Raggae Bassline ?
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A Kind Machine
New member
Listen to some Bob Marley, Toots and the Maytals and any good old Dancehall stuff to get the idea. I've been listening to reggae since I was a little one and the things that I notice the most are:
1. Bass plays along with the reggae drum beat (snare on 3, hi hat or some other accent on 2 and 4 I believe), so just making a beat like that will probably make your bass line sound more reggae-ish.
2. Think lead bass. It is going to have more n\motion in the notes and variations in the rhythms than most other instruments, with the guitars and keys generally given their traditional rhythmic duties. The bass line to "Concrete Jungle" by Bob Marley is a perfect example of this, it completely makes the song and jumps around all over the place. Almost a melodic instrument sometimes.
3. A whole lot of reggae bass is played behind the beat in typical bad-ass bass fashion.
4. The chord is usually outlined pretty well. All three notes of each chord triad are on the table in reggae, it's not like getting away with just playing the root in rock music.
Bass is usually the most important instrument in any band in terms of feel, but in reggae it is really exaggerated. Drums and the other rhythm instruments usually just stick with a pattern while the bass line is what ebbs and flows and gives that magic.
1. Bass plays along with the reggae drum beat (snare on 3, hi hat or some other accent on 2 and 4 I believe), so just making a beat like that will probably make your bass line sound more reggae-ish.
2. Think lead bass. It is going to have more n\motion in the notes and variations in the rhythms than most other instruments, with the guitars and keys generally given their traditional rhythmic duties. The bass line to "Concrete Jungle" by Bob Marley is a perfect example of this, it completely makes the song and jumps around all over the place. Almost a melodic instrument sometimes.
3. A whole lot of reggae bass is played behind the beat in typical bad-ass bass fashion.
4. The chord is usually outlined pretty well. All three notes of each chord triad are on the table in reggae, it's not like getting away with just playing the root in rock music.
Bass is usually the most important instrument in any band in terms of feel, but in reggae it is really exaggerated. Drums and the other rhythm instruments usually just stick with a pattern while the bass line is what ebbs and flows and gives that magic.
bandcoach
Zukatoku - Mod Scientist
step 0 stop being a jackass post-count scambag
---------- Post added at 03:13 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:08 AM ----------
@A Kind Machine: nice simple explanation of the role and function of bass in reggae. It is what i do in a nutshell when creating new ones live or in a jam session.
Unlike Bootsy's formulae for funk where you got to have it hit on the 1, in reggae. as a bass player. you are almost always denying the 1 or only playing the 1st beat in a subsidiary bar - your primary or first bar does not have the 1st beat played played, but the second bar may have the 1st beat played as a passing point on the way to the 2nd beat.
I have a bunch of examples that I will share tomorrow or the day after (got to find them and make sure that I am not impinging someones copyright, been so long since I wrote the lessons)
---------- Post added at 03:13 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:08 AM ----------
@A Kind Machine: nice simple explanation of the role and function of bass in reggae. It is what i do in a nutshell when creating new ones live or in a jam session.
Unlike Bootsy's formulae for funk where you got to have it hit on the 1, in reggae. as a bass player. you are almost always denying the 1 or only playing the 1st beat in a subsidiary bar - your primary or first bar does not have the 1st beat played played, but the second bar may have the 1st beat played as a passing point on the way to the 2nd beat.
I have a bunch of examples that I will share tomorrow or the day after (got to find them and make sure that I am not impinging someones copyright, been so long since I wrote the lessons)
DigitalKillaz
New member
rhythmgj
Character in Spades...
Not much to add to the great posts above, but I'd consider phrasing to the 5th of the chord, and as Coach said, stay off of the "1." You might think in two bar phrases, and while fairly busy and definitely melodic are the order of the day, the part should by no means be one long free-ranging solo. In regards to the "lead bass"/melody idea, think "Stir it Up" or "Lively Up Yourself" by Marley.
GJ
GJ