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How do you play Reggae Bass?

B

bassmasta05

Jun 14, 2006
116
0
#1
Hi,

I'm new to the forums, and well, I signed up because I want to learn how to play reggae style bass. I really like to write music, so I'd like to know the fundimentals in writing reggae style music. (roots reggae/reggae in general) Im really getting into bob marley's music and I would like to be able to write basslines simular by being able to write reggae basslines.

I have a book called Reggae bass but it only has popular reggae basslines and doesnt go over the structure of a reggae basslines, so I could learn how to write my own.

If any of you guys write reggae basslines, could you please tell me the basic ways of writing a good reggae bassline? Like the style of the chords and notes and stuff. Id really appreciate it. (sorry I said bassline so much:smug: )

thanks!
 
#2
I have a very limited knowledge of reggae music, but I think i can help a little bit. Reggae Chords are not some fancy breed of their own, they basically are normal major/minor chords, nothing too abstract. What makes them unique is the voicing of the chords and the pattern/rythym in which they are strummed. For example, Dyer Maker by Zeppelin has somewhat of a reggae feel, not exactly, but a good example. It is just c major, a minor, f major, and g major. The notes are taken from the barre chord forms of these and just an interesting pattern and picking rythym is used on the D,G, and B strings. As for solos, this is where my knowledge goes way down hill, but from what I hear from Marley, etc, is a major pentatonic chord, maybe some major scale (iolian) thrown in. Of course minor pent would work too depending on the sound, but basically it is just the note you resolve to and the note you resolve from. Play with landing on different intervals from the root of the chord to get that sound. Maybe from the 7th to the 1st for the chord change. I am not sure if any of this helped. I just was in the mood for reggae and tried to decipher some of it. I am more of a blues man myself, but if you have any questions, i can try to help, and if i can't, i know people who can.
 
#3
Hello. I'm in a reggae/rock band now so I'll try to contribute. When I think about roots reggae bass lines, its all about the rhythm. Like what Digo said, there usually aren't any fancy chords and it's all about keeping a solid rhythmic feel. Lots of playing roots and 5ths. You can create more melodic lines, but IMHO, it should not be at the sacrafice of a solid groove. One thing to also mention is when the drummer is playing a "one drop", its really nice to match that pattern in your line. This is just when the bass drum doesn't play on beats 1 and 3 but on 2 and 4. Listen to the song "One Drop" by Bob Marley. I'm no expert in the area, but these are just my observations in playing this style of music.

Derrick
 
#4
Digo said:
I have a very limited knowledge of reggae music, but I think i can help a little bit. Reggae Chords are not some fancy breed of their own, they basically are normal major/minor chords, nothing too abstract. What makes them unique is the voicing of the chords and the pattern/rythym in which they are strummed. For example, Dyer Maker by Zeppelin has somewhat of a reggae feel, not exactly, but a good example. It is just c major, a minor, f major, and g major. The notes are taken from the barre chord forms of these and just an interesting pattern and picking rythym is used on the D,G, and B strings. As for solos, this is where my knowledge goes way down hill, but from what I hear from Marley, etc, is a major pentatonic chord, maybe some major scale (iolian) thrown in. Of course minor pent would work too depending on the sound, but basically it is just the note you resolve to and the note you resolve from. Play with landing on different intervals from the root of the chord to get that sound. Maybe from the 7th to the 1st for the chord change. I am not sure if any of this helped. I just was in the mood for reggae and tried to decipher some of it. I am more of a blues man myself, but if you have any questions, i can try to help, and if i can't, i know people who can.
Click to expand...

thanks, even though you used a lot of music terms, I understand you pretty well, I just dont know petonic scales yet (at least I dont think I do) I know about everything else you metioned. Thanks!

O yea, your suggestion on chord changes from moving to the 7th to the first for a chord change, I think I will start doing that. I have a lot of trouble when I change chords in the songs I write. I dont know much about song writing, Im new to it, so thats probably why.

bassmusic808 said:
Hello. I'm in a reggae/rock band now so I'll try to contribute. When I think about roots reggae bass lines, its all about the rhythm. Like what Digo said, there usually aren't any fancy chords and it's all about keeping a solid rhythmic feel. Lots of playing roots and 5ths. You can create more melodic lines, but IMHO, it should not be at the sacrafice of a solid groove. One thing to also mention is when the drummer is playing a "one drop", its really nice to match that pattern in your line. This is just when the bass drum doesn't play on beats 1 and 3 but on 2 and 4. Listen to the song "One Drop" by Bob Marley. I'm no expert in the area, but these are just my observations in playing this style of music.

Derrick
Click to expand...

Yea, in my reggae bass book, it does mention that doing a lot of root - fifth chords is common, or i think it was octive fifth root or something like that....

As for the 1 drop, I have found that in google for I was searching for hours on some reggae bass info (found next to nothing) but the term 1 drop kept comming up. could you explain that in more detail, I dont have a drummer, Im solo right now, but I would like to be in a band soon. But for the purpose of writing music, how do I do a 1 drop? thanks!
 
#6
Root, fifth, octaves are good solid reggae building blocks. I tend to play a lot with the 5th below the octave (a very popular bit in reggae). Your lines should have an interplay between melodic/rhythmic figures and should have a *pause*. As time has gone on, the pause has changed. 'Modern' reggae (not necessarily dancehall) the pause has become much more of an implied rest than a solid discernable rest.

You can thank both Robbie Shakespear and Flabba Holt for taking bass lines from those Familyman style one drop grooves to the more hypnotic 8th/16th note feel. You can hear it back as early as the Sly & Robbie work on the Earth and Stone records, but it really came into its own on the stripped down late 70's, early 80's Uhuru style stuff. Roots Radics was part of the same movement as the popularity of riddim based sing-jay and DJ stuff reigned at the turn of that decade. A great example of this type of playing is the Heavenless riddim, although you can hear it in a pile of other classics too.

DON'T be all tied up on having to one drop. Its a BIG misconception that if there's no one drop its not reggae. The BULK of reggae has the bass one the one. The BIG beat in reggae is the 3.

If you have more specific questions about writing your own lines, lets hear 'em!
 
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#8
bassmasta05 said:
Hi,

I'm new to the forums, and well, I signed up because I want to learn how to play reggae style bass. I really like to write music, so I'd like to know the fundimentals in writing reggae style music. (roots reggae/reggae in general) Im really getting into bob marley's music and I would like to be able to write basslines simular by being able to write reggae basslines.

I have a book called Reggae bass but it only has popular reggae basslines and doesnt go over the structure of a reggae basslines, so I could learn how to write my own.

If any of you guys write reggae basslines, could you please tell me the basic ways of writing a good reggae bassline? Like the style of the chords and notes and stuff. Id really appreciate it. (sorry I said bassline so much:smug: )

thanks!
Click to expand...

If you listen carefully to Familyman, he does a few things. Sometimes he outlines chords (think of that big E in Concrete Jungle), but usually he goes between that, copping the vocal melody, horn, or keyboard melody...or a combination of all these. Different eras of Wailers music has different feels. Sometimes, as is the case with Exodus or Jamming, he's closer to a Sly & Robbie style.

You're not going to find anything too fancy in terms of scales or odd chords. Reggae is all about staying inside and playing to the groove. Majors and minors are not usually too embellished in either the guitar, keys or bass.

I went through and era where I picked apart the early to mid period Wailers albums (Catch A Fire, Natty Dread & Burnin') on a note for note basis. It wasn't necessarily a worthy thing to do, as Familyman has this supernaturally odd yet dead on time.
 
#9
Digo said:
For example, Dyer Maker by Zeppelin has somewhat of a reggae feel, not exactly, but a good example.
Click to expand...

Very few people get this. Even fewer people here in the US pronounce the name of the song properly, or get the joke behind the song, which is a bit of English slang, with a BIG nod and wink to Jamaican music. The Feel of the song is closer to a late 60's rock steady groove.
 
#12
The best thing you can do is transcribe a lot of reggae basslines and listen to what the other instruments are doing. The interplay between the instruments is exceptionally important. It's not reggae unless you have all the pieces in place.

Generally the drummer will be playing a one-drop pattern. This involves the first beat of the bar being de-emphasised (or "dropped") and the third beat being emphasised. Typically he'll play a repeated rhythm on the hi hat and hit the snare and/or bass drum on the third beat.

The guitarist will usually be playing stacatto chords on the off beat. If you count "1-and-2-and-3-and-4-and", the guitarist will play on each "and".

There's no hard-and-fast rules for what the bassist plays. The basslines are usually repetitive, often very melodic, pentatonic lines with a lot of emphasis on the root and fifth. Sometimes he'll drop the one (and this can be very effective) but, as someone has already pointed out, the majority of lines involve the root being played on the one. The tone of the bass is usually bass-heavy with the treble rolled off.

Sometimes you'll get hand drums being played in the rootsier styles... look for the "nyabinghi" dum-dum... dum-dum beat.

Above all, listen to a lot of records and try and figure out what the musicians are doing.
 
#17
Bruce Lindfield said:
There are one-drop bass patterns, but what often happens is that you have a two-bar pattern, where the one is dropped on the second bar - like a clave pattern in Afro Cuban!
Click to expand...


Lundquist has an important point. This technique is used a lot...Also the '2-bar' pattern which hasn't been mentioned IS fairly standard to a large qty of reggae. Check out Dennis Brown's Revolution or Gregory Isaac's Night Nurse to see what this is about.
 
#18
dlloyd said:
Generally the drummer will be playing a one-drop pattern. This involves the first beat of the bar being de-emphasised (or "dropped") and the third beat being emphasised. Typically he'll play a repeated rhythm on the hi hat and hit the snare and/or bass drum on the third beat.
Click to expand...


This is only really true for a specific era and style of reggae. Lots of reggae utilizes a 4 on the floor kick very effectively. Sly Dunbar also broke this wall for reggae drums, and approached the rhythm with a MUCH more straight ahead almost 'rock' style.

For a minute, lets also bring up the 'chop'. While most people think reggae and always think of the single up-beat chop, there are hundreds of guitar patterns in reggae.

In fact, reggae is in the drums and bass, not the guitar. With good reggae you don't need an upbeat to identify that its reggae. You can tell from the D&B groove.
 
#19
Yes - one of the best live gigs I ever went to , was Black Uhuru in Brighton - with Sly and Robbie on drums!!

There was huge crowd response, but for the encore, nobody came out except Sly 'n Robbie - who proceeded to play the best Drum and Bass I've ever heard, for about 20 minutes!! :eek:

The crowd loved it and nobody even noticed that there was no guitar, keyboards or vocals!! ;)

After the gig - everybody headed for the beach and thousands of people stripped off and dived straight into the sea - the party carried on, long into the night on Brighton Beach! :D
 
#20
BurningSkies said:
This is only really true for a specific era and style of reggae. Lots of reggae utilizes a 4 on the floor kick very effectively.
Click to expand...

That's true if you use "reggae" as a cover-all term for Jamaican music. However, the original poster specified roots and Bob Marley, so I think it's fairly safe to assume he was thinking of reggae as the specific genre that followed on from Ska and Rocksteady.
 

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