How dem beats made mon!

J4F

J4F

Member
I'm looking to make some reggae based songs. Is there a basic theory on reggae beats. Timing-3/4 or 4/4. I've been messing around with it for a while. It's kinda hard to get that rasta sound. Any info helps thanx.
 
4/4 is most common is Roots Rock. The key to reggae that I have noticed is that the guitars strums are on the up beat. So if you count 1-2-3-4, 1 and 2 and 3 and 4. You strum between the counts, basically where the "and" is. I would suggest for practice taking a few old classic reggae songs and looping them in your sequencer and playing behind them. Drums, guitar, etc.... It helps get the theory down.
 
Chuckie Busa said:
4/4 is most common is Roots Rock. The key to reggae that I have noticed is that the guitars strums are on the up beat. So if you count 1-2-3-4, 1 and 2 and 3 and 4. You strum between the counts, basically where the "and" is. I would suggest for practice taking a few old classic reggae songs and looping them in your sequencer and playing behind them. Drums, guitar, etc.... It helps get the theory down.
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Thanks for the input, I'll have to give that a try. Peace!
 
Are you playing and recording with actual instruments ?? I found it almost impossible to recreate that guitar 'strum' found in a lot of reggae compositions ...
 
Real insturments is always a must my friend. Someone's gotta keep playing them. As far as rolling rasta. I hear what ya be sayen mon! I'm gonna get it........... Some how.
 
Actually, there's a lot of completely digital (and very good) dub/reggae/dancehall, but to each his own...
 
krushing said:
Actually, there's a lot of completely digital (and very good) dub/reggae/dancehall, but to each his own...
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Mos Def...This is true. Just takes a little thought process. There is a way to get that live feel, you just have to "think" that way when creating it. Different velocities on drums, creating a guitar strum sound by staggering your notes, delay, reverb, percussions. Sometimes you just have to sit back and study some good reggae for a few hours and absorb the different styles.
 
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