Do I need any knowledge or experience of DJing to enrol with Up2Scratch DJ Academy?

No experience necessary! We’ve designed our Beginner Mix course to cover all the essentials from the ground up - if you’re new to the world of DJing this is the place to start. 

 

For DJs already doing their thing, our Scratch and Beat Juggle courses can help you explore new areas and acquire new knowledge, plus our Individual Lessons can help refine and sharpen your existing skills.

 

Why should I choose Up2Scratch DJ Academy?

Good question… There are many options for those wishing to learn and develop their craft on the decks, including a wealth of resources for study online offered by some excellent tutors. So what are we doing differently? 

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Our aim is to teach you the skills to teach yourself further. We want to help get you to those moments where it all makes sense, during your time working with us and well into the future. We teach specific techniques, tricks, combos and patterns, but our main focus is to create a strong understanding of the fundamental principles and the relationships between them - these theories and ideas apply from the basics right through to the highest level.

 

All lessons are one-to-one, 2 hours dedicated to learning and building your skills. We believe that being able to ask questions, dig deeper on areas of interest and discuss your own thoughts & ideas leads to a stronger understanding all round. Lessons and courses are recorded in full for you to review as necessary. We also provide complete notes for each lesson, plus homework tasks and videos to help you keep working between sessions. Beyond this we’ve put together a collection of extensive guides, glossaries and further reading material to help you get deep into the technical stuff.

 

Up2Scratch started life as a turntablism event, but we’re building on over 15 years of professional DJ experience. Our tuition is designed to be as rounded as possible, always aiming to be practical and useful.

 

What equipment do I need?

For best results we would recommend the traditional DJ setup, the industry standard - two turntables and a mixer. Having a setup to practice with is essential for our beginner courses. The importance of having your own equipment cannot be overstated, if you’re serious about DJing you can’t get by without.

 

Our setup consists of Technics 1210 turntables and Native Instruments Z2 mixer, along with Traktor Pro 3 Digital Vinyl System or good old fashioned vinyl. Scratch lessons are taught with a Vestax PDX 2000 turntable & Rane 56 mixer.

 

For lessons running over Zoom, you will need a DJ setup (ideally two turntables & a mixer) and a laptop with a webcam. For lessons at our Brighton studio you will not need to bring equipment with you, but we would strongly recommend that you have access to a home setup for practice. We are happy to offer help and advice when you are purchasing DJ equipment, just drop us a line.

 

Can I use a DJ controller?

Learning with turntables creates a skillset that is transferable to other formats. Learning with CDJs or DJ controllers is great, but as new equipment is 99% modelled on turntables we feel it’s best to start there. However everything that we teach can be applied to CDJs and controllers, so if you prefer to work with those that is fine!

 

What time are lessons? When can I book?

We book lessons as standard over 3 periods each day, but please contact us if you have specific requirements.

• 12 - 2pm

• 3 - 5pm

• 6 - 8pm

 

Payment must be made in full before each lesson. To reschedule a booking, please give us 24 hours notice.

 

I haven’t used Zoom before, how do I get set up?

For more info on how to get started with Zoom, please check out our Zoom setup guide.


For any further questions, please get in touch via the Contact page.