Chords for Reggae Bass Tutorial

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Hello ladies and gentlemen, this is Manny Bass.
Today we are going to learn how to play reggae.
Reggae is a very interesting music [C] style, it comes from Jamaica.
It's not too complicated actually.
There's a few elements of it that set it apart from other genres of music.
One of the things that it's known for, it's for ascending the [Bb] second and fourth beat.
[Em] Whereas usually [Eb] most [C] music, the accent is on the first, on the downbeat.
_ Reggae, we ascend the [G] second and fourth beat.
And you can hear the guitar do it too.
Check this out for [F] example. _ _ _
_ [G] _ Sometimes the guitar, instead of playing on the two and the four,
sometimes they play on the end of each beat.
So instead of playing on one, two, three, [E] four, we play on the end.
So one, two, three, four.
[Abm]
Check it out for example. _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [C] The bass line is said to be [Db] very simple and [Bm] laid back.
We don't do too much.
[A] And another thing sometimes [G] that we're going to notice about reggae is that
sometimes we don't play on the three and four.
Sometimes we play on the one, two, and then stop, three, four.
Alright, so now we're going to play a bass line,
but we're only going to concentrate on [Db] the root and the octave.
Alright, [A] so we're going to play A, [G] it's octave, G, it's octave, [Dm] and then F, and it's octave.
So it's going to [A] sound like this.
_ _ _ One, two, [G] _ [F] _ _ three, four, _ [G] _
[B] _ _ [C] three, four.
Alright, [G] that's all.
So now follow along.
[Am] _ _ _ _ _ [G] _ [F] _ _
_ _ _ [G] _ _ [Am] _ [N] Alright, very simple.
Now the next thing we're going to do is we're going to play the root and the fifth.
So we're going to do the same rhythm, but using the root and the fifth.
[A] _ [E] _
[A] _ _ _ [F] _ _ [C] _ _ _
_ [G] _ [D] _ [E] _ _ [G] _ _ [Am] _
_ _ _ _ [G] _ _ [F] _ _
_ _ [G] _ [Am] _ _ [A] Alright, so now we're going to spice things up a little bit.
We're going to use the root, the fifth, and the octave.
So we're going to _
_ _ [G] _ _ [F] _ _ do_
[G] _ _ [A] _ _ [Bm] _ [A] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [G] _ _ [F] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
Alright, that's it.
Very simple, right?
Nothing too complicated.
Now, the last thing we're going to do is we're going to play, but using the root, the third, [D] and the fifth.
[Am] Now, this progression, A is minor, so it's minor third, it's three frets down.
So it would be_
Okay.
_ _ [Db] _ _ [A] _ [C] _ [E]
Then we're going to jump to G, and G happens to [Db] be major.
So we're going to play the major [G] third, which [Bm] _ _ is_
[G] Like this.
_ _ _ _ _ [F] _ [C] Then we're going to F, which is [F] also major.
Then we're going to play the major [Am] third. _ _ _ _
_ [Eb] Also, check [Am] it out. _ _ _ _
[G] _ [F] _ _ _ _ _ [G] _
So as you can see, it's nothing too complicated.
It's very simple, but it's very, very nice.
Okay, so now we're going to follow a backing track, [C] which is in a minor tonality.
And the two chords that the guitar is [Db] going to be playing is going to [Am] be A minor [C] and E minor.
_ So, we're going to follow along, but we're going to play root, third, and fifth.
So it's going to be something [A] like this.
_ [E] _
_ _ [G] _ [Am] _ _ [E] _ _ [G] _
_ [D] _ [Am] _ _ [E] _ _ [A] _ _
[C] _ [E] _ _ _ [B] _ [G] _ [E] _ _
[B] _ [G] _ _ [A] _ _ [C] _ [E] _ _
[A] _ [C] _ [E] _ _ _ _ That's it, [A] alright?
_ [E] _ _ _ [Am] _ _ [E] _
_ _ [Em] _ [Am] Alright, _ [Em] _ _
[Am] _ _ _ [Em] _ _ _ [Am] _ _
[Em] _ _ _ [Am] _ _ _ [Em] _ _
so now the last thing I'm going to show you, because I'm going to keep it simple today.
I'm going to show you how to play that song, Murder She Wrote, _ which is a very popular song back in the 90s.
It's very [Eb] simple, we just play_
_ [Db] _
[Eb] _ _ [Db] _ _ [Eb] _ _ Alright, so what exactly am I doing?
Really simple, I'm playing D sharp, then I'm going to play [Bb] its fifth, [D] then a minor [Db] seventh.
[Bb] _ [Db] _ [D] _
[Eb] _ _ [Db] _ [Db] _ [Eb] _ _ _ [Bb] _
[Db] _ [B] [Eb] We can also do this.
[Bbm] _ _ [Eb] _ _
[Db] _ _ [B] We can even play it an octave lower.
[Eb] _ _
[Db] _ _ [Eb] _ _ [Db] _ _ [Eb] _ [Bb] _
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[Db] _ Alright, so that's it for today.
Please subscribe to my channel, leave comments, and don't forget to press the like button.
You can also click the link [Bb] in the description [Cm] to [B] download the tabs [Am] as well as the tracks.
Alright, so you can play along to them.
See you next time. _ _ _ _
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