How do you play Reggae Bass?

[Standalone]

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.

exactly. I started in the same place, sort of. The Dead/ Phish years and all-- I just happened to be an LP collector from early on rather than picking up the Legend CD.

Joe

 

[FunkSlap89]

naturally, when anyone thinks of reggae, Bob Marley almost always crosses their mind. He's just the icon of reggae. Sure, he's not the only reggae artist and imo, certainly not the best, but he's the one who brought the movement forward. Once someone says "hey, i think i'll start listening to reggae!" they usually start with marley and spread to other artists. Thats just the way it is, people who idolize marley simply have not extended their horizons in listening to reggae yet.

 

[str8_bourbon]

This might be a little off topic, but still reggae related. I'm in the process of writing a reggae flavoured bridge, that's going to be used in one of our band's song(a ska punk piece). It's basically an I-IV-V progression, in the 8 bar blues form, I've come up with a bassline(using the one drop, root, fifth, and diatonic approach note), a simple guitar riff(quarter rests on beats 1 & 3, power chord played as eighths on beats 2 & 4), this should be viable, yes? Problem is, our drummer doesn't know how to lay down a reggae rhythm(neither do I), I was hoping someone could give me a simple example of what the drummer usually/generally plays on reggae tunes.

 

[bassmasta05]

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:

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!

thanks for the bassline!

And thanks for somewhat describing the one drop method, I didnt know what that was. So basically, its when the first note of the measure starts out lower than the rest of the beats in the measure? Nevermind, thats not right. what is the one drop method?

 

[str8_bourbon]

The one drop means to rest on the first beat of a given measure. There are 4 beats to a measure in common time. Notice in the example above, that within the first 3 bars, a quarter rest comes first, then the notes. This pattern, I believe, is called the one drop method. Hope I haven't gotten it wrong.

Lol, I just saw the answer to my previous question. Guess I didn't read through the thread thoroughly.

 

[bassmasta05]

ok

I just asked my bass teacher today about the one drop method... he plays a little reggae and he said its where you dont come in on the 1, u come in on the and.

1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and, you dont come in on the 1, you come in on the and, so i guess it is like a rest.

 

[MarkMyWordsXx]

2 words..

back. beat.

 

[bassmasta05]

ok thanks.

Mark my words by P.O.D is a good song.

 

[dlloyd]

ok

I just asked my bass teacher today about the one drop method... he plays a little reggae and he said its where you dont come in on the 1, u come in on the and.

Not quite. It's just when you don't come in on the one. In the example I gave above, you come in on the two.

It's not just about resting on the one either. "One drop" is also used to describe a particular style of drumming used in reggae, where the drummer will actually play on the one (hi-hats), although the accents will come on the three (or the two and four).

Do you read music? Reading is obviously not a necessary requirement for reggae bass, but it communicates rhythm in a way tablature cannot.

 

[dlloyd]

Here's another example of a classic reggae bassline.

This is "Sufferers' Time" by The Heptones. This can be found on Arkology by Lee Perry or Party Time by the Heptones.

This time there's no one-drop in the bassline. The chords are |G D |C G | with the guitar and organ alternating an eighth note chop.

Note choice is pretty much r,5 with a scalar approach to the final G.

The drums are playing a classic one-drop rhythm with hi-hat on even 16ths, kick drum and snare rimshot on beats 2 and four and additional rimshots on the fourth sixteenth of beat 2 and second and fourth sixteenth of beat 3. Hopefully that made sense!

There are occasional variations to the bass line...

There, the first bar is still pretty simple, with the first five notes being (G) r,5,r',5,r' followed by chromatic approach notes into (D)r',5,r',5,r. The second bar is identical to the first example.

 

[bassmasta05]

thanks for the new basslines, and yes, i can read music somewhat, but i mainly use tabs for it will take me a while to figure out where to play each note when reading standard notation music.

Ok so in one drop you dont come in on the 1, thanks. Yeah, i heard about that having to do with drumming.

 

[dlloyd]

Here's another, "Vampire" by Devon Irons. Again, this can be found on the Lee Perry compilation Arkology. It can also be found with an alternative vocal track on Junior Murvin's Police and Thieves (as "Lucifer")...

(corrected for error)

Again, there is no one-drop in the bassline, and there's no "lazy" feel to the bass. It's actually quite a persistant, driving line. Slide from that E at the end of the measure up to the A at the beginning of the repeat.

Note choice is fairly simple again. The whole track is in Am, and the bassline is all roots, thirds and fifths on the strong beats with some scalar approaches to the first beat of the bar.

There's no one-drop to the drums either, with the kick drum playing on each beat, with snare rimshot on beat 3 and also on the final sixteenth of each bar. The hi-hat plays a continuous rhythm consisting of one eighth note followed by two sixteenths each beat.

The keyboards play a bubbling off-beat rhythm where they rest on the first sixteenth of the beat, play a low A on the second sixteenth, hit the Am chord with the right hand on the third sixteenth and back to the low A on the final sixteenth.

 

[bassmasta05]

thanks for all of the songs!

It sounds like reggae uses tons of roots and 5ths, with occasional thirds. Tons of the reggae basslines I have looked at use the roots and 5ths A LOT.

 

[tZer]

I nevah could, mon, until I drank a Red Stripe!

Now I am natty as it gets!

Invalid Link Removed

Red Stripe. Helping our white friends learn reggae for over 80 years!

Red Stripe is beer... HOORAY BEER!

 

[bassmasta05]

perhaps i will look into that.

 

[dlloyd]

Here's another that can be found on Lee Perry's Arkology. This one's "Much Smarter" by The Meditations.

The basic chorus/verse follows the chord progression |A D |A D|

...and can be analysed as |(A)r r 3 2 r (D)r 5 |(A)5 r' (D)5, r |

So lots of roots and fifths (and a third with passing scale tone).

Drums are a basic one-drop with even sixteenths on the hi hat, kick and rimshot accentuating the second and fourth beats. There's some conga work as well, which I won't go into.

The bridge follows this chord progression: |Bm E |D E |

and can be analysed...
|(Bm)r r 3 r 3 (E)r' 5 3 |(D)r 5, 3 (E)r' 5 3 |

 

[bassmasta05]

ok cool!

a lot of roots and thirds with 5ths too

 

[dlloyd]

ok cool!

a lot of roots and thirds with 5ths too

Yep. It's amazing how many effective basslines are just chord tones. Here's one that utilises only roots and fifths. It's "Don't Blame On I" By The Congos, and can also be found on Lee Perry's Arkology (by the way, if you haven't got it yet, go and buy it).

The chord progression is four bars of C, followed by four bars of F.

Drums are playing even eighths on hi-hat, kick drum on the one, rimshot on the three.

 

[Shearstown]

In the reggae I've heard it's been all about filling in the holes hat the guitar leaves with it's steady strum.

 

[dlloyd]

You might get that impression, based on the fact that the bass is often playing on the beat with the guitar playing off the beat. That's not a particularly useful way to look at it though.