It's all about the music

You always hear people say this. But have you ever wondered what does it really mean? Are people saying this for a reason? I mean it can mean A LOT of things, such as: you play the right track (dj); use the right samples (producer/composer); have the right flow and voice (MCs)… etc, etc, etc. But what is right? I guess that is the beauty of music, there is no right or wrong. Whatever your relationship with music is, everybody has a different interpretation of “it’s all about the music”. I don’t really want to waste time talking about areas I know little about and sound like an idiot. So I’ll talk about turntablism explicitly, something I know a little more about.

I guess it’s fair to say not a lot of people understand it. In a way, I don’t blame them, because there are so few in Hong Kong and it’s not like you see them performing in public a lot. I think the misunderstanding here is that turntablism mainly focuses on the technical side, i.e. scratching and juggling. Partly true, but that’s not where it stops. To me, turntablism is all about the music, in the following aspects:

1. Scratching- To those who don’t scratch or just begun, this probably sounds like noise and gibberish. The concept is just a beat playing on one side and cutting/manipulating the sound on the other side. Doesn’t sound that sexy, does it? But how music (and music theory) applies here is rhythm. The most important thing is to develop a flow and scratch “vocabulary”, which is what all the practising is about. In due time, your understanding of rhythm improves, i.e. difference between off/on beat, single time, double time, triplet time, swing time, etc… All which are equally, if not more important for other arts such as rapping, drumming, beat production, etc. Then when you understand these different rhythms, that is when you can apply it to scratching and develop as a “musician”. Sounds easy, but far from that in reality. That’s why, to me, scratching is a love hate relationship.

2. Routine building/battling/juggle- Music in this sense is very different from scratching. In a nutshell, you choose your songs to juggle and apply various juggle/scratching techniques. So a natural assumption will be: stronger + faster = better. Again this is partly true, but misses the point. To build a good routine, you need a few things…

Structure- e.g. intro, climax and ending

Consistency in tune- e,g, scales, avoiding major and minor clash

Tempo- ensure single/double time is consistent with original bpm

Bar sense- typically multiplies of 4 bars for Hip Hop and most importantly

Song selection- whatever genre you use

These are just some of the considerations of how “all about the music” applies and how a turntablist’s style develops. I mean, that’s why you have a divide in styles that you see in the battle circuit nowadays… French go for the aggressive breakbeat style; Japanese go for the Reggae/DnB/Musical style; USA uses a lot of Hip Hop and disses. This is very broad and subjective, but it is the general trend nowadays nontheless.

So yea, if you have some thoughts or ideas to share, leave a message or something. Otherwise, don’t.

~M