How do you play Reggae Bass?

[Bruce Lindfield]

Well - I think you need to make it clear how this is to be applied - in order not to confuse those, new to bass playing, who may be reading this!

 

[vindy500]

nobody likes morf....

 

[Bruce Lindfield]

You know what, the OP seems to think it is helpful to him, and I think its important to start with basic exercises like this one to get a good feel of reggae, and so does my instructor obviously else he wouldnt have told me to practice that. If you happen to have a problem with it tho, feel free to visit Invalid Link Removed and email to complain.

I clicked on the link - pretty nasty music - not Reggae!!

You're just arguing for the sake of arguing with me cause you dislike me, and are taking the whole thread off subject. .

Not at all - but Reggae bass lines are not played on the off-beats - the guitar and keyboard "chops" are on the off-beats - not the bass lines!

How many times do we have to say this...?

 

[dlloyd]

How is what I posted confusing? This tab is very basic stuff and I told him exactly how to play it. According to my instructor its a simplified version of I shot the Sheriff, maybe it'll develop at the next lesson, maybe not, either way I dont think I confused the OP in this thread he seems to have gotten the jist of it.

With all due respect, Morf, I think you've misunderstood your instructor.

I've been listening to, and playing reggae, for a fairly long time (about 17 years, perhaps not as long or intently as Burningskies). In all that time I've never come across any reggae basslines that resemble what you posted, played on the offbeat. Reggae bass is all about playing on the beat.

I can imagine a scenario where your instructor has shown you a bassline and asked you to play along with the record, listening to the offbeat, but not playing on the offbeat.

 

[bassicinstinct]

I clicked on the link - pretty nasty music - not Reggae!!



Not at all - but Reggae bass lines are not played on the off-beats - the guitar and keyboard "chops" are on the off-beats - not the bass lines!

How many times do we have to say this...?

+1.

Morf:

You are completely, utterly and unarguably WRONG on this. :scowl: :scowl: :scowl: :scowl:

That is not an opinion, it is a FACT.

No one will think any less of you if you admit it and apologise I'm sure.

 

[bassicinstinct]

Ah, the arrogance of youth.

As an excercise to allegedly help you understand how reggae works, it has apparently failed miserably IMHO.

 

[bassicinstinct]

But NOT on the offbeat!!!

 

[bassicinstinct]

Good grief.

Your instructor must be very proud.

Sorry - I've just noticed that you have been playing for all of 8 months. I strongly suspect that this is something you will look back on, assuming you continue playing, and have a good laugh about because, however you slice it, it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

 

[Bruce Lindfield]

Well - have you ever heard the phrase "the blind leading the blind..." ?

Don't try to teach others, if you don't really know what you're talking about - it just leads to bad feeling....

I've been playing bass for over 30 years, but I still feel like a beginner in many ways and there is nothing wrong with being a beginner - I only started playing DB a year or so ago and so I wouldn't dream of giving others advice on this - but I have learnt a huge amount on TB , from very experienced DB players, that I don't think I could have got in any other way !

 

[bassicinstinct]

The distinctive sound of back pedalling eh?

Please don't expect to post nonsense on a public board and then become defensive when it is pointed out to you. If you wish to preserve your integrity, the Private Message system would protect you IMHO.

Ta ta!!

 

[bassicinstinct]

Suddenly everything becomes clear.

Indeed.

 

[BurningSkies]

Listen to Judge Not by Bob Marley. The bass IS played on the offbeat, but not in relations to the guitar or the rest of the instruments. The bass plays offbeat, and the guitar plays off beat from the beat of the bass. I've been listening to those songs for awhile now and I get what you mean by the bass not playing on the upbeat. I think what my instructor is trying to teach me is to play my bass alone, without any other instruments being around. In such way it would require offbeat.

NO. ITS. NOT.

Yet again, I took the time to break out one of my copies of Judge Not, and Lloyd Brevett is playing on the Downbeat. In fact, he's playing completely straight, ON the beat.

The funny thing is, I know and have played with the bass player on this track, and I've NEVER seen him play a chop.

You're simply giving false information and you're giving info that could very well confuse someone who's trying to learn this style of playing.

 

[BurningSkies]

Again, Morf, I think maybe the real problem here is in the translation...I think the terminology that we're all using is not quite matching what you're saying.

No one's being arrogant or dissing you personally. I've been very lucking in finding a type of music that makes my heart sing and I've been very lucky to share that with more than a few people. I heartily ENCOURAGE you to spend some time with reggae and to explore what it has to offer both musically and spiritually. I was lucky to have been encouraged at a time in my life and had that encouragement reinforced by some players and performers that I truly look up to.

The thing is, pretty much everyone here is agreeing about things...and you've got several people who are quite knowledgeable about not just reggae, but music in general.

Give it a chance.

 

[dlloyd]

Perhaps it would be a good idea to recommend some stuff to listen to? In no particular order, here's five cds I really enjoy listening to...

Yabby You: King Tubby's Prophesy of Dub
Augustus Pablo: East of the river Nile
Lee Perry: Arkology (on shuffle, at least...)
The Congos: Heart of the Congos
The Abyssinians: Satta Massagana

 

[dlloyd]

I must be stupid for doing this, but...

And I'm not packpedalling by any means... This exercise did help me catch the jist of reggae music construction. I dont understand why you cant see that...

All you're telling me is that I'm wrong, etc without giving me anything to work with? Explain to me how this exercise doesnt help in the least understand reggae music construction, and I will undoubtedly think about what you're saying and figure out what it is im not getting right.

First, imagine that I'm saying this without any cynicism, sarcasm or nastiness. Imagine I'm someone who's really trying to help you. Even that I like and respect you. Okay? Let's go.

Let's go over what you posted...

For reggae I just do this: Say out loud: And 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and play the note everytime you say "and" instead of everytime you say a number. Works for me.

...

The man here wants to learn how to play reggae music. Understanding of the genre is important for that and if you're a beginner you need to start with basic rhythm. So go screw yourselves.

Also, there are reggae songs that need such rhythm pattern for bass. Take out your Bob Marley books and check instead of rolling your eyes pathetically.

This guy's got it. I just learnt things that way from my bass instructor with I shot the sheriff played in many different ways...


--------------------------------------
------------------5--------------------
--------5--3-3-6----------5--------5----
--3-3-6-------------3-3-6---3-3-6----------

Play that twice then move onto:

---------------------------------------
-------4-4------------------------------
--5-5------4-4-7-7--------5-------5-------
---------------------3-3-6---3-3-6------

Then

---------------------------------------
-------7-7------6-6-----------------------
--5-5------4-4------------5-------5-------
---------------------3-3-6---3-3-6------

Then

-------7-7------6-6----------------------
------------------------------------------
--5-5------4-4------------5-------5-------
---------------------3-3-6---3-3-6------

And finish by:

---------------------------------------
--5-3------------------------------------
------5---3--5-3---------------------------
------------6----6-3----------------------

Play each note with the same rhythm (you can speed up/slow down as you like), start by saying 1 and 2 and 3 and 4, play one note for each "and" you're gonna say. That's what hes taught me so far, its helped my sense of rhythm for reggae alot. I wasnt too good with it tho.

No need to get bent out of shape about this. You suggested that our friend here play bass on the upbeat. Playing on the up on reggae is a chop, and while I've heard guitars and keyboards, even marimba play a chop, I've never heard a bass do it in reggae music.

If you have a good example of a bass line in reggae that does so, please show.

I just did... I posted the whole song tabbed above... playing on the up beat is definately the first step to playing reggae, and it is imo necessary he tries simple exercise to get the feeling right...

I'm starting to get really tired of you people rolling your eyes at simpler techniques or at whatever ways other people play their instruments. I'm surely allowed to play my bass the way I want to, and looking down on simpler stuff (which you probably went through at some point) is not helping the guy out.

You said that a lot of Bob Marley's tunes have the bassist playing on the offbeat. Namely, I shot the Sheriff, which you presented a simplified transcription for. There's no potential ambiguity here, nor is there anything that could have gotten mistranslated. You counted it out.

Now, Familyman's bass line on that tune is most assuredly on the beat. Not on the offbeat. I just went and listened to every Bob Marley tune I have on my iPod, six albums worth of it. Not one song has the bass relying on the offbeat to any degree at all. None of them.

Nobody is saying at all that the chop (playing on the offbeat) isn't a common feature to reggae music of that period. I said it was a feature of the guitar work in my first post in this thread. Bruce said it, BurningSkies said it. All anyone has said is that it is not a feature of reggae basslines. This is not an opinion, it is a plain fact.

Okay, remember nothing I've said here was intended with any derision.

 

[dlloyd]

Ok, but that point did go across, it seems the terminology used wasn't right, but i see what you guys are saying there.

No upbeat on bass, got ya. Now care to explain? Because you still didnt explain anything.

"Offbeat", not "upbeat". They're different things. What you described was playing on the offbeat...

1-and-2-and-3-and-4-and-1-and-2-and-3-and-4

That's a feature of rhythm guitar and keys in a lot of reggae. And it's called the "chop", as BurningSkies said.

Upbeat usually means the fourth beat of the bar in 4/4 music. It comes from the conductor's baton... on the first beat he swings it down, on the second beat he swings it to the centre right (his right), on the third beat he swings it to the centre left and on the fourth beat he swings it up to the top again.

Playing on the upbeat might happen in a bassline, but it's not a relevant or necessary feature.

Learning to recognise a chop would be a valuable exercise, one that can be achieved by listening to reggae records, counting and hearing how the guitar often plays on the "and". However, the thread starter wanted to know about constructing basslines, not about playing on the offbeat.

This thread could have been useful, and with some editing by a moderator (or the participants) might be tidied up, but it's become almost unreadable.

 

[morf]

I'll clean up my posts thats not a problem. Thanks for your clear explanation. Makes much more sense to me this way.

 

[morf]

K, I deleted all posts except the tabs because it took me awhile to put it all into tabs so in case someone wants to play upbeat on their bass they can using that

 

[Alvaro Martín Gómez A.]

Just trying to help in this (now solved) discussion, here's the bassline for the first half of Bob Marley's "Could You Be Loved?". Maybe a dead note missing here and there, but since the rhythm is the reason for the arguments, I think this will be a good guide.

 

[morf]

Thanks I'll take a close look at it when I have a minute