• From: BELGIUM
  • Registered: 2007-01-27
  • Posts: 3,403

Topic: how to play reggae and disco? or giving links or websites

There are 2 different styles I can't play:
- DISCO
- REGGAE
I think this question belongs here, I need information about  HOW TO STRUM if you are playing reggae?
How to strum to have a disco pattern?
Do you know how I need to approach it or have you some advice.
Your buddy Lieven

[color=blue]- GITAARDOCPHIL SAIS: TO CONQUER DEAD, YOU HAVE TO DIE[/color]   AND [color=blue] we are born to die[/color]
- MY GUITAR PLAYS EVERY STYLE = BLUES, ROCK, METAL, so I NEED TO LEARN HOW TO PLAY IT.
[color=blue]Civilization began the first time an angry person cast a word instead of a rock.[/color]

gitaardocphil's Website

  • From: Bellevue, WA
  • Registered: 2006-06-15
  • Posts: 3,336

Re: how to play reggae and disco? or giving links or websites

Disco and reggae are both straight up rock and roll rhythms based on the blues.  Disco is all about the electronics needed to get the wah wah sound, and reggae is all about syncopated bass walks and rhythms.

Someday we'll win this thing...

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jerome.oneil's Website

  • Registered: 2008-07-14
  • Posts: 7

Re: how to play reggae and disco? or giving links or websites

reggae is played by using quick upstrokes on the off beats, if you want to count it 1234 then you'd be playing on 2 and 4, but the way i like to count it is as 8th notes, like 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + , the + being the off beat or the "and." just think short up strokes, and it helps to build your chords from the high e string, as you're playing an up stroke from high to low. as for disco, don't worry about it, learn funk hahaha smile

  • From: Nottingham, UK
  • Registered: 2006-08-08
  • Posts: 690

Re: how to play reggae and disco? or giving links or websites

The thing about both styles is the guitar isn't an important instrument, it's bass that makes them. In disco the classic bass groove is the octave lick, the guitars are often working fifth chords in the mid-neck with a sweet funky sound.

Reggae is highly varied and the upstroke thing doesn't apply all the time. Reggae bass grooves tend to pump a basic note then flourish quick, ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-baba-dit-dah-dump. Again the guitar has to provide supportive licks and lines without getting in the way of the groove.

Both are about feel and maintaining a rock solid rythmn. Obviously in rock nobody aims for a sloppy beat but in reggae and disco the notes have to be just so for the funk to happen.

'The sound of the city seems to disappear'