Join our DJ Academy in Birmingham for one-to-one DJ lessons and DJ courses.

Students on our DJ course in Birmingham and choose their lesson schedule and learn direct from a professional DJ.

There are three levels, beginner, intermediate and advanced. Complete all DJ courses to be guaranteed the chance to DJ at one of our events.

Find out more: https://www.djgym.co.uk/

Kieran is one of the most popular DJ tutors at London Sound Academy. He teaches all levels of our DJ course program from Beginner to Elite.

Advance booking is highly recommended!

Challenge yourself and join the most advanced DJ course in Europe! Elite DJ Course graduates will receive the prestigious Elite DJ Trophy and have access to our biggest and best DJ gigs!

Some more happy DJ course students leaving brilliant five-star reviews today! We're very grateful for the talent that we nurture in our studios. People from all walks of life come to LSA for that special experience.

If you're interested in learning how to DJ or produce in a community environment in beautiful studios drop us a message.

Our DJ course is favoured by those who want to discover a new passion for electronic music in a supportive environment.

Click here to find out more about London Sound Academy, our DJ courses and our DJ community.

Advanced DJ Learning Pathway

This learning pathway will help Advanced DJs navigate our courses and find the best learning pathway to suit their needs.

We consider advanced DJs to be those with solid foundational skills in mixing, set building, fundamental scratching.

Where to start?

We recommend browsing over the Basic Scratching course to ensure that you do cover the scratching bases in terms of skills, technique and undoing any bad habits that self-taught DJs may have encountered.

We assume that an advanced DJ is set on mixing by ear, dropping on beat, set arrangement and hand alignment and mechanics.

What course should I begin with?

10 Root Moves of Beat Juggling

This is our most popular course for intermediate and advanced DJs. This course takes you through all 10 of the root moves in details. This is the most comprehensive beat juggling guide out there.

Rob explains how to manipulate drum beats, words, etc. on both left and right turntables simultaneously through the application of the 10 Root Movements of “Beat Juggling”. This course is our most popular course. As a pioneer of beat juggling and creator of the ‘Swing Pattern’ there is no one better to teach these techniques.

Here is a details breakdown of the course content.

#1: Backspinning and Backspinning with eighth and quarter note fills #2: the Breakdown Pattern #3: the Snare Pattern #4: the Offset Backspin #5: the Rock the Bells Pattern #6: the Swing Pattern #7: the Chase/Strobe Pattern #8: 8th Note Linear Single Fills #9: 8th Note Linear Double Fills

#10: 8th Note Linear Triple Fills

See the course here: https://brolicarmydjschool.com/courses/fundamental-beat-juggling/

Advanced Beat Juggling

This advanced beat juggling course will help you take your skills to the next level. Now you have learned the root moves, you will learn to create your own patterns, how to combine all of the root moves to become a unique and more creative beat juggler. The emphasis in this course is creativity and self expression. Beat Juggling is not just being able to do somebody else’s pattern, but creating your own unique patterns and combinations too.

See the course here: https://brolicarmydjschool.com/courses/advanced-beat-juggling/

Training Camp with DJ Rob Swift

This mini course is designed for DJs who understand the 9 cornerstone scratches, have the correct alignment, technique etc. but want to perfect their skills. We have four training camp sessions:

1: Faderless Scratches (baby, tear, scribble)

2: Forward Scratches (forward stab, drag and release)

3: Intermediate Scratches (chirp, transformer, reverse drag)

4: Total Training (all 9 cornerstone scratches combined and phrasing)

This course will help you improve your skills and hone in on your scratch technique.

More advanced DJ courses are coming soon!

Start Up Guide

This guide is to help individuals who want to sign up, or have just signed up, navigate the website.

Welcome!

Thank you so much for coming to see the Brolic Army DJ School. We are excited to show you around and help you get started on your journey to becoming a beast on the turntables!

Choose a Plan

Membership Plans

GET STARTED

We have three membership options. The first is the monthly subscription, at $49 billed monthly.

The second option is to be billed 249 every 6 months. With this option you save $90 per year.

The final tier is the Lifetime membership. We recommend this to DJs who want to stay a part of the community for life.

Enroll in your first class

Congratulations! Now you are truly on your way to becoming a formidable DJ.

To start your first class, select the desired course from the courses page and scroll the to bottom and click “Enroll”. This will enroll you in the course and give you access to all of the lesson material.

Browse our Merch and Rep the Army

Now you’re settled in and hustling away, check out the Brolic Army Shop where you can purchase merch. Wear the T Shirts in your social media posts and tag us for a feature on the @brolicarmy IG page!

Members get a discount in their membership conformation email so be sure to keep an eye out for it!

Top 5 studio scratches of all time!

NUMBER ONE

1982: Buffalo Gals (Malcolm McClaren)

As a fan of scratch music you’re probably questioning this selection cause yes, there are slew of other songs which feature more technically progressive scratches on them. However, we would argue a top 5 list in any category merits the acknowledgement of the first, original, pioneer or in this case pioneers in said art or sport. Let it be known, Malcolm McClaren’s “Buffalo Gals” is the first song to ever feature scratches on it.

In 1982, a British record producer named Malcolm McClaren flew across the Atlantic Ocean and landed in NYC. His mission, to seek help from DJ gods (we call them gods cause they were 5 Percenters) The World Famous Supreme Team in the recording of what would be the classic maxi-single release, “Buffalo Gals”. Started in 1979, Supreme Team members See Divine the Mastermind and Justice Allah the Superstar initially stepped into the Hip Hop scene as hosts of an undergound radio show on WHBI alongside none other than the legend Mr. Magic. It only took a couple of years before McClaren recruited them for their DJ expertise.

As far as we’re concerned, “Buffalo Gals” will forever rank as one of the top songs to feature scratches. The Supreme Team did a superb job of performing their cuts in a way that enhanced McClaren’s sound. “Buffalo Gals” just isn’t “Buffalo Gals” without the presence of The Supreme Team’s WIGGY WIGGY WIGGY WAAAA. What’s more, the impact the song has had on “Skratch culture” can be felt 4 decades after it’s debut. Right now, there’s a “skratcher” somewhere on this earth scratching “Boy that scratchin’s making me itch WAAAAAA” or “Do Ya Like Scratchin” over a looper, oblivious to the origins of these two staple scratch sounds. Peace to the gods.

NUMBER TWO

1983: Rock It (Herbie Hancock)

In at number two we got the Grand Mixer DST’s work on “Rock It”. What Q-Bert is to scratching today, DST was back in the day.

If you’ve never listened to “Rock It” and you’re a fan of scratch driven music, punch yourself in the jaw. Once you’re done, climb up out of that rock you’ve been living under and give the song your undivided attention. The genius of this song is the fusion of Jazz musician Herbie Hancock on Key Board and DST’s on the turntables. Guided by producer Bill Laswell, the approach to the song is by these 3 musical savants is revolutionary.

Although the term “Turntablist” was coined a decade after “Rock It” debut, Grand Mixer DST was manipulating the turntable like instrument way before any of his contemporaries or offspring thought to.

NUMBER THREE

1988: Terminator X to the Edge of Panic (Public Enemy)

Juice aka Jugo has been working with Public Enemy as a ghost scratcher since their first album YO BUM RUSH THE SHOW. Except no one knew the dude scratching “ROCK AND ROLL EEEEHHHH — URRRRR — EEEEHHH — URRRR — EEEEHHHH — URRRRR — ROCK AND ROLL…” while Chuck D yelled “TERMINATOR X” was actually Juice. But it was Chuck’s ode to Terminator X on “…the Edge of Panic” that arguably showcased the best cuts ever performed on a DJ themed song ever. The scratches were super intense, yet they don’t overwhelm me as a listener. They struck the kind of sonic balance most DJs fail to achieve as studio scratchers to this day.

“My goal was to make the records I worked on compete, to complement the musicianship. No more, no less. A great song is a great song. To do too much ruins the dynamic of the song. When approaching any song, I listen for what the song NEEDS. Sometimes that requires very technical riffs and other times, it requires simplicity. This is the same approach no matter what instrument you play. I am a drummer/percussionist and I treat the turntable as a percussive instrument. If the passage requires melody, I try to incorporate melodic scratching. This approach has worked well for me.

I looked at my work with PE like most session musicians from the 1950s and 1960s. All of those unsung heroes who made magic like the Funk Brothers with Motown and the session musicians from Chess Records like Pete Cosey (R.I.P.) Louis Satterfield (R.I.P.) Morris Jennings (R.I.P. — P.S. He was the drummer on the break beat Different Strokes by Syl Johnson,) Gene Barge (producer of Here Comes the Judge by Pigmeat Markham) Phil Upchurch, and Maurice White (R.I.P.)” — DJ Johnny Juice

NUMBER FOUR

1994: Resurrection (Common Sense)

Mista Sinista’s body of work as a studio scratcher may not be as extensive as let’s say a Premier, a Pete Rock or even me, but his contribution to Common’s sophomore album RESURRECTION LP has stood the test of time. For that reason, the albums single “Resurrection” ranks number 4.

“Either DJ Mista Sinister or No I.D. suggested ‘Nice & Smooth is your resurrection’ and that was so right because the way he was saying ‘resurrection.’ Then, Mista Sinista would create a rhythm with his scratching and eventually after, I laid the rhymes to fit the ‘resurrection’ scratches.” — Common

“Joey did the scratches on that. Joey was a major creator when it comes to turntablism and scratching — he was insane. He was so precise with everything.” — No I.D.

NUMBER FIVE

2002: Clifford’s Mustache (D Styles)

D Styles is our modern day DST, PERIOD! He can do it all. Want him to sound musical, no problem. He’ll flip a guitar riff so melodic, he’ll have you thinking a Guitarist was actually playing if you weren’t watching him. Then put him in a room with the most technical portablist “skratcher” and their skill level will sound pedestrian in comparison. Dave’s work on Phantazmagorea is the proof. Peep “Clifford’s Mustache”. Assisted by another one of our favorite scratch DJs in Q-Bert, D Styles puts on a scratching clinic. I mean, the entire song is composed of scratches.

So there you have it, our top 5 studio scratches of all-time. Honorable mention to all of the DJs who’ve contributed to DJ art, you know who you are. Respect!

May 17th marks what would have been Roc Raida’s 50th birthday. So in honor of the ultimate DJ hero, Brolic Army DJ School celebrates the life and creativity of Anthony “Roc Raida” Williams for the entire month of May with the Roc Raida Challenge!

Last year’s Roc Raida Challenge tested students’ ability to compose their own unique beat juggle based on Raida’s famous “Chief Rocka” (Lords of the Underground) routine. Which oh by the way. helped him win his 1995 World DMC Championship title. This year, we’re interested in seeing how Brolic Army students fare with “Unassisted”, another beat juggle masterpiece composition from the mind of Roc Raida.

RULES Create your best routine based on Roc Raida’s “Unassisted” (Rasco) beat juggle. SUBMISSION PROCESS Film a video of yourself performing a 90 second (maximum) beat juggle composition. Please ensure that your video is captured in landscape mode and contains direct audio. Email your video to Brolic Army DJ School no later than April 17th, 5:00 p.m. (EST).

WINNER SELECTION AND PRIZES A panel of judges will score each video on a scale of 1 through 10. The top 3 entries will receive a prize courtesy of our sponsor, JICO!

1st place: A pair of J44A 7 DJ IMP NUDE cartridges 2nd place: JICO CUSTOM SHOP hoodie 3rd place: JICO T-shirt

If this year’s ROC RAIDA CHALLENGE is anything like last year’s, the competition will be tight, so good luck to all Brolic Army soldiers across the globe who’ll be practicing and preparing over the next few weeks.

The challenge officially starts May 1st!