How do you play reggae?

[StringNavigator]

2 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

Bollox - there are whole forums dedicated to how to play the Beatles!

McCartney's great. Something, Penny Lane... I've never had the need to go to these forums, though. Mostly a "by-ear" player, I'm afraid. Or sheet music. Have they helped you much?

[T-Bay]

On 06/12/2018 at 21:10, ped said:

 

Edited December 7, 2018 by T-Bay

[ped]

He’s gone now folks. 

[Woodinblack]

1 minute ago, StringNavigator said:

McCartney's great. Something, Penny Lane... I've never had the need to go to these forums, though. Mostly a "by-ear" player, I'm afraid. Or sheet music. Have they helped you much?

No, I don't really like the Beatles, but then I never had a problem playing reggae either 

[operative451]

Two things: first, Bob Marley's dad was a white guy from Liverpool. 

Second: you live in a flipping colony!!!

[Rich]

I play in a ska band. I thought I was a bass player. I never realised I was a thief, coloniser and oppressor too. Thanks for the heads up.

[Woodinblack]

29 minutes ago, Rich said:

I play in a ska band. I thought I was a bass player. I never realised I was a thief, coloniser and oppressor too. Thanks for the heads up.

We play quite a lot of ska songs, but luckily I don't care, and they are all british ska bands too, so I guess that is appropriate.

[Frank Blank]

That was hilarious.

*joins Bavarian Oom-pah band just for the hell of it*

Edited December 7, 2018 by Frank Blank

[Muzz]

I'm looking forward to going down my next blues jam night to check passports, and I'll be requiring written proof that the singer's dog has actually died, his woman did indeed done him wrong, etc.  😁

I used to go to the Bier Keller in Manchester when standing on tables and hurling steinfuls of lager around the place was a big night out, and the house band there (definitely Oompah) covered Like A Virgin...it was a life-changing experience... 😁

[Earbrass]

12 minutes ago, Muzz said:

I'm looking forward to going down my next blues jam night to check passports, and I'll be requiring written proof that the singer's dog has actually died, his woman did indeed done him wrong, etc.  😁

I used to go to the Bier Keller in Manchester when standing on tables and hurling steinfuls of lager around the place was a big night out, and the house band there (definitely Oompah) covered Like A Virgin...it was a life-changing experience... 😁

I have vivid and fond memories of watching my (South African) mate giving an excellent and very well received impromptu version of "We Will Rock You" on the highland pipes while dressed in full Scottish regalia,  accompanied by a German oompah band, also wearing their traditional costumes, late at night at an open-air riverside café in Turku, Finland in the summer of 2017 during the Europeade (European folk dance) festival. Pick the cultural bones out of that one! 

[dlloyd]

23 hours ago, StringNavigator said:

If Reggae was fair game for Britz, they would not have to seek instruction in how it should be done. Do you need to ask how to play a Beatles tune or one by the Bay City Rollers? No. Because in those two cases you are not stealing someone else's culture.    

I had some trouble with Twist and Shout once I realised I was a different colour than the people who first sang it. Or is it a different nationality? Or religion? The Isley Brothers (who were the first to chart with it) were Seventh Day Adventists...

[dlloyd]

On 30/11/2018 at 21:43, thepurpleblob said:

It all started with a cover of I Shot the Sheriff... 

I can play the notes. I can even play them more or less in the right place. But it sounds rubbish. I just don't have the feel at all. 

Solutions appreciated. Yeh - I know it's a bit of a stupid question

Where are you having the problem? Is it playing with a band? Timing? Or tone?

I Shot the Sheriff is not an easy song in its Bob Marley version (Eric Clapton's is a bit easier!) It's super-busy. Bill Laswell made an interesting observation about Familyman.... he's locked in mostly with Bob's vocals. 

The key is to listen to a lot of reggae. It follows a lot of rules that blues based music follows so people think it's easy... but unless you know the music inside out, you're going to sound a bit fake... One thing to get used to is the one drop (not universal, admittedly). The drummer does not place emphasis on the "1", which might give you trouble... you just have to get used to that.

[dlloyd]

Try these for size...

 

[Earbrass]

Pity about the bass sound farting out in this vid, but....

 

Edited December 7, 2018 by Earbrass

[Reggaebass]

6 minutes ago, Earbrass said:

Pity about the bass sound farting out in this vid, but....

 

Nice one earbrass ,that’s from the Sly and Robbie rare footage collection in Jamaica,   imo Robbie and family man are the best reggae bassists , I saw Robbie when he played with black  uhuru, 😀

[thepurpleblob]

On 06/12/2018 at 19:20, StringNavigator said:

I'm not at all surprised by the smell of smug superiority and self-entitled retaliation. After all, has not the entire world from America to  India to Africa suffered under barbaric Colonialism at the point of a gun? "Collecting" artifacts from other nations under the guise of Archeology to make money and stealing music and culture from other nations to make money is an old family tradition, innit...? Being insular can often make one myopic and preclude understanding, as they stumble blindly along the same sin trodden path of their ancestors.

Anyone in the world can play European music. That is not Cultural Appropriation in spite of fools who try to turn the argument. Because they never invaded, enslaved or appropriated Euro culture. But to witness a young well-fed Euro musician cavorting around a stage in dreadlocks with jerk chicken in one hand and a guitar in the other shouting Jamaican patois and trying hard to copy Caribbean music like Calypso, Ska, Reggae and Rock Steady is the very definition of Cultural Appropriation. It's truly an embarrassment, innit...? It's "in the blood" of some and the DNA of others to regard the culture, aspirations, freedom and even lives of people of the Caribbean to be somehow "owned" by them; the Smell of Smug...

If Reggae was fair game for Britz, they would not have to seek instruction in how it should be done. Do you need to ask how to play a Beatles tune or one by the Bay City Rollers? No. Because in those two cases you are not stealing someone else's culture.    

We had a case in Canada recently, of an European artist who made a career out of copying Innuit Art. Once the Innuit brought it to light, patrons ceased to buy it. Thousands of people realised the extent of Cultural Appropriation. It was high theft. Mass production of Innuit Art by Europeans with the profits going elsewhere. I guess millions still cannot understand. It's like trying to tell a European lad in 1776 that slavery is a high crime...

Bands I've been in, when considering repertoire, have taken a pass on I Shot The Sheriff knowing how foolish it would look on stage. "Whee! Look at me! I'm a Reggay Man!"... European tourists in the Caribbean DO NOT want to see Europeans playing steel pan or Calypso or Reggae. That is fact, not opinion. However, they can buy a steel pan and take it home for personal enjoyment. But don't try and perform in public and turn a buck out of Caribbean music. Or any other people's music.

Speaking out on Cultural Appropriation is not racism. Hiring Euro lads to play Reggae is. Why can't you hire people who are of the culture you are trying so hard to assimilate? Multiculturalism never ever meant that you could turn a profit by selling other people's culture. Go and play a Jig or copy The Beatles in a look-alike band. Reggay is the culture and religious belief of millions of people living in the Caribbean. It's not just a Pub song for someone's  drunken enjoyment.

 

I'd rather not get into this but you're talking so much sh*t that I just can't let it go. 

So called "cultural appropriation" is a perfect example of being offended on the part of somebody else. I don't know who you are but I'm going to bet you are some reasonably well-off white person. You have no right that I can see to dictate who should or should not play Caribbean music. I make no pretence to "pass myself off" as a Caribbean person - I'm a fat, bald, old white bloke. I play it in appreciation, not to mock or to pass-off or to pretend I am what I am not. 

Most complaints about "cultural appropriation" are a nasty example of left-wing politics going so extreme that they have become indistinguishable from far right politics. This needs called out for what it is.

However, this isn't what I asked about. I didn't ask for your opinion. 

[thepurpleblob]

1 hour ago, dlloyd said:

Where are you having the problem? Is it playing with a band? Timing? Or tone?

I Shot the Sheriff is not an easy song in its Bob Marley version (Eric Clapton's is a bit easier!) It's super-busy. Bill Laswell made an interesting observation about Familyman.... he's locked in mostly with Bob's vocals. 

The key is to listen to a lot of reggae. It follows a lot of rules that blues based music follows so people think it's easy... but unless you know the music inside out, you're going to sound a bit fake... One thing to get used to is the one drop (not universal, admittedly). The drummer does not place emphasis on the "1", which might give you trouble... you just have to get used to that.

It's timing. I don't feel entirely comfortable. It's hard to explain - I guess my brain isn't wired up the right way.

[EssentialTension]

New York:

 

Jamaica:

 

Birmingham:

 

[dlloyd]

lol.

Cultural appropriation by Tony Tribe?

 

[EssentialTension]

8 minutes ago, dlloyd said:

lol.

Cultural appropriation by Tony Tribe?

 

It's more complicated than you might think ... 😉

 

[Reggaebass]

This was one that took me quite a while to get the timing on ,I had to really break it down 😀

 

[ChrisDev]

The original

The CA version 😉

https://basslessons.be/transcriptions.php?i=346

 

Edited December 7, 2018 by ChrisDev

[Earbrass]

 

[Ricky 4000]

So, just to confirm - are Bryan Adams covers back on the table?

Too soon?? 😖

[Ricky 4000]

Might be worth absorbing a live version of the sheriff, as well 👍

 

Once you can do everything on this thread - if it still doesn't work, then it's probably safe to blame the drummer. 😁

Edited December 8, 2018 by Ricky 4000