Reggae Guitar Lessons

Beginner Fingerpicking

admin — Sat, 11 May 2013 14:47:12 +0000

Free Video Guitar Lesson

Acoustic Fingerpicking for Beginners Lesson 1a

by Lisa McCormick

Instructor: Lisa McCormick

Speciality: Acoustic Fingerpicking

Website: GuitarTricks.com

This four-step fingerpicking pattern is a powerful building block for fingerstyle guitar.

For this pattern, play the sixth string (Low E) with a downward pluck of your thumb. Next, pluck upwards on the first string (high E string) with your middle finger. Next, pluck downwards on the third string (G string) with your thumb. Lastly, pluck upwards on the second string (B string) with your index finger.

This pattern of four steps constitutes one half measure of music in 4/4 time. The count is: One And Two And. To complete a full measure, simply play the pattern again, with this count: Three And Four And.

Repeat this pattern over and over, trying to maintain a consistent rhythm, and gradually building up your speed.

COMMONLY ASKED FINGERPICKING QUESTIONS:

Q: I see you are using only your thumb, index, and middle fingers? Iâ€™ve seen some players use three fingers, plus the thumb. Which is correct?

A: There is no absolute right or wrong to this. Youâ€™ll hear opinions on both sides of the aisle. My personal preference is based on the tradition called â€œTravis Pickingâ€ named for guitarist Merle Travis. I personally feel this pattern of finger moves, which uses the thumb twice within the pattern, opens up more rhythmic possibilities as you get into more advanced techniques.

Q: What is “TRAVIS PICKING?“

A: The signature “Travis” move is that alternating thumb beat – the fact that your thumb does double-duty, alternating between the bass note, and the third string (or a variation of that) of the guitar. That provides a steady rhythm against which you can then add ornamentations, syncopation, melody, etc. Some students ask why they can’t do these same patterns using three fingers, and the thumb on the bass note only. Technically you may be able to, but in so doing you compromise that steady “thump thump” of the Travis-style thumb beats.

Q: Is it necessary to have long fingernails to play fingerstyle guitar?

A: No. My personal preference is to have long-ish nails on the thumb, index, and middle fingers of my right hand. However, many players prefer to play with short nails. There is a difference in tone when using nails vs. not using nails. With nails, the tone is a bit crisper, without nails, it is a bit more muted. Itâ€™s a matter of personal preference.

A NOTE ABOUT THE LESSONS IN THIS SERIES:

This lesson is part of a tutorial called Acoustic Fingerpicking for Beginners, Level 1. These lessons were designed to be followed sequentially, with new skills and practice exercises building one upon the next.

The Acoustic Fingerpicking tutorial series also builds sequentially, from Level 1 to Level 2, and so on. If you are new to fingerpicking, this series will take you from the fundamental basics, and all the way through to a solid foundation of fingerpicking skills useful in playing folk and popular music.

You should feel free to proceed at your own pace, and to jump around within the tutorials, as you wish. You may want to return to various lessons from time to time to make sure you are on the right track before moving to more advanced skills.

For over 5000 lessons on every guitar style and technique visit Guitar Tricks.

Ska Guitar 101

admin — Sat, 11 May 2013 14:13:08 +0000

Free Video Guitar Lesson

Ska Guitar 101

by Lawrence Katz of GuitarTricks.com

Instructor: Lawrence Katz

Speciality: Alternative Rock

Website: GuitarTricks.com

Welcome to the world of Ska Guitar!

Ska is a style of music that can be described as “Upbeat Reggae.” It has influenced classic rock bands like The Clash, as well as more modern bands like No Doubt.

Here we’ll look at a rhythm guitar technique that describes the basics of Ska.

This is the first example in a five-part series. We’ll work on a basic Ska rhythm, playing on the upbeats. Keep the right hand loose and moving in an up-down motion. Focus on the upbeats.

Keep a soft, clean tone with an out-of-phase pickup setting. A guitar with single coil pickups is best for this (a Fender Stratocaster or similar) but you
can also use a guitar with humbucking pickups, if you use the middle position on the pickup selector.

You’ll need to mute notes with the left hand on your down strokes. Keep the notes very short!

Don’t dig into the strings too hard or rake across them strongly with your right hand, or you will sound like a washboard. Always keep it light and loose!

For over 3000 lessons on every guitar style and technique visit Guitar Tricks.

New Reggae Songs 2013

admin — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 02:46:35 +0000

Here is some interesting reggae songs I’ve heard so far in 2013

Gotye “State of the Art”

Bruno Mars”Show Me”

Major Lazer “Get Free”

“Satisfy My Soul” Bob Marley Chords & Lyrics

admin — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 03:19:38 +0000

Guitar Chords

Guitar Technique

This is an easy regggae song to learn how to play on guitar once you know your basic barre chord shapes. The song structure is not your normal verse, chorus, bridge, but rather uses a a basic chord progressions and then adds variations to it. Keep your right hand rhythm short and only strike the top strings. This song would also sound good using open chords on an acoustic guitar.

Learning the notes on the guitar fretboard

admin — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 02:59:10 +0000

To start, here’s a couple things you should already know:

Each of the guitar’s six string’s E,A,D,G,B,E
The musical alphabet has seven natural notes A,B,C,D,E,F,G

Okay so there is seven notes, that’s sounds easy enough…

But why does it take 12 frets to reach the same note again (octave)?

The distance between the notes are not the same.

You need to know two basic guitar music theory rules:

The distance between B-C and E-F is one fret
The distance between the all the rest of the notes is two frets.

So for example let’s start with the open E string

Likewise, if you start on the A string you have

And the same thing for the rest of the strings

But wait….

What about the notes in between?

That’s where the sharp’s and flats come into the picture.

The notes in between can be called sharp or flat depending on the key of the song. It has the same pitch, but two different names. This is more important when reading music. But the basic idea is simple. If the note is above, then the note is called sharp, if its below , then it’s called flat.

Let’s take for example the 1st fret on the A string. The note is above A so it’s called

A Sharp or A#

That same note is also below B, so we can call it

B Flat or Bb

To really learn the notes on the fretboard takes time, and practice.

Here is how you practice

Start with each string going up and down and say just the natural notes. Try for one string a day.
Then go up each string and say the natural notes and call all the notes in between sharps.
After that do the same thing and call all the notes in between flats.
A good game you can play is to just randomly pick a note and figure out what note it is. This is even better if you have someone pick the note for you.
Learn the notes of your favorite songs

“Santeria” Sublime Chords & Lyrics

admin — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 23:06:02 +0000

Guitar Chords

Guitar Technique

I would a clean tone for the reggae rhythm guitar and maybe a little bit of a phaser or some similar guitar effect pedal. The chorus part is just a basic arpeggio of the chords and can be played finger picked or picked with a pick, both ways sound good. This song has an awesome guitar solo, and I recommend trying to learn it by ear. Lots of blues runs and tasty bends.

Santana jams Reggae Guitar

admin — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 20:13:51 +0000

Carlos Santana playing Bob Marley’s “Exodus” in 2009 with Chick Korea and John Mclaughlin, plus a vintage clip of him playing reggae guitar with the Neville brothers in Jamaica. That PRS sounds nice!

“Too Rude” Keith Richards plays Reggae

admin — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 20:01:26 +0000

Here is a vintage clip from the 80′s of Keith Richards and his band the Expensive Winos jamming on a two chord reggae progression I-V in A Major. A – E . Enjoy!

“Turn your Lights Down Low” Bob Marley Lyrics

admin — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 02:05:05 +0000

Turn your lights down low
And pull your window curtains
Oh let Jah moon come shining in
Into our life again
Sayin’ oh it’s been a long long long long time
I kept this message for you girl
But it seems I was never on time
Still I wanna get through to you girl
On time
I want to give you some love
I want to give you some good good loving
Oh I oh I oh I
I want to give you some good good loving
Turn your lights down low
Never try to resist oh no
Oh let my love come tumbling in
Into our life again
Saying oh I love you
And I want you to know right now
Oh I love you
And I want you to know right now
Cause I, that I
I want to give you some love
I want to give you some good good lovin
I want to give you some love
I want to give you some good good lovin
Turn your lights down low
Never try to resist oh no
Oh let my love come tumbling in
Into our life again

“Exodus” Bob Marley Lyrics

admin — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 01:59:07 +0000

[Exodus:] Movement of Jah people! Oh-oh-oh, yea-eah!
Men and people will fight ya down (Tell me why!)
When ya see Jah light. (Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!)
Let me tell you if you’re not wrong; (Then, why?)
Everything is all right.
So we gonna walk all right! through de roads of creation:
We the generation (Tell me why!)
(Trod through great tribulation) trod through great tribulation.

Exodus, all right! Movement of Jah people!
Oh, yeah! O-oo, yeah! All right!
Exodus: Movement of Jah people! Oh, yeah!

Yeah-yeah-yeah, well!
Uh! Open your eyes and look within:
Are you satisfied (with the life you’re living)? Uh!
We know where we’re going, uh!
We know where we’re from.
We’re leaving Babylon,
We’re going to our Father land.

[2, 3, 4:] [Exodus:] movement of Jah people! Oh, yeah!
(Movement of Jah people!) Send us another brother Moses!
(Movement of Jah people!) From across the Red Sea!
(Movement of Jah people!) Send us another brother Moses!
(Movement of Jah people!) From across the Red Sea!
Movement of Jah people!

[Instrumental break]

Exodus, all right! Oo-oo-ooh! Oo-ooh!
Movement of Jah people! Oh, yeah!
Exodus!
Exodus! All right!
Exodus! Now, now, now, now!
Exodus!
Exodus! Oh, yea-ea-ea-ea-ea-ea-eah!
Exodus!
Exodus! All right!
Exodus! Uh-uh-uh-uh!

Move! Move! Move! Move! Move! Move!

Open your eyes and look within:
Are you satisfied with the life you’re living?
We know where we’re going;
We know where we’re from.
We’re leaving Babylon, y’all!
We’re going to our Father’s land.

Exodus, all right! Movement of Jah people!
Exodus: movement of Jah people!
Movement of Jah people!
Movement of Jah people!
Movement of Jah people!
Movement of Jah people!

Move! Move! Move! Move! Move! Move! Move!

Jah come to break downpression,
Rule equality,
Wipe away transgression,
Set the captives free.

Exodus, all right, all right!
Movement of Jah people! Oh, yeah!
Exodus: movement of Jah people! Oh, now, now, now, now!
Movement of Jah people!
Movement of Jah people!
Movement of Jah people!
Movement of Jah people!
Movement of Jah people!
Movement of Jah people!

Move! Move! Move! Move! Move! Move! Uh-uh-uh-uh!
Move(ment of Jah people)!
Move(ment of Jah people)!
Move(ment of Jah people)!
Move(ment of Jah people)! Movement of Jah people!
Move(ment of Jah people)!
Move(ment of Jah people)!
Movement of Jah people!
Movement of Jah people!
Movement of Jah people!