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Skratch Lessons: Syncopation

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This page contains a transcription of a video lesson from Hip-Hop Scratch with DJ Qbert. This is only a preview of what you get when you take Skratch Lessons at ArtistWorks. The transcription is only one of the valuable tools we provide our online members. Sign up today for unlimited access to all lessons, plus submit videos to your teacher for personal feedback on your playing.

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[MUSIC]
Now,

all right, we're going to talk about
syncopation.

I've done this a couple times, but we're
going to do this again.

Here we go.

So, this is one bar.

One bar is like this, right?

One, two three, four, one.

Okay.

That's a loop right there, all right?

So, we'll draw that here.

{SOUND].

This is one.

And, that's one right there, because it's
a loop.

It's like one, two, three, four.

Okay.
So, we'll do that, we'll cut this in half.

All right.

So, one, two, three, four, one.

All right.

So, that's all the way back in, let's just
put a big number here.

Two, three, four, and that's back to one
over here.

All right?

So, that's the loop.

These are called quarter notes because
it's divided into four

like a quarter, right?

You got your quarter note, quarter note,
quarter note, quarter note.

Then, you got in between those you've got
the eighth notes, right?

All right?

So, this is what we call 1 and, so this is
the and symbol.

I'd just like to put a little and sign
there, all right.

These and signs are normally.

If you're head bobbing, it's when your
head goes up.

All right.

So, one, and two, and three, and four, and
one, and two, and

three, and four, and so those are called
eighth notes, right?

So now, there's eight things.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven,
eight right?

And then, in between those you got the
sixteenth notes, right?

Looks like, looks like a ruler.

It's almost as if they made a ruler for
music or something.

All right.

And, the way to count this is one E, is
there E and a, e and a right?

1-3 and-a 2-e and-a 3-e and-a 4-e and-a
1-e and-a 2-e and-a 3-e and-a 4-e and-a.

All right.

e and-a.

Let's just write the big ol' 1 over here
because that's a loop.

All right.

So now ,what we're gonna concentrate on
today is syncopation and

what that is is these e uhs.

Right here, we're going to talk about
these notes right here.

Syncopated, all right?
So normally, when you're scratching

you're landing your scratches on the one,
two, three, and four, right?

So,
[MUSIC].

So, that was a chicky chicky where I
landed on the two.

Do that again, here we go.

[MUSIC]
Right?

So, that scratch was like chicky chicky.

Right?

Chicky chicky.

Right?

So, that's there.

I guess I was doin' a chirp earlier, so if
you wanna mark that, it looks like that.

[MUSIC]
Right.

So, we're not gonna talk about landing it
on those.

We're gonna talk about landing it on these
weird ones right here,

these in-between ones right here, right?

So, let's just mark those right now,
alright?

I'm gonna land my scratch on, on, on all
of them.

I'm gonna land my scratch on all these
little in between syncopated notes.

All right?
Those are called the syncopated notes.

So, I'm gonna start right here.

[MUSIC]

All right.

So, what I was doing, I was landing it on
these little guys right here,

point a little arrow to them.

All these little guys in here, and so
forth, all right?

Those little guys right there.

All right.

So, that's going

to make a scratching sound super funky
when you land your rhyme.

Times on those weird ones right there.

So, let's do something where I'll just do
a bunch of them right now.

[MUSIC]

Now, you get the idea?

So, all my rhymes were pretty much landed
on one of those syncopated notes, okay?

So, let's just pick two notes right here.

This is kinda cool, when the drummers
drum,

they lotta times hit these two cymbals.

We're going to point to these guys right
here.

So, all my guys are going to

land on those two guys right there.

All right, see how that sounds kinda
funny?

All right.

So, we're going to keep on continuing
that.

We're going to land those identical ones
right here.

Right?

[MUSIC]

All right.
So, it's kinda tricky.

Maybe, you guys kinda don't get it yet.

Let's see.
Let's do one.

One where it's like a.

[MUSIC]

Actually, I made a mistake here.

It was actually D's I was hitting.

Sorry about that, guys.

Sorry about that, sorry about that.

Let's try it really right here.

[MUSIC].

All right.
Sorry about that first part, but

yeah that's where I was landing them.

[MUSIC]

[MUSIC]
Let's pick another one.

Let's just, let's go with this one, right
here.

How would that sound?

Let's do this, do this one, over here.

Those three, right there, all right?

So,
[MUSIC].

'Kay, you'll would go like this.

[MUSIC]
[LAUGH] I got lost.

Here it goes.

[MUSIC]

anyway Hopefully, you're kinda getting the
idea.

I remember I was trying to show my friend
this stuff and he, he was like,

I don't get it, I don't get it.

Because it is kinda like, weird because
we're not starting on the one.

It's like you're starting right one
sixteenth after that.

So, the way I learned how to get into
that, like,

it's kind of just tough to just go
[SOUND].

So, what I do is I do one little stab
right here in the beginning.

I do this one little real quick stab right
at the beginning.

[SOUND]
Right?

[MUSIC]

Right on the one, so its like, [SOUND].

All right?

[MUSIC]
And,

what that does is get you use to doing
these right here.

So, here's the pattern right here.

[MUSIC]

All right.
So, actually,

I'm I'm not doing this note here.

That's the kind of the, that's the one
learned when I was a kid trying to figure

out how the hell to do these, get used to
these syncopated patterns.

[MUSIC]

So, right there,

what I was doing was I figured out how to
get this final note here.

You just gotta do
[MUSIC].

This actual note right here is right here
because it's a loop.

So, that is identical to that right there.

So, i'm just going to add that, i'm just
going to draw that in there.

But, that last note right there is
actually the exact same note as that.

So, it became three notes, one two three.

Let me just draw that cuz it's kind of a
little confusing.

So, this is what that was, was the one.

That's, that one right there.

So, there's three notes.

I should just erase this just so, so I
don't get confused.

Just erase this guy right here.

And, that's the whole loop right there,
right?

So, what I'm doing is I'm scratching this,
these three numbers, right?

[SOUND]

See, see all that?

So, when I got that pattern, I just kinda
like running through my

little Skratch history, cuz I learned to
get this one in here, too.

All right?

Whoops.
Sorry about that.

[MUSIC]
Whoops.

Get a better eraser than my finger.

So, I started learning these three, these
three notes.

Yeah.

Those three notes right there.

Da, da, da.
Da, da, da.

Da, da, da.

One, two, three.

Da, da, da.
Da, da, da.

[MUSIC]

All right.
Do a little swing in there.

So, when I got that, it got a lot easier
for me, all right?

Cuz before.

Let's erase all this stuff right here.

Before, I was just doing you know, kinda
like on the beat with three notes.

So, it's like one, two, three, one, two,
three.

All right, that's a lot easier
[MUSIC]

because it's just one, two, three, space.

One, two, three, space.

One, two, three.

[SOUND] That's a lot easier right?

[MUSIC]
So, those are not syncopated.

But, if you want to get syncopated, then
we just-

Lets try it this way right here.

If you want to get syncopated, then just
move it over one.

Take that up.

Move over one, take that out, move it over
one.

Take that out, and move it over one.

All right?

So now, we're going to start it a little
bit later.

It's that same pattern that.

[SOUND]
,.

We're going to do a syncopated version
shift it over one sixteenth.

So, that's going to sound like this
[SOUND].

[MUSIC]
All right.

Or, you could do it, shift it over this
way,

back to sixteenth notes and it would be
like this.

[MUSIC]
Right?

But, this one is.

[SOUND].

Anyway, you probably got the idea of what
sync syncopated notes are now.

So just do that and

practice wing skratch, make sure they
rhyme on there.

Make them rhyme on the beat,

make them rhyme syncopated on the beat,
syncopated, on the beat, syncopated.

And, that's what's going to make all your
scratches sound cool.

[MUSIC]

All right, you hear that?

I mixed it up.

I landed some of my rhymes on the beat and
some on syncopated.

Some are on the beat.

Some are syncopated, but anyway, I hope
you get what syncopation is and

test it out with your skratches.

All right?

[MUSIC]

Playing:		Looping:		Adjust:
space	play/pause	I	set loop start point	[	move start back 1 sec
←	back 10 secs	O	set loop end point	]	move start forward 1 sec
→	forward 10 secs	L	start/stop looping	SHIFT-[ or ]	move end
↑	rewind to beginning	C	clear loop	CTRL-[ or ]	move both
H	this help	F	full screen toggle	ALT-[ or ]	next/prev section

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