Looking for Reggae tips and settings

[Gustavo]

Hi everyone,

Recently a band member told me he wanted to start playing some reggae tunes but I have no idea how to. I've been looking up things on the internet and I get mixed results. So I wanted to ask you all in the forum and hope that someone actually plays reggae. Is there any good video/song/article that demonstrates all that is reggae? is there a typical pattern for reggae (like blues)? What are the best Hammond settings? Should I play rhytmically or just set up long chours-y chords?

I have a lot of questions and basically no clue as to what is expected to be reggae by reggae purists. Sure I can listen to bob marley, but I know reggae didnt die with him and has since evolved. So I am looking for what is to be used now a days.

Saludos,
Gustavo

[taxman]

Reggae! You want to play the bubble! This is an art form, and really makes or breaks a reggae tune.. This is one of the best demos I've seen online:



And here's a text version of the same guy's demo:

http://www.keyboardmag.com/article/Davi ... aying/2090

Good luck!

[jazzystu]

There are a lot of people on the interweb saying that reggae organ is a pretty damn inflexible thing.

The bubble as outlined above is essential, but use it as a base and then play around with it a bit.

It sounds like a very obvious suggestion, but I'd have a good listen to some Bob Marley tracks. There are some great things to be picked up on there. Particularly shoving in the odd accent. Have a listen to "Jammin". He uses a Jimmy Smith jazz organ sound and stuffs the odd chord in around the bubble and it sounds cool. Sounding cool is the name of the game.

I'd avoid big chords and keep it simple. Also, try splitting your keyboard and have one bit of it without percussion (like you would with the lower manual of a hammond) and then either one of the bubble sounds off the interweb, or a jazz organ sound.

Have a listen to the way this chap skins the cat in the middle of the tune. That seems to have a lot more urgency than the usual bubble.



Jools Holland is a bit of a bumboclatt though!

Also, as someone behind a keyboard, you need to chase down some Monty Alexander tunes!...particularly his take on mack the knife. Lovely bubble and some beautiful piano....maaaaan!

[DrNeurus]

Hello Gustavo,

Don't mind to insert my two cents here -- been playing almost exclusively reggae for nearly 30 years and have had the pleasure / privilege to work with a great many name artists from Marcia to Beenie and everyone in between (with one notable exception: Leroy Smart is a bigger bomba klaat than Jools).

Interesting that the thread quickly devolved to discussion of only bubble, which can certainly be crucial, but reggae is not made of bubble alone.

The Second Rule of Reggae is that there shall be piano chord strikes on 2 and 4, generally called a "skank." Ideally, these shall be highly percussive, karate chops, and should have some bite tonally in the upper mid range. It's not really crucial to have real-world acoustic piano sound always; many synthetic pianos work nicely, too, so change it up here and there.

The Third Rule of Reggae is that there shall be organ chord strikes on the half beats, generally called a "bubble." This is mostly for older style "roots" reggae -- most modern reggae dispenses with the bubble entirely unless they're looking for that old sound. A good bubble is the opposite of a skank: kind of fluffy puffs of air and slightly slowed attack and release times to soften the edges, and with emphasis in the lower mid range EQ-wise. Generally, a quality bubble tone will have a very limited useful range -- gets too muddy if you play low and too thin and annoying if played high. Pure or nearly pure sine tones work well, so FM is also a good choice for bubbling.

Oh, I forgot the First Rule of Reggae and indeed of ALL music: there are no rules! Check out the riddim Joyride for a great example of a reggae riddim which breaks rules.

Bubbles and skanks are completely independent from one another and common mistake is to play them as one with accent on skank. You know you've got your bubble feel when you can play it well without the counterbalance of the skank. Also, try to avoid using same chord inversions from one to the other to make things a bit more interesting.

Beyond that, just deal with it as you would any other song your band wants to play: listen to the original and pick out the parts which are needed to recreate the aural structure and convey the musical content accurately so that it's recognizable to your audience -- assuming of course that "covering" the tune is your goal.

Note: all of the above if for naught if your rock 'n roll drummer can't/doesn't play one drop well (kick and snare on 3).

Bless,

Pablo

[Gustavo]

Thanks to everyone who has answered!!. You've all been very helpful.

BUT unfortunately I am not going to be able to get into the reggae band since it's rehearsals are going to take place at the same time as my jazz practices, and I'd rather play jazz. Still I am going to review all the ideas and get to play some reggae just in case I ever need to play it. plus it seems like fun.

Saludos,
Gustavo

[Drewa]

Hello Gustavo,

Don't mind to insert my two cents here -- been playing almost exclusively reggae for nearly 30 years and have had the pleasure / privilege to work with a great many name artists from Marcia to Beenie and everyone in between (with one notable exception: Leroy Smart is a bigger bomba klaat than Jools).

Interesting that the thread quickly devolved to discussion of only bubble, which can certainly be crucial, but reggae is not made of bubble alone.

The Second Rule of Reggae is that there shall be piano chord strikes on 2 and 4, generally called a "skank." Ideally, these shall be highly percussive, karate chops, and should have some bite tonally in the upper mid range. It's not really crucial to have real-world acoustic piano sound always; many synthetic pianos work nicely, too, so change it up here and there.

The Third Rule of Reggae is that there shall be organ chord strikes on the half beats, generally called a "bubble." This is mostly for older style "roots" reggae -- most modern reggae dispenses with the bubble entirely unless they're looking for that old sound. A good bubble is the opposite of a skank: kind of fluffy puffs of air and slightly slowed attack and release times to soften the edges, and with emphasis in the lower mid range EQ-wise. Generally, a quality bubble tone will have a very limited useful range -- gets too muddy if you play low and too thin and annoying if played high. Pure or nearly pure sine tones work well, so FM is also a good choice for bubbling.

Oh, I forgot the First Rule of Reggae and indeed of ALL music: there are no rules! Check out the riddim Joyride for a great example of a reggae riddim which breaks rules.

Bubbles and skanks are completely independent from one another and common mistake is to play them as one with accent on skank. You know you've got your bubble feel when you can play it well without the counterbalance of the skank. Also, try to avoid using same chord inversions from one to the other to make things a bit more interesting.

Beyond that, just deal with it as you would any other song your band wants to play: listen to the original and pick out the parts which are needed to recreate the aural structure and convey the musical content accurately so that it's recognizable to your audience -- assuming of course that "covering" the tune is your goal.

Note: all of the above if for naught if your rock 'n roll drummer can't/doesn't play one drop well (kick and snare on 3).

Bless,

Pablo

What are your favourite Upper / Skank and Lower / Bubble Drawbar settings ? Do you use the leslie, vibrato / chorus and percussion ? TIA\

[RichardG]

What are your favourite Upper / Skank and Lower / Bubble Drawbar settings ? Do you use the leslie, vibrato / chorus and percussion ? TIA\

Hi,

I also play reggae and ska and there's a wide variety of settings/setups used by different keyboard players so for me there's not really a favourite.
Some songs use a very dark and muddy bubble while some others have it so bright that it almost sounds like a ska song with slow (upper hand) offbeats inbetween.
(Remember that reggae came from ska, not the other way around !)

My use of Leslie is mostly to create an emotion (spinning up) and relaxation (spinning down).
Percussion/chorus/vibrato are used if it adds to the atmosphere of the song so there's also not really a works-everytime-setting IMHO.

It's mostly about timing and feel.
You can achieve *a lot* by slightly being behind the beat of before it which is more important than the sound.
In the end it's the feel of a song and the way the other instruments play that makes or breaks it.

Listen to songs very carefully and not only Bob Marley.
There are lots of artists and bands that are just as 'reggae' but sound totally different.

HTH !
rg,rg

[maxpiano]

What are your favourite Upper / Skank and Lower / Bubble Drawbar settings ? Do you use the leslie, vibrato / chorus and percussion ? TIA\

That post is 11 years old and not sure if and how much Pablo is still active on NUF, however if you look at the video linked in the second post of this thread you can have some answer

[RichardG]

That post is 11 years old and not sure if and how much Pablo is still active on NUF, however if you look at the video linked in the second post of this thread you can have some answer

True, that's why I answered

[Tracii]

I am aware that this post is quite old. Nevertheless, the topic is not out of date. I would just like to share my experience as I visited a concert of the wailers (Bob Marley‘s original band, and therefore a reference in reggae music). This was just three days ago in Germany.

First, I must say that this was one of the best sound mixes I have had in any concert I have ever been. Kudos to the sound engineer, everything sounded so crisp and clean and at the same time with deep power, people loved it and went crazy, and this in Germany.

Now to the keyboard part. The wailers’ keyboard player is using a Korg organ (did not see which version, I guess the C2D) with two manuals on the left and the Yamaha motif XF7 on the right on which he almost exclusively plays the piano skank. On top of that he had a small synth, I believe i saw the Artura logo, just for the brass fill ins and some other synthesize parts like Clavinets.

It looked so simple but yet so groovy. In 90% of all the songs (they literally played all of their hits, it was so awesome) he’s playing the “Organ bubble” with the left hand (16th notes always at 2th, 4th and so on) and with the right hand the crisp regular piano skank. It did not sound as metallic and bright as the Korg M1 piano that many people are referring to here, I believe it was a regular Yamaha piano, probably EQ adjusted to bring up brightness a little. It’s just my feeling.

The Korg Organ sounded like a real Hammond, absolutely amazing. I will add a photo I took with the guy after the concert, he was a nice and friendly fellow. I’m not quite sure so if he is the regular keyboard player, when I searched an Internet, I saw a different guy. Whatever. Great experience, if they play near you, I just must recommend that you go there, it is absolutely worth it. And all this from a guy that is more into rock and metal, but the groove and the atmosphere is just out of this world.

PS and off-topic: the Singer is also just such a nice guy, besides being a great vocalist. After the show, he patiently took at least half an hour to take pictures with literally everyone and to sign autographs. Very chill

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