Turntablism

The art of turntablism is an important part of our cultural history which originates from the late 1970’s. It is the more technical aspect of dj’ing which uses techniques such as scratching where you take a record and move it back and forth to create a scratching effect. Some of the most renowned scratch DJ’s spend 6 or 7 hours a day practicing their art and are extremely dedicated people indeed.

Our exciting and intensive 2 day crash course. We can teach you the skills necessary to get started in the turntablism field. You will be taught using the latest and industry standard equipment such as the Pioneer CDJ1000 cd decks, Technics 1210 turntables, Pioneer DJM600 and Vestax PMC05 mk3 scratch mixers.

You can take the course in a small group of 4 people or on a one to one basis and will receive practical hands on tuition from day one. If you choose the option of studying this course on a one to one basis you can change the course content and timetable to suit your personal requirements.

This course is also very good if you want advice on purchasing turntablism set up but has yet to decide on a package that would be the most suitable for your needs. Our tutors and advisors are able to offer informed and impartial advice that will help you choose the best combination of hardware and software to suit your budget.

On the final day of the course you will personally or in collaboration with other students create a scratch mix cd utilising the skills gained during the course. This will then be duplicated and you will be able to take away a personalised copy, you can even have your own artwork on the cd!

Snapshot of what you could learn during the course

ntroduction to turntablism
- learn about the culture, the technical possibilities and the equipment needed
The equipment
- such as turntables, slipmats, mixers, needles, headphones and basic connections and wiring
Scratching
- learn about music structure such as beats and bars and scratch techniques such as chirps and flares
Beat juggling
- learn to beat juggle, using vocal tracks to create your own lyrics and phrases
Beat cutting
- play your beats/rhythms using samples, learn to find and mark up the sounds needed create a drum beat
Team scratching
- playing in a scratching team, create beats using samples, basslines and melodies using tones
Song production
- putting a routine together and producing a scratching track using advanced scratching techniques
Mix Cd production
- learn to record and edit a final mastered mix of your dj set or performance using audio editing software such as Sony Soundforge.

How long does the course last? The course lasts for just one or two days for the one to one version and two days for the group course.

What time of the day do I attend the course? the course starts at 12.00 and finishes around 17.00

Can I really learn that much in a single weekend? Yes you can, our crash courses are structured to be intensive yet informative and students gain a great deal of knowledge from them. We constantly monitor the content and delivery of all our courses and if they didn’t work we wouldn’t be running them!