Reggae | Help with Components and Technique

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I have been loving and listening to reggae for about 23 years. Yet i have never really played it or understood the roles of the instruments / terminology of what they provide in order to sound like it does. Mainly from artists anywhere from Toots and the Maytals to Steel Pulse. I think users BurningSkies and Maki should have some input based on what i've read them post before.

Anybody care to chime in? I'm not only interested in bass technique, but all of the major components as well.

Please?

[kesslari]

Reggae and Dub Primer

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Originally Posted by kesslari

Reggae and Dub Primer

oh wow. that is awesome. thank you!

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any other input? feedback? opinions?

[bass12]

As with any other style of music, reggae has a vocabulary. It's just as important to learn what not to do as what to do. It's always easy for me to pick out players who haven't really absorbed the vocabulary in playing situations. For me, the worst offenders are often drummers - throwing in fills and cymbal crashes where you would never hear them in "real" reggae. So try to keep vocabulary in mind when playing and try to think about what doesn't work in the music. Also remember that terminology in reggae is not necessarily standardised, so different people will tell you different things about what constitutes, for example, "lover's rock" or a "rockers" drum beat.

[Stumbo]

Here are a couple of other links you might want to check out:
Reggae bass
Aston Barrett

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Originally Posted by bass12

As with any other style of music, reggae has a vocabulary. It's just as important to learn what not to do as what to do. It's always easy for me to pick out players who haven't really absorbed the vocabulary in playing situations. For me, the worst offenders are often drummers - throwing in fills and cymbal crashes where you would never hear them in "real" reggae. So try to keep vocabulary in mind when playing and try to think about what doesn't work in the music. Also remember that terminology in reggae is not necessarily standardised, so different people will tell you different things about what constitutes, for example, "lover's rock" or a "rockers" drum beat.

i know what you are saying. you can always tell when the guys playing the music, don't understand the concept.

Originally Posted by Stumbo

Here are a couple of other links you might want to check out:
Reggae bass
Aston Barrett

Stumbo....the talkbass master librarian. thanks for the links. good stuff.