Guitar/Reggae

Ernest Ranglin

Introduction

Reggae is a musical form that is rarely treated in guitar books. It is a syncopated music which is often difficult to notate and reggae guitarists are rarely given the chance to play extended solos. In many respects, the reggae guitarist is a fundamental part of the rhythm section. The guitar is often heard doubling the bass line with muted pick work or providing a steady chordal backbeat on the 2nd and 4th beat. This simple assignment of guitar role belies the true complexity of what is a fascintaing guitar style. Reggae was born out of the West Indian 1950s Rhythm and Blues scene. It was a unique local rhythmic twist of a very popular world-wide genre. An excellent example is Easy Snappin' by Theophilus Beckford. This huge 1950s West Indian hit record is pure rhythm and blues in structure but there's a change in the syncopation. Its more emphasised and the vocals have a vernacular flavour. The guitarist on this seminal record is Ernest Ranglin. Ranglin plays an incredibly fast blues inflected line to support the rhythm. The guitar sound belongs to the period that gave us Chuck Berry but the solo itself is uniquely Jamaican. The guitar work of Peter Tosh with The Wailers provides a blueprint for the reggae of the 1970s. To see Tosh play "Stir It Up" live is a revelation. The effect laden guitar part is so integrated into the performance that it difficult to hear it as a single entity. Rock guitar has given us riffs such as "Satisfaction" by the Rolling Stones or "Sweet Child Of Mine" by Guns and Roses and these can be learned and enjoyed separate from the songs they originated from. Reggae is the opposite; it demands of the guitarist complete rhythmic awareness of the other instruments and the ability to submerge the guitar into the harmonic and rhythmic framework.

Harmony

The chords used in reggae are the same as most other genres but due to the need to create a syncopated rhythm open chords are rarely used throughout a piece. The most common chord shapes are barres or half-barres with emphasis placed on the treble strings. It is quite common in reggae to use minor keys and to use the dominant chord in its minor form and therefore the music may never form a perfect cadence. Here is a sixteen bar reggae chord progression in the key of Gm:

Gm	Gm	Dm	Dm
Gm	Gm	Dm	Dm
Cm	Cm	Dm	Dm
Cm	Cm	Dm	Dm

Try to play the chord progression with a reggae rhythm using the chords below. Note the fingering given for the Dm chord.

• 

  Gm half-barre

• 

  Cm

• 

  Dm