Reggae is a musical genre created in the late 1960s by Jamaicans of African origin. Reggae artists use musical idioms from a variety of genres, such as mento (a Jamaican folk form), ska, rocksteady, calypso, and American soul and rhythm and blues.

The genre’s powerful percussion, hypnotic bass lines & steady up-stroke rhythm guitar (dubbed the „skank beat“) have all contributed to its success as a dance music genre. Lyrics in Jamaican English, Jamaican Patois, or Iyaric dialects appear in the majority of reggae songs.

How to strum reggae guitar rhythms?

There are some specific techniques for both the fretting and the picking hand to create a reggae rhythm.

Fretting Hand Technique

Keep your fretting hand softly (just touch the strings instead of pressing) on top of the strings. This will mute your guitar sound when you strum with your picking hand. Now, immediately press down on the top three strings When the picking hand strikes the chord, This time it will make a staccato sound. Start with the strings muted and work your way up to pressing them down.

Picking Hand Technique

The picking hand plays an important role to come up with the reggae rhythm on guitar. While you are strumming the strings, put some power on your picking hand and attack the strings to make accents. Instead of strumming, chop the strings to make it sound more like a reggae rhythm. This will also give a some short of purcusssive instrumental fellings.

After understanding the mechanism of both hands, its time to learn some reggae guitar strumming pattern.

Reggae Guitar Strumming Patterns

Pattern 1

Playing a downstroke on the offbeat of the rhythm is the most prevalent reggae rhythm guitar pattern. In a 4:4 time signature song, the offbeat is on the „and“ that occurs between the beats. So, instead of counting the beats „1… 2… 3… 4,“ put a „and“ in between each main beat. Now play a down stroke on each “and”. Follow the image below.

Pattern 2

This is the 2nd most popular strumming pattern in reggae music. It’s now a down and up stroke on the offbeat, rather than just a downstroke like the previous pattern. Follow the image above.

Things To Keep In Mind While You Are Practicing The Patterns

In reggae, string strumming is referred to by a variety of names. Some refer to it as a ‚ska stroke‚ ,’chop‘, ’skank‘, or ‚bang‘.

There are some exceptions to the rule of „play on the offbeat.“ Music is primarily about conveying emotion or getting into a groove. After you become experienced in learning these two patterns, you can actually alternate between them. Like, play down stroke on the 1st off beat and then play down-up stroke on the 2nd off beat. Feel free to do the opposite as well. Details are explained on the picture below.

Muting the strings and focusing on the strum pattern will help you pick up the groove of reggae music faster.

Best Way To Learn Reggae Guitar

The best way to learn reggae guitar is to listen to your favourite reggae songs and try to play guitar along with the song. Begin with these two fundamental patterns, and then modify them to create your own reggae guitar strumming patterns.

Advance Reggae Guitar tips

• Adjust your fretting hand pressure while you are strumming. Try to experiment with different pressure level (extreamly light pressure, moderate pressure & heavy pressure) and invent different reggae sounds. Experiment with pressure duration as well.
• Try to strum in a harmonic & percussive fashion. Try this especially with bar chords that span the entire fret. Maintain a loose playing arm and swing it down to strum your hand across all strings, from the first to the last.
• Play the variation of different chords in different fret positions. Select the position of chords that sounds same to your selected songs. Don’t forget to experiment with different fret position of chords as well. But select the positions that makes it easy to play the chord progression.
• Bob Marley and the Wailers, Prince Buster, and Jackie Mittoo are some well-known reggae musicians to listen to. Take note of how these musicians and your favorite reggae guitarists play their songs and try to imitate them.

Some Popular Reggae Guitar Chord Progressions

On Night Nurse, Gregory Isaacs used this reggae chord progression. There are only two chords.

A minor – G major.

On 96 Degrees In The Shade, Third World used the following reggae chord progression.

A minor – G major for the verse & C major – G major – A minor for the chorus.

This reggae chord sequence was used by Bob Marley and other reggae singers on the song No Woman, No Cry.

C major – G major – A minor – F major – C major – G major C major – G major. The intro, verse, chorus, and bridge can all use this reggae chord sequence.

Bob Marley popularized the next reggae chord sequence – Stir It Up.

A major – D major – E major. Bob, on the other hand, is employing the chuck technique here.

Travie McCoy and Bruno Mars made this reggae chord progression famous with their song „Billionaire.“

Intro : A – C#7 – F#m – E

           D – E – F#m x2

           D – E – A – G#m – F#m – E – D – C#7

Verse : Same as intro.

Chorus: A – Bm

This article was written by a freelance author ‚Rahman‘ solely for House of Rock website. If you would like to take guitar lessons in Vienna , just contact me here