Turntablism
Scribble scratch
A scribble is a fast tremble of the record made from the forearm rather than the wrist, with the fader left open. It produces a dense burst rather than an articulated pattern.
In practice
Tense the forearm and let it shake — this one is a texture you place, not a rhythm you count.
The motion comes from tensing the arm rather than from moving it, which is why it feels wrong for the first few attempts: you are not pushing the record so much as vibrating it. Keep the fader open and control the sound with the start and stop points instead. A related move, the tear, deliberately breaks one motion into two or three uneven parts — pull back, pause, continue — and sits between a scribble and a baby scratch in how much it can be counted. Both are far kinder to a control record than a fast baby scratch, because the travel is tiny.
Forearm
Where the motion comes from
Fader open
Throughout
Start and stop
What you actually control
Where these come from: Technique convention, not catalog figures — our analysis reads finished recordings, not performances. For what we can measure, see the counted version of the same motion.
Why it matters
It is the one scratch that is not about timing. The motion is too fast to place individual movements against a beat, so what you control is where the burst starts, how long it runs and where it stops — which makes it a texture rather than a rhythm.
That makes it genuinely useful outside turntablism. A half-second scribble under a drop or across a transition reads as an effect rather than as scratching, which is why it turns up in sets that contain no other scratch at all.
Frequently asked
How do you do a scribble scratch?+
Tense the forearm and let it shake rather than pushing the record deliberately, with the fader open. The sound is shaped by where you start and stop, not by counting.
What is the difference between a scribble and a tear?+
A scribble is too fast to count. A tear splits a single motion into two or three uneven parts you can place deliberately against the beat.
Can you scribble on a jog wheel?+
Yes, and it is one of the few scratches that translates well, because it needs speed rather than travel. A platter in vinyl mode handles it fine.
Related terms
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.
Flare scratch
A flare starts with the fader open and clicks it shut one or more times mid-motion, so the sound is interrupted rather than started. One click is a one-click flare, two is a two-click.
Slipmat
A slipmat is a felt disc between the turntable platter and the record. It lets the platter keep spinning while you hold, drag or pull back the record itself, which is what makes cueing and scratching possible.
Explore: Mixing guides · Baby scratch · Score a transition · All DJ terms