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Turntable notation?

prof_rockwellprof_rockwell 2,867 Posts
edited December 2007 in Strut Central
Anyone ever use this? I'm talking about:http://ttmethod.com/or any kind of 'scratch notation'.

  Comments

  • bruceforcebruceforce 92 Posts
    this was created by the dude that made BattleSounds. killer movie. mindblowing for the time.
    but no, haven't used it.
  • waxjunkywaxjunky 1,849 Posts
    Pretty cool site.
  • jaysusjaysus 787 Posts
    I learned a lot using the Turntable Technique: The Art of the DJ book, but i was feeling this notation much more. I have always hated western notation, so german/white/nonintuitive that i can nots get with the "standard".
  • TECUMSEHTECUMSEH 301 Posts
    It's cool, but it seems limited. Personally I don't like looking at cutting this way, for me it's just to much of an intellectual way of looking at something. I would rather look at cutting from an emotional(spiritual) standpoint. If at the end of the day the skratching makes you feel something then that's really what's up. It's like you can't get anything new from looking at the known. I mean def respect to John C. and the people who put the work into this, and hey maybe it will help some, but for my personal path I can't really see myself using it. But hey at the end of the day to each his own.

    Personally I just don't find notation ever comparing to listening to the original song or sound.
  • gravelheadwrapgravelheadwrap corn 948 Posts
    I had an old Future Primitive record (I think it was Future Primitive) by Radar with the scratch notation accompanying the music. Interesting, never really could get with it though.
  • cascas 1,484 Posts
    It's cool, but it seems limited. Personally I don't like looking at cutting this way, for me it's just to much of an intellectual way of looking at something. I would rather look at cutting from an emotional(spiritual) standpoint. If at the end of the day the skratching makes you feel something then that's really what's up. It's like you can't get anything new from looking at the known. I mean def respect to John C. and the people who put the work into this, and hey maybe it will help some, but for my personal path I can't really see myself using it. But hey at the end of the day to each his own.

    Personally I just don't find notation ever comparing to listening to the original song or sound.

    agreed. i respect the effort, but even back in the day, i always thought that this was too robotic of a way to handle shit. cuts should always be loose and unique to that moment. remember those graph/grid pieces of paper that used to be floating around? i think they were passing them out at the battle sounds nyc premier or something. i used them to write to-do lists on.
  • mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
    I had an old Future Primitive record (I think it was Future Primitive) by Radar with the scratch notation accompanying the music. Interesting, never really could get with it though.

    It's an idea that had its moment in time but its currency has always been micro-limited. To be honest, I had totally forgotten about the whole concept for the last few years but I suppose some DJs can find some utility with it.
  • prof_rockwellprof_rockwell 2,867 Posts
    I learned a lot using the Turntable Technique: The Art of the DJ book, but i was feeling this notation much more. I have always hated western notation, so german/white/nonintuitive that i can nots get with the "standard".

    oh ho! you're one of those turntablists.
  • Young_PhonicsYoung_Phonics 8,039 Posts
    ADVANCED DUNGEON AND DRAGONZ
  • JectWonJectWon (@_@) 1,654 Posts
    I think this is a step in the right direction, but I don't think it's as intuitive or as easy to understand as traditional musical notation.

    Obviously, there is a huge challenge in that sounds or cadences can be played any number of different ways. For instance,you could do 16th notes as a series of flares, a series of chirps, crabs two click flares, baby scratches, etc....and I guess there in lies the rub; and that seems to be where this notation becomes really freaking difficult.

    The basic cuts are pretty well covered in this notation. However what about all those cuts that you sort of invent by mushing different cuts together?

    I guess what I mean to say is, the basics are pretty completely covered in this method, but I'm yet to see it cover the more ridiculous cuts that dominate the turntablist landscape.

    One thing I think would be possible to do is create a weather chart (similar to the charts I've used in the past playing the drums in school). Rather than writing individual parts for the drum part they have a weather chart which tells you where the accents are for individual parts of the tune you are playing and it's up to you to decide how you are going to do that. This becomes somewhat of a collaborative effort between you and the conductor in that your conductor might say (your a little over the top there, I like you how are hitting the accents but take it down a notch and try to stay in the groove with the rest of the band...etc.); but at the end of the day, it's your own creative responsibility to fill in the gaps and there is no official written map of exactly how to pull that off.

    I would love to see a definitive way to transcribe scratching but I think it's still on some shit to the point where that goal is pretty far off.

    Again, this is an amazing start. However, I think there is something to be said about the fact that this method hasn't caught on universally and hasn't really been touched since 2005, to my knowledge.

    Anyone remember those sites that showed how to do various cuts by showing you an animation of the fader as well as an animation which illustrated the cutting movement, as well? I think the invisiblskratchpiklz site had that or had links to it.

    That was the best way for me to learn the basics of the more complicated cuts because I had no one to learn from at the time.

    In a way, I feel this notation is too difficult. They are reinventing the wheel in the sense that 8th notes, quarter notes, sixteenth notes and the like are all present in turntablism and I think those notes should be present in the turntablist transcription. The trick is how to convey the way in which you play those notes (crabs? flares? orbitals? prisms?). Perhaps different symbols could be used while keeping the basic note values listed above.

    I guess this is all basically lip service until someone gets off their ass and does it, though.
  • Young_PhonicsYoung_Phonics 8,039 Posts
    I think this is a step in the right direction, but I don't think it's as intuitive or as easy to understand as traditional musical notation.

    Obviously, there is a huge challenge in that sounds or cadences can be played any number of different ways. For instance,you could do 16th notes as a series of flares, a series of chirps, crabs two click flares, baby scratches, etc....and I guess there in lies the rub; and that seems to be where this notation becomes really freaking difficult.

    The basic cuts are pretty well covered in this notation. However what about all those cuts that you sort of invent by mushing different cuts together?

    I guess what I mean to say is, the basics are pretty completely covered in this method, but I'm yet to see it cover the more ridiculous cuts that dominate the turntablist landscape.

    One thing I think would be possible to do is create a weather chart (similar to the charts I've used in the past playing the drums in school). Rather than writing individual parts for the drum part they have a weather chart which tells you where the accents are for individual parts of the tune you are playing and it's up to you to decide how you are going to do that. This becomes somewhat of a collaborative effort between you and the conductor in that your conductor might say (your a little over the top there, I like you how are hitting the accents but take it down a notch and try to stay in the groove with the rest of the band...etc.); but at the end of the day, it's your own creative responsibility to fill in the gaps and there is no official written map of exactly how to pull that off.

    I would love to see a definitive way to transcribe scratching but I think it's still on some shit to the point where that goal is pretty far off.

    Again, this is an amazing start. However, I think there is something to be said about the fact that this method hasn't caught on universally and hasn't really been touched since 2005, to my knowledge.

    Anyone remember those sites that showed how to do various cuts by showing you an animation of the fader as well as an animation which illustrated the cutting movement, as well? I think the invisiblskratchpiklz site had that or had links to it.

    That was the best way for me to learn the basics of the more complicated cuts because I had no one to learn from at the time.

    In a way, I feel this notation is too difficult. They are reinventing the wheel in the sense that 8th notes, quarter notes, sixteenth notes and the like are all present in turntablism and I think those notes should be present in the turntablist transcription. The trick is how to convey the way in which you play those notes (crabs? flares? orbitals? prisms?). Perhaps different symbols could be used while keeping the basic note values listed above.

    I guess this is all basically lip service until someone gets off their ass and does it, though.


    great! a nerdier explanation of something that's abundantly nerdy already.
  • JectWonJectWon (@_@) 1,654 Posts


    great! a nerdier explanation of something that's abundantly nerdy already.

    Hey, you ask for it when you click on a topic called "turntable notation?". Besides you have the word phonics in your name; you're a nerd too. Welcome home! **pound and a bear hug**
  • JuniorJunior 4,853 Posts


    great! a nerdier explanation of something that's abundantly nerdy already.

    Hey, you ask for it when you click on a topic called "turntable notation?". Besides you have the word phonics in your name; you're a nerd too. Welcome home! **pound and a bear hug**

  • prof_rockwellprof_rockwell 2,867 Posts


    great! a nerdier explanation of something that's abundantly nerdy already.

    Hey, you ask for it when you click on a topic called "turntable notation?". Besides you have the word phonics in your name; you're a nerd too. Welcome home! **pound and a bear hug**

    well, it was more of a survey to see if anyone really even bought into the whole idea of this. I mean, I've known about this since '99/'00 but never really got into it myself, and I'm helping someone with a presentation on it for their class today, so I wanted to see if perhaps I was just from the whole scene or if it really did just fizzle out.
  • DB_CooperDB_Cooper Manhatin' 7,823 Posts
    So, what's the notation for "wikki wikki?"
  • keithvanhornkeithvanhorn 3,855 Posts
    i just think its over most people's heads. why wouldn't it be useful to a rap group/artist who is trying to incorporate scratches into a chorus or as like a solo. the dj could show up to the studio and say, ok, here are some patterns that i'm thinking about, here's what they sound like....and now, here is what they look like, lets figure out what compliments the song the best.






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