Reggae/Ska Guitar

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Reggae/Ska Guitar; Music & Instruments
Topic Started: Jul 16 2006, 06:17 PM (347 Views)
Blake	Jul 16 2006, 06:17 PM Post #1
Vwls Sck!! Posts: 1,073 Group: Members Member #31 Joined: June 29, 2006 Last.fm: Kick2theOvaries	Reggae/Ska Reggae is a Jamaican style of music with four beats to the measure and the off-beats (beats two and four) strongly accented. It evolved from ska, a music style born in the early 1960's when Jamaican musicians changed the emphasis of the basic R&B rhythm from the first and third beats in the measure to the second and fourth Ska The most influential ska group was the Skatelites, a collection of classically trained musicians who played to dance-hall crowds in Jamaica's capital, Kingston. They adopted a tight, disciplined rhythm, designed to ship the dancers up into a frenzy, but kept the beat steady so nobody lost their footing. Rock Steady During the late 1960's, top Jamaican producers Leslie Kong and Coxsone Dodd slowed the beat down to create a more soulful, laid-back reggae style called rock steady. The main exponents of this style included Desmond Dekker, who had the No. 1 hit 'Israelites' (1969), and Jimmy Cliff, singer of "Wonderful World' (1969). Many of their hits featured charismatic guitar lines from Ernest Ranglin a renowned reggae session guitarist. Roots Roots reggae had come along by the early 1970's and it introduced an even more laid-back rhythm with a prominent bass line. Eric Clapton's cover of Bob Marley's 'I shot the Sherrif' (1974) helped to introduce the style to the UK and the rest of the world, and Marley later became a megastar with songs like 'No Woman No Cry, 'Jamming, and 'Is This Love', before, tragically, he died of cancer in 1981. The roots reggae era has always been associated with heavy cannabis use and this is hardly surprising as practically all of the musicians, Marley including, were regular pot smokers. In fact, reggae artist Peter Tosh made his views clear on his album 'Legalise it' Reggae Today Although the popularity of ska, rock steady and roots reggae styles has waned over the past 20 years, they spawned a number of other subgenres: dub, and instrumental style with all the vocals removed; ragga, a harsher, more jagged style; and dance hall, a stripped down version with just drums, bass and vocals. Ska and reggae also influenced groups like Madness, UB40, Aswad, the Police and Musical Youth, who all had considerable chart success during the 1980's, and even pop, punk, and alternative artists as diverse as 10cc, The Clash and Frank Zappa have employed catchy reggae rhythms at one time or another. More recently, artists like Ms Dynamite, Roni Size and Massive Attack have been keeping the style alive by mixing it with rock, soul, indie and rap influences. Playing Reggae Guitar Reggae rhythm guitar is usually played as clean 'skanks' (downstrokes, with the strings damped as soon as the chord is sounded, although double-skank rhythms, where the downstrokes are swiftly followed by upstrokes, are sometimes emplyed. The chord progressions are simple and often majore based or minor based. There is rarely any lead guitar in the style, although a second guitarist will often play repetitive note phrases with note damping (with the palms of the picking hand) to give the groove an even more rhythmic feel. If you have a 'portastudio', software sequencer or other multi-trackign device you can easily revord both of these rhythms by yourself Guitar-wise, you can use just about any electric solidbody instrument and any reasonable amp to play reggae, but you will probably want to keep the sound clean and turn down your bass and mid-range controls so that your guitar doesn't end up fighting against that heavy bass! Reggae rhythms can be very repetitive, so you might want to use some effects pedals to create more interest in the rhythm guitar parts. A digital delay unit with the delay time set to your song's tempo beat can be used to make things sound psychedelic, while a wah-wah pedal, flanger, phaser, or chorus unit can create more sonic variety and movement in the rhythm. You can also switch between your guitar's bridge and neck pickups to produce different tones for different songs or sections of a song. Playing Ska Guitar Ska is a little trickier to play; while reggae uses two skanks per bar, ska uses four, and each of these is between the beats, so you need to be even more accurate with your strumming and use only upward strums over the guitar's thinner strings. Whenever you're playign reggae guitar style, you also need to consider how your guitar complements what the bassist and drummer in your band are playing so it sounds like you're working together as one, playing a steady, even rhythm. Listen to recordings by the Wailers, Desmond Dekker, Peter Tosh, Duke Reid or Aswad and you'll soon get the idea!
	The Fog Forever and Ever I forgot what time it is in Madrid


Morgan	May 29 2008, 07:41 PM Post #2
Dinkin' flicka. Posts: 1,950 Group: Staff Member #2 Joined: June 28, 2006 Gender: Male Name: Morgan Location: Sarasota, FL Last.fm: rockon1824	Congratulations, your article has been accepted! It will be added to the Music-Talk.org website in the next few days and 5 MT Points will be added to your account. Thank you!
	Страшный суд скоро, все как свечи гореть будем.


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