Follow Your Own Rhythm
There are three aspects of scratching. These are harmony, melody and rhythm. Harmony is a blending of the different pitches you reach within a solo. Harmony is important because it prevents your scratches from becoming monotonous. Melody is the sequence with which you scratch. As a scratcher you must be able to scratch what you think on the spot. Rhythm is what unites harmony and melody together over a beat. No matter how well you think you know the mechanics of a scratch you learned or “created”, inability to perform said scratch alongside music makes the scratch you think you know useless. If you can’t give form to your ideas as they come, then your cuts are echoing the melody of your influences. Scratching is supposed to be an extension of your own personal cadence. Not someone else’s, and discovering it takes work! One doesn’t become a distinguished scratcher by turning themselves into a clone of the scratchers they admire. Yes, at first you learn through imitation. You go th...