does anyone know those ska chords? like the ones that operations ivy and rancid use. if you do please tell me because they sound awesome.
Well, ska uses the same major and minor chords every other style of music uses. However here are a few style tips.
Ska (and reggae) is played with short, staccato stabs of the rhythm guitar on the 2nd and 4th beat of each measure. This is sometimes known as a "skank".
After sounding, the chords are instantly muted. This means that open chords are out and barre chords are the way to go.
Many ska players mute (relax the barre) on the downstroke and then play the chord on the upstroke. This means that only the top three strings (G, B and high E) are really important and many ska players only finger those strings.
Ska bands often have a horn section, so ska songs tend to be in horn-friendly keys like F and Bb.
Here are a few ska guitar lessons on the web. The first one, on Cyberfret, is particularly good, with instructional videos:
http://www.cyberfret.com/styles/ska/101/index.php
http://www.fenderplayersclub.com/pdfs/lessons/ska_guitar.pdf
http://www.wholenote.com/cgi-bin/page_view.pl?l=1184&p=1&a=0
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Helgi Briem
hbriem AT gmail DOT com
thanks a lot. :D
