Reggae Chord Progression?

belizeño

Active member
Can anyone give me some insight on this. Is there some type of formula for getting good chord progressions? Also, what are "good" Reggae Chords or lets say, popular reggae chords?
 
When in doubt...use a standard blues bassline pattern as a starting point (very basic blues patterns were the original building blocks for reggae basslines - and very easy to recreate - do a Google search) and build your chords off the root notes of the pattern. Once you see/hear the progression it becomes easier to flip chords around and create different variations/progressions.

- KB
 
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A typical reggae song uses primarily bar chords, in any progression that sounds nice to you. There are obviously some standard progressions but its up to you how creative or complex u wanna be.

Some of the dopest reggae tracks ur hearing on the radio are only two or three chords going back and forth. For example "Welcome to Jamrock" by Damian Marley and "Come Around" by Collie Budz use only two chords each.

Bob Marley, Steel Pulse, Aswad, Burning Spear, and Third World were known for writing complex songs with lots of changes. I think Bob Marley takes the cake though. Some of those songs were too hard to learn even with a tab book. "Concrete Jungle" and "Trenchtown Rock" both have about 15 different chords in em.
 
JLiRD808 said:
I think Bob Marley takes the cake though. Some of those songs were too hard to learn even with a tab book. "Concrete Jungle" and "Trenchtown Rock" both have about 15 different chords in em.


Fifteen different chords??? You might need to check those arrangements.
 
Prince RaShem said:
Fifteen different chords??? You might need to check those arrangements.

Well I don't have my tab books in front of me cuz I'm out of town but maybe more realistically between 7-12 on his more complex arrangements.

U happy?
 
not so many chords in those sounds, t/rock c-G-D-F-C....Am-Dm

JLiRD808 said:
A typical reggae song uses primarily bar chords, in any progression that sounds nice to you. There are obviously some standard progressions but its up to you how creative or complex u wanna be.

Some of the dopest reggae tracks ur hearing on the radio are only two or three chords going back and forth. For example "Welcome to Jamrock" by Damian Marley and "Come Around" by Collie Budz use only two chords each.

Bob Marley, Steel Pulse, Aswad, Burning Spear, and Third World were known for writing complex songs with lots of changes. I think Bob Marley takes the cake though. Some of those songs were too hard to learn even with a tab book. "Concrete Jungle" and "Trenchtown Rock" both have about 15 different chords in em.


t/rock=C-G-D-F-C verse/cho......AM-Dm

there are no special progression, it's feelings, what you are able to hear, try a 1-4-5-1 or 1-6-5-1, this might lead to a bridge with two major chords, all music is built on a scale just follow the scales and find music :angel:
 
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