Ska stroke

The ska stroke up or ska upstroke, skank or bang, is a guitar strumming technique that is used mostly in the performance of ska, rocksteady, and reggae music.[5] "Reggae is most easily recognized by...the skank."[6] Ska strokes serve as a rhythmic base to a song, and may be doubled by the drums. This style of playing has a dance associated with it, the skank. In reggae, the guitar usually plays a short, percussive, "scratchy chop sound [chord]," on beats 2 and 4 (1 2 3 4), often supported by staccato piano (late 1960s to the early 1980s) or synthesizer.[7] Play 

Reggae downstroke pattern Play .[1]
Though notated with quarter notes, the Ska stroke sounds like sixteenth notes due to muting or dampening.[1]
Reggae upstroke pattern[2]Play .
Skank guitar rhythm often considered "'the' reggae beat"[3]Play straight  or Play shuffle .
Skank at different harmonic rhythms
Reggae guitar pattern[4] Play 
Reggae guitar pattern[4] Play 
Ska guitar pattern[4] Play 

Ska strokes create a bouncing rhythm, going up then down in pitch.[5] Played in 4
4 time (š¯„†1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & š¯„‡), the chosen guitar chord is played on the downbeat (indicated by numbers), and then a ghost note is played on the upbeat (indicated by ampersands) by lifting the left hand off the fret a few millimeters.[5] However, most traditional ska is focused on the upbeat; playing on the downbeat is more closely associated with reggae, where the ska strokes are played much more slowly as opposed to ska.

Ska strokes are downstrokes.

Double-time: ||:1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & :||
Common-time: ||:1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 :||
Half-time  : ||:1234123412341234:||

Play 

The first use of the ska stroke has been attributed to guitarists including Ernest Ranglin.[8]

See also

Sources
  1. Snyder, Jerry (1999). Jerry Snyder's Guitar School, p.28. ISBN 0-7390-0260-0.
  2. Snyder (1999), p.29.
  3. Bassford, Andy (2004). "Reggae: Jamaican Grooves", How to Play Rhythm Guitar, p.72. Hal Leonard. Johnston, Richard; ed. ISBN 0-87930-811-7.
  4. Peretz, Jeff (2003). Zen and the Art of Guitar: A Path to Guitar Mastery, p.37. Alfred Music. ISBN 9780739028179.
  5. (2013). Smithsonian Music: The Definitive Visual History, p.349. ISBN 9781465421265.
  6. Hombach, Jean-Pierre (2010). Bob Marley the Father of Music, p.14. ISBN 9781471620454.
  7. Hombach (2010), p.21.
  8. DiMartino, Dave (2016). Music in the 20th Century, p.528. Routledge. ISBN 9781317464297.
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