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Summary: Use triad outlines to play ska on bass guitar; learn how from a professional bass player and teacher in this free music instruction video.
Views: 600 | Tags: bass, guitar, scales, advanced, key, bass lessons, music theory
About the Expert
Ryan Larson Ryan Larson is a young jazz composer whose teaching technique focuses on the basics of music theory in all twelve keys. When applying his twelve-key technique... read more
CASEY CORMIER: So, we talked about reggae and dub just previously, and there's another genre of music that actually comes from these and it is called ska, okay? Ska was something that was popular in the '90s, but it has been popular in different places, starting in Jamaica from like the 1970s, okay? The importance of ska is whereas reggae, the chords, say in the rhythm, lie in the two and the four [HUMS REGGAE RHYTHM], one, two, three, four, one [PLAYS NOTES ON UPBEAT] if a chord was playing, on ska it's on the "ands", one-and, two-and, three-and, four-and [SINGS SKA RHYTHM], it's a little bit quicker, has a faster feeling, more frantic. Therefore, the bass line also to match is a little more frantic. So, we'll still be outlining triads a lot just as we did when we played reggae, but now we're going to be a little quicker. So, one thing is to get used to playing the major triads if you want to play ska [PLAYS MAJOR TRIADS] and your minor triads [PLAYS MINOR TRIADS]. It very often has this doubling of the root, [PLAYS SKA BASS LINE] and the guitars over this part will go [SINGS SKA RHYTHM]. So anyway, the E major triad, D major triad, A major triad, D major triad, but maybe from here we'll go to a C sharp minor. So, getting quick with triads will be a very essential ingredient if you want to play ska music.