Free Creative Mixing DJ Tutorials

Scratching Guide

Welcome to Crossfader!

Hey, it’s great to know that you want to become a more creative DJ. Firstly let me thank you for taking the time to learn with Crossfader. We hope the following free lessons will help you expand your current skills, making you stand out from the crowd.

Let’s get started!


Lesson 01 – Finger Drumming With Hot Cues

Finger drumming is a fun technique used by many battle and routine DJs to introduce a new rhythm or switch up the mix’s vibe. Learn how to apply this technique and play along in time with the rhythm of another song. The critical thing to remember is practice makes perfect. The more you practice finger drumming, the more it will start to become muscle memory.
Simply set up a hot cue on a kick drum and clap or snare within the song’s intro as your base sounds to play like a drum pad.
Songs used in this tutorial:
  • Young Thug – The London
  • Drake – One Dance (Eighty-M Acap Intro)
Techniques or features needed for this tutorial:
  • Hot Cues

The tutorial below is taken directly from our Complete DJ Package, where you can find hundreds more tutorials, mix breakdowns, tech hacks and more!


Lesson 02 – Polyrhythmic Looping

Polyrhythm is the technical term for a piece of music that uses two different rhythms simultaneously. In this tutorial, you will see that we can set up a three-beat loop on a drum and bass song or a house song and then switch to either genre using this mathematical trick.
The critical thing here is to divide the BPM of the song you’re playing by 1.5. For example, if we have a drum and bass song at 180bpm and set up a three-beat loop, it will play in time with a house song at 120bpm. This is because 180 divided by 1.5 is 120.
This is a cool trick, but you need to pick a part of the song without any drums to make this technique sound clean. Check out the examples below and find out how to master this technique!
Songs Used In This Lesson:
  • Sub Focus – Solar System
  • Eli Brown – Desire (C3T Edit)
 
Techniques And Features Needed For This Lesson:
  • Manual looping
  • Crossfader cutting (optional extra)
  • Effects such as reverb can help clean up the transition

The tutorial below is taken directly from our Complete DJ Package, where you can find hundreds more tutorials, mix breakdowns, tech hacks and more!


Lesson 03 – Double Drop Tutorial

In this tutorial, you will learn how to double drop tracks together. This mixing technique is a great way to add something new to your sets and help you stand out as a DJ. The key features in this tutorial are using phrasing, mixing in key, and learning how to find the right tracks.
Tracklist:
  • Dub Phizix – Buffalo Charge
  • Vacuum – Tornado VIP
  • Chase & Status – No Problem
  • Sub Focus – Solar System
  • The Prodigy – Fire Starter
  • Buraka Som Sistema – Hangover (BaBaBa) (Casper Remix)

The tutorial below is taken directly from our Complete DJ Package, where you can find hundreds more tutorials, mix breakdowns, tech hacks and more!


Want more DJ lessons?

Beginner DJ Courses

If you found the lessons above quite hard to master then have a look at our Beginner DJ Courses. These courses are designed to help you master the core skills of beat matching by ear, basic mixing techniques, timing, phrasing and basic music theory.

Intermediate DJ Courses

All of our intermediate courses are packed full of mixing techniques like the ones you have just learnt. The skills taught will help you stand out as a DJ, perform better with your equipment and impress any crowd. To view all our DJ courses just click here.

Complete DJ Package

For fast-tracked guaranteed success as a DJ, check out our Complete DJ Package.

This gives you lifetime access to all of our DJ courses, past, present and future plus ongoing support and feedback from us, not to mention tons of awesome extras, all for a one-off fee! Click the link below, and learn more about this game-changing opportunity.

Comment

Join The Discussion

14 Comments
  1. Cross DJ Mugabe

    Loved 😘

    Thanks for the head-ups

    Reply
  2. Gian Cedeño

    Hola Gente de Croasfader,
    Muchas Gracias por todos estos recursos que nos brindan, siempre muy buena información y muy buenos Tips.

    Saludos,

    Reply
    • Jamie Hartley

      It’s our pleasure! Thanks for learning with us.

      Reply
  3. Prasanjit Das

    i love your mixing love from India

    Reply
  4. Amanda Hayes

    Hi crossfader,love all the video mixes of different music genre’s yous put out.Outstanding I’m a big fan of you’s.Just want to say a big thanks to all at crossfader.

    Reply
  5. Mark Anthony N Despi

    ITS REALLY LOVE CROSSFADET SINCE 2018 IVE A BIG UNITIL TODAY CROSSFADET NEVER GET FADE SINCE THE DAY THEY START

    Reply
    • Danis Ochieng

      I’ve watched all the video tutorials and I feel like I’m gonna be a beast of a dj😅in the coming days coz there’s no better online learning like the crossfader, I urge every upcoming dj to subscribe with them

      Reply
  6. Karl Vincent

    Hi crossfader I’m a big fan from the Philippines!

    Reply
  7. Eric

    awsome courses ive got decent with serato always can get better im producing now with albeton fl studio and searto studio love crossfader

    Reply
  8. Mohit Balmik

    Hi crossfader I’m big fan of you from India and love you 🤟🤟🤟🤟

    Reply
  9. Nathan Lo

    Hi Crossfader! I am a huge fan of your Youtube videos and came across this one:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Hc8bmEaCqM&t=181s

    I tried to use the link to obtain the free files mentioned in the video, but it keeps taking me straight to this portion of the website. Is there a way for me to obtain the files so I could practice the mixing techniques demonstrated in the video? Thank you!

    Reply
    • Jamie Hartley

      Hey there, if you entered your email to get to this page then the download link for the music pack will be in your emails. If you can’t find it just drop me an email to [email protected] and i’ll resend it.

      Thanks
      Jamie

      Reply

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Latest

Recent DJ Content

Get Involved

DJ Education & Community

Online DJ Courses

Learn how to DJ with your equipment by following our software and hardware specific courses! From Rekordbox to Traktor, Serato DJ to Denon DJ & more!

The Complete DJ Package

Unlimited Access to All DJ Courses, Past, Present, and Future. No subscription required - find out more and take it to the next level today!