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How do you play Reggae Bass?

#62
Alvaro Martín Gómez A. said:
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.

CYBLbassline.jpg
Click to expand...


:hyper:

thank you!!

Ahh, this is why I love sheet music! :bassist:
 
#63
dlloyd said:
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
Click to expand...


These are all great albums.
 
#64
phxlbrmpf said:
It'd work for bass if you were going to play techno reggae or something. :D

Will I be shot for thinking some Ace of Base songs have cool reggae-ish bass lines, by the way?
Click to expand...
Stupid semi off-topic question: is techno/house the only style where the bass notes are usually placed on the off beats (1 and, 2 and, 3 and, 4 and)? I think trance/techno lines evolved from disco octaves and the bass notes on the downbeats were dropped to create that driving rhythm.
 
#65
thanks for everything guys!

lol it seems a lot of people here like to rip on morf for his incorrect statements lol.

O yea, here is my list of things I can include in a Reggae bassline. Is there anything I should Add?

-rest on beat 1
-continuous 16th or 8th notes
-root note going to the 5th with multiple repeats
-lots of space, "lazy"
-octave to 5th to root pattern
-playing on beat, not on the off beat

so, anything major I should add?
 
#66
bassmasta05 said:
thanks for everything guys!

lol it seems a lot of people here like to rip on morf for his incorrect statements lol.

O yea, here is my list of things I can include in a Reggae bassline. Is there anything I should Add?

-rest on beat 1
-continuous 16th or 8th notes
-root note going to the 5th with multiple repeats
-lots of space, "lazy"
-octave to 5th to root pattern
-playing on beat, not on the off beat

so, anything major I should add?
Click to expand...

I'd be careful of thinking of these as 'rules'. I can think of exceptions to all of these...they're more 'generalizations' and I personally wouldn't use the term 'lazy'.
 
#67
Well there's one major thing I would add, you gotta take the sacrament. The feel needs to be stony.

BurningSkies, I'd like to invite you to a thread I started over in 'recordings' in case you have some albums to recommend or comments on the ones that have been mentioned so far. I'm trying to expand my horizons and you seem to be an authority on the subject.
 
#68
teleharmonium said:
Well there's one major thing I would add, you gotta take the sacrament. The feel needs to be stony.

BurningSkies, I'd like to invite you to a thread I started over in 'recordings' in case you have some albums to recommend or comments on the ones that have been mentioned so far. I'm trying to expand my horizons and you seem to be an authority on the subject.
Click to expand...


Hey Teleharmonium, I'll check it out when I get a chance...I don't spend much time in the recordings area...

I also would dispute being any kind of authority, but am always happy to contribute. :)
 
#69
BurningSkies said:
I'd be careful of thinking of these as 'rules'. I can think of exceptions to all of these...they're more 'generalizations' and I personally wouldn't use the term 'lazy'.
Click to expand...

a lot of people said to play slow and a lot of sources Ive found on the internet used the term lazy. It doesnt matter.
 
#71
Keep it simple and melodic.

When you play a groove, you need to be playing it out...for a very long time to get inside it. I often can play through a groove for 20 minutes to an hour. Tonight I spent 3 hours practicing. I spent that time playing about 4 or 5 songs.


Learn by example. take a song and break it down. learn a part and extract the feel (not just the notes). When you walk away from a song, walk away WITH something...a feel, a fingering pattern, a timing idea you hadn't thought of previously...Tonight I spent 3 hours practicing.

Don't stress when you bump your head against songs where the bass groove twists your mellon too much. It comes in time. Play the grooves that catch you and keep you and hit you in a higher place and in a primitive way. For me a track like Dennis Brown's Revolution does this. I can play it for hours without getting bored and feeling subtle variations texture.

Robbie Shakespear has always said that the first cut is the deepest. What that means, is that sometimes when you're writing or recording the best stuff comes out before you analyse your part, before you start messing with the heart of an idea.

Don't write up a list of how-to's it will all fall into place as you work it.
 
#72
ok thanks!

Thank you for the advice. Right now I am trying to tear through some of the riddims in my Reggae Bass book. Im not sure exactly what to look for when I tear apart the riddims, but Im trying to figure out the structure in which the bassist used to create the line.

I cant get as much practice time as you, I only practice about half an hour a day, but I know what you mean. Some of the bass riddims in my Reggae Bass Book, very short ones, can keep me up and playing for 5-10 minutes with just a 4 measure peace. May not seem like a lot to you, but for me it is.

Yea, I was just making the list to try to know the rules/fundamentals in which a reggae bassline has/could have. Hopefully after playing tons of the basslines in my book, I might be able to scramble up something of my own :smug:
 
#73
bassmasta05 said:
ok thanks!

Thank you for the advice. Right now I am trying to tear through some of the riddims in my Reggae Bass book. Im not sure exactly what to look for when I tear apart the riddims, but Im trying to figure out the structure in which the bassist used to create the line.

I cant get as much practice time as you, I only practice about half an hour a day, but I know what you mean. Some of the bass riddims in my Reggae Bass Book, very short ones, can keep me up and playing for 5-10 minutes with just a 4 measure peace. May not seem like a lot to you, but for me it is.

Yea, I was just making the list to try to know the rules/fundamentals in which a reggae bassline has/could have. Hopefully after playing tons of the basslines in my book, I might be able to scramble up something of my own :smug:
Click to expand...


My real suggestion is that you don't try to get all technical with this. Is it the Ed Friedland book on reggae you have? If it is, I have a copy of it too...I sort of picked it up as an oddity although Ed is a great bass player. I just find looking at ink on a page loses the soul of the music. I usually start practice by picking one song that I don't really know and work through it until I have a good grip on it. I then work my way through the album that way. I tend to practice at home in two modes. I either play with albums or I set a metronome and play to it.

Keep in mind, though that I'm also spending 3+ nights a week playing with live players too.

There's no magic to it, just keep working it.
 
#74
yea, thats the book!

Yea, 3 hours of practice a day is a lot, but once I get older and hopefully join a band and stuff, Ill be aiming for around that.

I will keep the work up, and the book comes with a cd, so I use that a lot to play along with, because there is a drummer and a guitarist on the cd, so your not alone.

I see what you mean somewhat as to how just looking at ink loses the soul of the music. I havent been playing that long, heck, I am no where near a bassmasta lol

When you said you suggest I dont get all technical, thanks for the suggestion. I guess what I was looking for were strict guidlines of how to write reggae bass, but instead maybe I should just keep playing and listening to reggae bass players until I can develop my own stuff.

:bassist:
 
#78
I'm going to post a few classic reggae basslines to try to illustrate a few concepts that were mentioned in this thread. I was going to scan in transcriptions that I'd already made, but that was scuppered by the demise of my home computer...

I usually transcribe the bass and drum part, to me they are interdependent parts of the rhythm track, but I'm yet to figure out how to get closed hihat symbols in Finale notepad, so I'll describe as best I can what the drums are doing.

Rather than giving the whole tune I'll give examples less than 7 bars long (I believe that's the cutoff point for copyright purposes)

Here's the main bassline from Fisherman by the Congos:

Fishermanriddim1.jpg


I originally thought this bassline was by Boris Gardiner of the Upsetters, but it turns out it was Geoffrey Chung, who was sitting in.

Note the dropping of the first beat in bars 1, 2 and 3. This is an example of the "one-drop" that was already mentioned. This gives the bass a characteristically laid-back feel.

In terms of note choice, the chord progression is essentially |Em |G |G |Em ||. (There are two passing chords played by the guitar in bars 1 and 3, that may be D7, but I'm not 100%sure...). We're sticking largely to roots, 3rds and 5ths here. The bassline plays off of the vocal melody, which is a feature of a lot of reggae basslines (although not universal, particularly when the rhythm track is recycled for a different song).

The drum part is fairly simple. The hihat plays even eighths throughout, with snare rimshot on beats two and four. The kick drum is played on each beat.

Please speak up if you spot any errors!
 
#79
dlloyd said:
Here's an interesting article...

http://www.slate.com/id/2135672/

I'm not sure I agree with everything the author says, but it should be required reading for anyone getting interested in reggae. Maybe.
Click to expand...

That slate article makes the case that it's not all about what's on the "Legend" CD

I'm pretty sure that I don't agree with everything in the article. It seems weird that the author would describe the biblical paraphrases in Marley lyrics as "plundered" from the bible. I mean, Marley was more or less connected with Rastafarianism at different times in his career, right? You might expect the bible might crop up here and there. And didn't someone else write the lyrics to Redemption Song?

The other thing was the "mellowness" and "digestibility" of later stuff derided by the author. He compares Mr. Brown to Natural Mystic. They're very different, but there is definitely nutty stuff going on in the production and recording of the Exodus album, especially on that track. Listen to the envelope filter that seems to wander on and off the bass track. Check the play of whatever makes the sh-sh precussion sounds from seprate speakers.

I guess "Mr. Brown" would sound better blasting from Coxsone Dodd's truck or from a transistor radio, while "Natural Mystic" sounds much better through a fancy (perhaps suburban )audiophile system.

It's raw vs. refined. I think the article is right to differentiate, but not to dismiss one over the other.

And the article doesn't really get much beyond Marley-- it still seems stuck in the Marley=All Reggae thing.

Joe (Not exactly a reggae bassist)
 
#80
joejnyc said:
And the article doesn't really get much beyond Marley-- it still seems stuck in the Marley=All Reggae thing.
Click to expand...

I think, to be fair to the author, he was dealing specifically with a particular breed of Bob Marley fan. The type that don't get past the commercialised version of Bob Marley, the icon of student bedroom walls.

I totally disagree with his appraisal of Marley's later albums. I also think he's a bit unfair on the lite Marley fans... we all have to start somewhere.
 

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