Turntablism
Body tricks
Body tricks are scratches performed in a visually difficult way — behind the back, under a leg, with an elbow, facing away from the decks. The sound is ordinary; the difficulty and the spectacle are the point.
In practice
Learn the scratch until it is boring, then learn it behind your back. Never the other way round.
Pick one trick and one simple scratch — a baby or a forward — and drill the combination until the sound is identical to the way you would do it normally. Then put it somewhere deliberate in a routine rather than scattering tricks throughout: one placed at a peak reads as a moment, three in a row read as a distraction from the music. And rehearse the recovery, because the useful skill is not the trick but continuing cleanly when it does not land.
Boring first
Master the sound, then the trick
1
Per routine, at the peak
Recovery
What to actually rehearse
Where these come from: Turntablist performance practice — technique and convention, not catalog figures. For what we can measure, see where to place one.
Why it matters
They exist because turntablism is performed in front of people, and a battle is judged partly on what an audience can see. A routine that is technically flawless and visually static loses to one that is slightly simpler and impossible to look away from.
The catch is that they are the first thing to go wrong and the most obvious when they do. A behind-the-back scratch you cannot do reliably is a mistake with an audience already watching your hands, which is why they belong at the end of a learning process rather than at the start of one.
Frequently asked
Do body tricks sound different?+
They should not — that is the standard. The sound is an ordinary scratch and the difficulty is entirely in doing it from an awkward position.
How many tricks should be in a routine?+
Fewer than you want. One placed at a peak reads as a moment; several in sequence stop being surprising and start competing with the music.
Are body tricks worth learning for club sets?+
Rarely — a club crowd is dancing rather than watching your hands. They belong to battle and showcase formats, where the audience is looking at the decks.
Related terms
Routine
A routine is a composed, rehearsed sequence of scratches, juggles and cuts performed to a set piece of music. Unlike a mix, it is written in advance and repeated the same way each time.
Battle position
Battle position turns the turntables ninety degrees so the tonearms sit at the back rather than the right, and the pitch faders face you. It puts the record surface and the crossfader in one continuous working area.
Scratch
A scratch is a sound made by moving a record back and forth under the needle while the crossfader or channel fader cuts it in and out. The hand sets the pitch; the fader sets the rhythm.
Baby scratch
The baby scratch is the first one anyone learns: push the record forward and pull it back in time with the beat, fader open throughout. No fader work at all — only the hand.
Explore: Transition techniques · Scratch · Routine · All DJ terms