DJ Lesson on Turntablism for the Digital DJ BY Ellaskins the DJ Tutor

0:00 This, I just want to give

Alright guys, this is a bit of an exercise for you to get you used to maybe the basics of turntablism. But before we look at this, I just want to give you a bit of info on a competition that's happening right now. It's going on for only a few more days, I believe, but check out the link in the description. It will take you to Chauvet DJ where they have the Halloween Scream Test. You can win kit and I highly recommend you go and play part. It doesn't cost anything, all you've got to do... Play a part and you could be within the chance of winning some Chauvet DJ kit. Okay, if you are by any chance watching this video during the latter part of 2015 and of course and beyond then it's highly likely that competition is finished but still keep an eye on Chauvet DJ because they've always got kit coming out and always got competitions going on. And also check out Mr Jeff Short because he's always got some very good videos.

In this demonstration, we're going to delve into turntablism. Now, I do take my hat off to the scratch turntablists who use vinyl because it's stunning what they do. I can do it a tiny bit from the scale of 1 to 10, maybe me 0.5 and they're like at 50. Yeah, you get me. Alright, so in this video, it's about not only a demonstration but how you yourself... You can, let's say, get used to moving a lot quicker on the turntables or your controller and the mixer as well. So this is about timing. Right, I have the same track. It doesn't really matter what the track's called. It's about having the same track. Have the same track, both sides, same speed, pitch, everything. No need to change anything. All you're going to be doing is really moving the crossfade.

1:51 It's about pushing yourself to the limit that you can get to

Do this in many ways. You can use hot cues, alternatively you can use the play pause and cue which is slightly more difficult but of course the more difficult it is for you the better you will become. It's about pushing yourself to the limit that you can get to. Once you've pushed yourself to that limit then you need to class that limit as another level And you need to look higher, get to that new level and so on and so on. So this is sort of level one. Right, I'll give you a demonstration first, then I will explain what's going on. Okay, so counting a bar. One, two, three, four. So my moves, first of all, were hot cue on one. One, two, three, sorry, I'll start again. So one, two, three, four. One, two, three, four.

So I was hitting the hot cue on one, on one side. So sometimes it's really difficult to even explain it while you're doing it. One, two, three, four and then one on the other side, two, three, four, crossfade over on two. So I'm now going to count while I'm doing the moves so it should be a little bit easier and also it'll help me as well. You try talking and doing a demo at the same time and explaining exactly what you're doing. It's rather difficult. Here we go, so one, two, three, four. See? Okay, start again. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. One, crossfade, three, four. Hot cue, crossfade, three, four. Hot cue, crossfade, three, four. Hot cue, crossfade, three, four. Hot cue, crossfade, three, four. Hot cue. But then of course I did it slightly faster and it was like this.

4:20 The analogy I've given before and I will give it again

One, two, three, four. One, two, one, two. One, two, one, two. I'll try and explain that. So, um... Oh, God. Right. Hot cue, crossfade... No, no. Hot cue, hot cue, crossfade, hot cue, crossfade, hot cue, crossfade, hot cue, crossfade, hot cue, crossfade, hot cue, crossfade, hot cue, crossfade, hot cue... Ah! Oh, shit. Yeah. Alright, so what are we doing? Well really we're doing repetitive moves but at the same time it's training your mind to, here's the deal, it's training your mind to yes, do these moves correctly. Also do the moves in time and do exactly the same move over and over again. More importantly above all of that, it's training yourself to not think about what you're doing. The analogy I've given before and I will give it again.

If you drive a car or whatever you do in life, if you actually thought, if you broke down your actions about every single movement that you did to get to whatever you were doing, you probably wouldn't be able to get to what you're doing because you would be thinking so much about what you're doing, you wouldn't be able to concentrate on where you want to go. Throttle, gear change. If you actually thought about all of those movements, you wouldn't be able to do it. You do it naturally. That's exactly the same that's going on here. Alright, what we can do as well is use the cue, play and pause. I'm just going to move the camera back slightly so I've got a little bit more room here. And by the way, just there is the Chauvet DJ page. So that's where you need to go and check out. Okay, so I'm just going to move the camera back slightly.

And this time what we're going to do is we're going to use play pause. So, this is what we do. We press play and then play pause. Play over. Cue, play over. Cue, play over. Cue, play over. Cue, play crossfade. Cue, play crossfade. Cue, play crossfade. Cue, play crossfade. Cue, play...and so on. Get going at that, have some fun, practice and enjoy. And don't forget, check out the link and check out Halloween Scream Test Chauvet DJ. Practice and enjoy. Thank you.

This transcript was produced automatically from the audio of the video and may contain mistakes.