I read it once that mastery comes to those who survive the plateaus. That always stuck with me just ahead of the 99% perspiration 1% inspiration one.

At the moment, juggling is what has me most intrigued. It’s been a cornerstone of my daily practice and is the perfect pre-scratch warm-up, loosening up the wrists, fingers and crossfader, putting you in the swing and rhythm and getting your vinyl touch just right for the oncoming session. Having said that, juggling has never served as just vinyl foreplay. For a scratch musician, ultimately, it is where you can compose. But the learning curve is steep and can’t be rushed; so one has to just sink into the incessant repetiton for the first little while.

Now at this point with juggling I am starting to develop a fluency, and through my daily table dialogue, I am starting to really understand the language of music, not in theory but intuitively. Meeting riffs with rhythms, my fingertips speak in beats and melodies, deconstructing and rebuilding a track, or more accurately the smallest but best part of a track. As my juggling ability develops, music is teaching me about music, kind of like going to a foreign country with no guide book or translation tool and picking -up the language by simple immersion. Within my musical immersion, technique is becoming an effortless dance, and my mind more and more rests in a void where it only serves as a vehicle of motor control.

The tables are fun. Of course, one can’t realize how much fun until one has hours of practice under one’s belt. At last, all that I have dreamt and suspected was possible with this medium is emerging from my hands, yet I realize happily that I am still a babe in the woods, diligently but freely learning the language of rhythm. There is no overnight revelation to be had here, but a slow dawning of my own capabilities and that of the instrument. The fact that it offers a life long pursuit, and a neverending mystery is what brought me to the decks in the first place, and there is still not a day that passes that I do not marvel at the creation and evolution of the turntable, what it will teach us about sound and the musical dialogue.

Today while juggling, experimenting and trying to compose tracks from a few short riffs, I became aware of how natural my relationship had become with the tables. At one time they held an element of fear. Like any novice dj, I was intimidated by their seeming unpredictability, or my lack of spin control. In some ways it reminded me of taking a new lover, and the emotional charge and awkwardness of the first night. But I did, like I do with all my pursuits, enter into the relationship with a strong sense of commitment, to ride it through no matter how bumpy the road and see where it would take me. Why? because I knew I was in love! Four years later, I’m a bride of technics, with an 8 foot long sound bench, a mackie 1604, 3 tables, 2 mixers and a daily practice habit that never ceases to put a smile on my face.

It has always been my belief that it is not the performance but the process that is the reward, and as a musician you are not cultivating a show but a relationship. What your audience is really paying for is a piece of that relationship. They are paying for a taste of your marriage to your medium.

Today at the tables….
I dedicate the next year to perfecting the chirp! This simple scratch is the cornerstone of advanced scratching. A whole other tone as well as plethora of notes to meet your transformer scratch can be acheived by getting the chirp down. Fader open, pull back, quick, slow or stuttered, the chirp, in all its simplicity, offers the tablist the next level of sound.

I also dedicate the next year to mimicry in all its glory. I was scratching along to Dj Disk on the Tabala Beat Scientist cd and thinking where does he get…, how does he do some of those scratches? He’s working with the basic ahhh, but spins an entire call and response with the tabala player that journeys over immense audio territory. I love to free style to the piece, going mental to the rhythmic clashes and spiraling harmonics, wearing a hole in my battle records, but I dedicate the next year to dialing in and working within the constraint of mimicry.

I’m back after a busy week, that keeps getting busier. Earthdance rocked, and I’m proud to say Revolutionists threw down serious! Also, who would have ever thought my partner’s in crime would be busting out on the mic so well!

Getting ready for tomorrow at Radha and formulating fall shows and winter website additions. Got in fewer practice hours this week, but maintained at least a daily approach, with the exception of one day, which was devoted to The Spinning Drum.

So the most ground breaking thing I learned this week is that the Vestax 08 is out. And the future is fader indeed. The 08 is a MIDJ- meaning musical instrument for djaying, a term Vestax is coining for their new line, and it has fader eqs. Thus far it is one of the main factors that has me on Allen&Heath over the scratch musician’s traditional Vestax tool. The highly responsive curve control on the main faders, which in themselves offer greater blending ability, also keeps me in the A&H world. Can’t wait to try the 08 though, and will be check, check, ch, ch, checking it out when it arrives at a local gear store.

So why is fader on the eqs so important? ONE HANDED EQING. Means you can eq a blend while the other works the main fader, or volume, or simply waves in the air. Whatever! IT’S FREE.

What else? Well you can only EQ YOUR SCRATCHING, as all you need, yes I’ll say it again, is ONE HAND!

Vestax saw this, of course, which is one reason along with the space saving advantage that Vestax put it on the 07 in the first place. Yes, it freaked some djs out, but those who got used it saw the advantage. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not completely anti-knob; however, think …you don’t have a crossknob, you have a crossfader. For finesses faders rule.

now to technique….

Week’s best practice tip, well actually a reminder: breathe remember to breathe. Reminds me of my vocal coach in high school, but she was right. Fundamentally, this is the main give away of a mature player of any musical instrument. We’ve all watched in wonder at some virtuoso who moves with sublime ease all over their instrument. Like a veteran lover with a long-term partner, relaxed performance means many long hours in the bedroom practicing, and reflects a more intimate relationship between the player and his or her medium.

Remember to breathe, good words of advice all round. Certainly I’ve awoken from a scratch trance, with my mouth shut, body tensed, wondering how I didn’t pass out from lack of oxygen. But anyways, it’s been confirmed that one can mix two records, scratch and breathe all at the same time. It’s been done and not just at the DMCs.

Breathing equals pace, equals space.

Breathing gives the track a chance to breathe as well, and makes for a more polished piece. Always remember music needs silence for it to be music, and for the artist who takes a breath and offers space, he or she realizes for true artistry seeing or hearing what shouldn’t be there is as important as seeing or hearing what should.