The Meatloaf Story
A mother is making meatloaf with her teenage daughter; a ritual they’ve been doing together for years. As part of the tradition, the two chefs cut the ends of each side of the meatloaf before putting it in the oven. One day, the teen asks, “Mom, why do we cut the ends off the meatloaf before we put it in the oven?”
Taken by surprise, the mom began to think. She had no good reason, other than that’s how her own mother did it and that was the way she learned. Together, the two called up grandma. “Grandma, why do we cut the ends off each side of the meatloaf before putting it in the oven?” After a brief laugh, the Grandmother admitted that she didn’t know the answer either. It was the way her own mother taught her. Tradition. It turns out her mother was living in a nearby nursing home, so they all went to visit.
Upon hearing the question, the 98-year-old great grandmother roared with laughter. “I have no idea why you are cutting the ends off the meatloaf! I used to do it only because I didn’t have a big enough pan!”
When you scratch, is it a true expression of your own personal creativity or are you just regurgitating a system of hand movements that have no relevance to the way your spirit desires to harmonize with the act of scratching?
Don’t get mentally bogged down by scratch ideology that tells you the “Flare” or “Chirp” are “open fader” scratches. That’s a very dogmatic philosophy towards scratching and I see it confusing A LOT of beginner and intermediate DJs. You’ll never hear me start a “Flare” or “Chirp” scratch with the fader open.
I want Brolic Army students to let go of the mental schema of “open fader” and “closed fader” scratches and trust your limbs to figure it out without you having to think about it before your hands decide to move. Once you develop the muscle memory for starting cuts like “Chirps” and “Flares”, the scratches come automatically and you won’t think about having to open the fader before you get busy! Watch Basic Scratching – Part 4 – Transformer, Reverse Drag and Chirp, specifically the excerpt where I discuss the “Chirp” at Brolic Army DJ School. I debunk the entire idea of the “Chirp” having to start from the open position on the crossfader.
The way one DJ does things (master or not) isn’t always the ONLY way to do them. Just like 2 + 2 = 4, so does 10 – 6. Scratches like the “Chirp” or the “Flare” aren’t “open fader” scratches when I do them. They’re closed, and that doesn’t make me or anyone who performs them like me wrong. It just makes us different, and when it comes to scratching, different is good!
So, on those occasions where you power up your DJ gear and start practicin’ yo cuts, please be mindful of whether you’re doing scratching mindlessly, i.e. going through the motions because so and so said this is how you’re supposed to express your hand movements or are you being curious. You’ll be amazed at how much you’ll discover if it’s the latter.