Beat juggling techniques explained by djwes

Cupe · December 21, 2010

(Quick Note: This tutorial assumes you have a basic knowledge of DJing and Music Theory)

[Loops]

The most basic beat juggle, the loop, is just the repetition of several beats, bars, or measures of a song. Regardless of the loop length, the technique is the same:

- Get two copies of the same record, and que them up to the start of the same phrase. The easiest thing to do is start with the first beat of a song, usually a kick drum.

- Release your first record and let it play out. When it reaches the end of the phrase (usually 4 or 8 beats), simultaneously release your second record and cut the crossfader over allowing the second record to play out.

- As the second record plays out, rewind your first record back to that loop start point – the beginning of your phrase.

- When the second record reaches the end of the phrase, once again cut over the crossfader and release the first record letting it play out.

Keep repeating that process, and you’re all set!

Listen to the 4 Beat Loop,

2 Beat Loop, and

1 Beat Loop

[Replace]

A Replace is essentially a Loop, but instead of always ‘rewinding’ back to the same start point, you move the start point forward or back to get a different sounding loop. From a music theory standpoint, you do this by ‘replacing’ a beat in your loop with a beat on the other record thereby shifting the downbeat to another spot. Here’s how to do a basic 2-beat loop snare ‘Replace’:

- Get two copies of the same record, que the first one to the start of the phrase (usually a kick drum), but que the other one to the first snare drum in the phrase on beat two.

- Release the first record and let first 3 beats play out (in rough terms -a kick, a snare, and another kick).

- Just as you arrive at the *last* snare drum on beat 4, cut your crossfader over, and release your second record which again you have qued up to the first snare of the phrase. You thereby ‘replace’ the snare that should have played out on beat 4 on the first record with your snare on the second record.

- Now as your second record plays out, rewind the first record, but this time to that first snare – not the beginning of the phrase.

- Once again, right as you reach that last snare on beat four on record two, release that ‘first snare’ on record one and repeat the process.

- That was the first two plays of the ‘loop’. Generally you’d do a set of four loops to form a larger phrase. To make that work however, when you get to the 4th and ‘last’ loop in your larger phrase, you now need to rewind your last record all the way back to the first beat of the phrase to re-establish the downbeat.

It's a lot simpler to listen to the Replace

[Triple Hit]

The triple hit is named as such because you ‘drop’ the beginning of the loop three times in the same phrase. My crew learned it in a private lesson with Neil Armstrong of the Fifth Platoon. The sound this produces brings the energy up a notch and provides a great transition to a faster loop or different juggle. To get your head around this technique you need to be acutely aware of the location of the first kick and first snare of your loop on both records one and two, and be able to hit those marks with both hands pretty darn quickly. You have one kick drum and one snare on each side - that's four points. You need to own those points. To perform the triple hit you:

- Let kick and snare play out on first record, but *immediately* after the snare hits, cut the cross fader and drop record two at the beginning of the loop.

- In a single beat, very quickly rewind your first record to the beginning of the loop, and on the next beat cut the cross fader and drop it on that first kick drum.

- Let that first record play just that first kick drum – a single sound - and on the next beat cut over to your second record again to play the snare. *However* when you get back to that second record it's already going to be half a beat too far ahead, so you will need to super-quickly pull it back a tad before cutting over so that you hit your mark.

Simple right? Listen to the Triple Hit

[Off Rocking]

Offrocking (named because you're rocking the offbeats) is pretty easy, lots of fun, challenges you to make quicker and more accurate rewinds, and is the gateway to really advanced beat juggles (the ones too advanced for this author).

Basically you let the first record play out, and on the second record you hang out on the first snare drum, and 'stab' it (quickly open up the cross fader and let it play, close the xfder, rewind, repeat) to layer extra snare hits on top of the beat. This allows you to "swing" the beat, double it up, and rework the rhythm to your liking.

In the simple version of this juggle, you let one record one play all the way out, and just rock a snare on record two on top of it. Just ‘stabbing’ that snare, especially before and after the snare playing out on the other record, sounds cool. If you do full crossfader cuts to ‘your snare’ or sometimes ‘drag’ the snare you can make it sound even more interesting.

The more advanced off rocking comes when you do it in a loop. Here’s an attempted explanation of the audio sample below:

- Que record 1 to the beginning of your phrase. Que record 2 to the first snare in the phrase. That snare is the one you’re going to offrock.

- Drop record 1 and let the loop play out. Offrock your snare on record 2 and jazz up the beat, but don’t do it for too long because….

- As you near the end of the loop on record 1, stop messing around with that snare on record 2, and quickly rewind it a couple of beats back to the beginning of the loop.

- When you DO reach the end of the loop on record 1, cut over and drop record 2, and quickly rewind record 1 back to that first snare in the phrase.

- Now that you’ve got that snare, offrock away. Spice up the beat, but hurry up because you need to repeat this mad dash again and do it on the other side, repeat, etc.

Listen to some Off Rocking

[skip Step]

The Skip Step is basically a fast version of the more advanced Off Rocking example above. What that off rock example does over the course of an entire phrase, the Skip Step does in only 4 beats. Essentially you Off Rock the snare on record one, repeat the same pattern immediately on record two, but need to throw a well placed drag in there to keep it on tempo. It's hard to explain, but I’ll try – however keep in mind this happens *quick* - almost every beat is manipulated.

- Drop record one at the beginning of the phrase, and *immediately* offrock the snare on record two both before and after the snare playing out on the record one. To say it more clearly - there will be three snare notes. The first will be your off rock snare from record two. The second will be the snare playing out on record one. The third snare will be another off rock from you. If you do it correctly you'll hear a ba-da-bum like the cheesy drum fill you hear after an old-time joke.

- Immediately after you rock the bad-da-dum using the snare on record two, grab the snare on record one, and repeat that bad-da-dum sound using only that single snare on record one. How?:

First sound (bad): Forward stab the snare

Second sound (da): Drag the snare back

Third Sound (dum): Stab the snare again and let it play out

Then repeat the whole thing J

Good lucking trying to decipher the Skip Step

[slow Rocking]

Nothing is more ill than when a battle DJ breaks his routine down to half-tempo and slow rocks the beat. Slow rocking is both very simple and very difficult. There are more than one ways to do it, but in the basic version all you're doing is playing out each and every single kick and snare one by one. For instance:

Record 1: Kick

Record 2: Kick

Record 1: Kick

Record 2: Snare

In theory it’s easy, but to get it smooth and even, you need to be very fast and have lots of speed and positioning control.

Listen to some Slow Rocking

[Chase]

The Chase is a combination of slow rocking and doubles. My crew ‘learned’ it in a private lesson with Mr. Sinister from the X-ecutioners, which is to say he showed us how to do it. I still can’t do it myself for more than a second.

Basically you're slow rocking in that you're manually dropping each beat, but you do so while alternating between two records offset by one beat. For example say you're trying to "Chase" an MC rhyming "I love hip hop", it would break down like this:

Record 1: I

Record 2: I

Record 1: love

Record 2: love

Record 1: hip

Record 2: hip

Record 1: hop

Record 2: hop

If you're incredibly dope, you can also do -three- back and forths for each beat and create a triplet feel.

Listen to a weakly executed Chase