Welcome to the official 100 Days of Scratching Guide
This guide contains everything you need to know about the challenge and how to take part.
Download this guide in PDF format
Logistics
Start date: whenever you are ready.
Familiarise yourself with the challenge and take some time to get setup using this guide.
Before you begin…
Get Setup
- Follow @School of Scratch on Instagram to get project announcements, updates, and highlights.
- Select a unique hashtag for your project e.g. #YourDJName100DaysOfScratching
- Post a photo or video to announce your project and tell others about the start date so they can play too.
- Tag your videos with #100DaysOfScratching, #The100dayproject, #schoolofscratch and @schoolofscratch so other participants can follow your project.
The Daily Challenge Instructions and Overview
Everyday, for 100 days, video yourself scratching (practice, freestyle, anything goes) and post it on Instagram.
Scratch using the equipment of your choice: turntables / portable turntable / CDJs / controller.
If you miss a day, DON’T QUIT!!! – Just keep going!
How to Record?
Keep it simple and use whatever equipment you already have.
Most of us in the past have used our phone cameras.
What to Record?
Simply you scratching! Think scratch practice, freestyles, mini routines, anything scratch related!
100 Days Graduate Pineapple P shares his approach:
I didn’t really have a plan in place. 70% of my videos were me practicing specific scratches and timings. The other 30% was freestyling. I didn’t really plan things too much I just recorded everytime I went on the decks and tried to vary the beats and samples to keep things interesting 🙂
I started out with basic scratches I was comfortable with for my first few videos (Baby, Forwards, Stabs, Tears etc.) and than set goals along the way like creating my own combos and learning triplet timing, joe coolies, slices, see saws, boomerangs, single scratch paradiddles, dicing.
Here’s the link to my 100 days if you’d like to check it out…
- Please don’t worry about recording perfect scratcing, or as my friend James Victore says, Feck Perfection!
- If you are a beginner scratcher, share your process of learning to scratch. We are very supportive of you! It takes guts and it’s so useful for others to see your progress too.
- If you have been scratching a while, feel free to showcase and freestyle. Play awesome beats you love. Show us YOU!
- Experiment.
- Try new things.
- Fail.
- In my challenge I often remixed tracks and added vocal cuts because that was fun for me.
My approach was to find a beat I liked and just freestyle and then share a portion of what I recorded. The Instagram video limit was only 15 seconds when I started the project.
How to post?
Upload your video to Instagram
Include your unique hashtag for your project so all instances can be viewed in one spot e.g. #YourDJName100DaysOfScratching.
Also tag your photos with #100DaysOfScratching, #The100dayproject, #schoolofscratch and @schoolofscratch so we can follow your project.
How to support each other
Support each other by following each other using the hashtag #100DaysOfScratching on Instagram, liking each other’s posts and leaving encouraging comments.
General Tips / Approach / Mindset
Focus on showing up each day and recording, not on the outcome.
You might like to set aside a specific time each day to record.
Tick off your days as you complete them using the sheet:
Don’t break the chain!
YOU GOT THIS! ?❤️
Here are my top tips:
- Just begin!
- Figure it out on the way.
- You don’t have to know everything or how it’s gonna turn out. I’d say that’s impossible. Be open to possibilities!
- Treat is as an experiment and you cannot fail.
- Feck perfuction – really, it doesn’t have to be perfect!
- Just take the next step.
- Take deliberate action even when you feel like you don’t know what you are doing.
- If you fail, keep going.
- If you miss a day, just keep going.
- You will connect with and inspire more people than you think is possible, even if they never leave a comment of “like” your work.
- Crazy cool things can happen – I created a monthly scratch combo video series with DJcity (which went on to run for 2 years), have been sent awesome stuff from companies like coolorcaps and raiden fader and even been interviewed and featured on the Instagram @Music blog.
- You can find out how you handle challenges and deal with the voice in your head that tells you not to do stuff, or that you suck when you don’t do stuff. I promise you that it sits on a throne of lies! It may scream at you (like mine did) AND you can tell the voice that it’s ok, that you got this and carry on anyway. It will quieten down.
- It’s ok to take a break, regroup, then carry on.
- Focus on the process, not the outcome.
- Life is for creating!
100 Days of Scratching Inspiration
You can check out my 100 Days of Scratching videos to get more ideas and inspiration to get you started:
Have a Question?
Email hello@schoolofscratch.com.
Happy 💯 Days of Scratching!
– Emma Short-E