I Shot the Sheriff

[JosephHHendrickson]

I don't understand the "percussion" that replaces the rest. I do not know what is being hit with what? ASre you hiting the pick guard instead of the strings? Are you hitting the strings with the back of your fingers as you go down?

Thanks for any suggestions.

P.S. Great website. I have found the lessons very helpful and the songs fun. Thanks

[art&lutherie]

Here a a excerpt from the lesson that might explain it


And let's take a moment here to talk about tone. Reggae guitar tends to have a very clipped sound (or "chunky," as the good book tells us). There are several ways to get this effect. The easiest way is to use an upstroke when you strum. When I play reggae in an all upstroke style on my guitar, I will actually slap my palm on top of the strings after the upstroke. This accentuates the pause that takes place on the beat. When I do use downstrokes, I find I get good control of the tone by resting my palm directly on the strings when I stroke. This is particularly useful in a triplet rhythm.

Hope that helps.
Bob

[DemoEtc]

Yah, they sometimes refer to it as 'skank', or 'skanking.' The way I was shown it was muting, but by taking the pressure off the strings with the fretting hand, so it's a left hand mute (for righty players). It obviously works best with barre chords, which is what most reggae rhythm guys play anyhow.

[stellabloo]

OK this is my beginner's take on I Shot the Sheriff - it was tough to make it sound like a recognizable version of the song and I hope this video helps:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2XYFjFXBZw

I am playing pretty much as per the lesson ( I think) using Em reggae triplets as the intro and and to mark the phrases - me with my bad habit of planting the lowest string especially for the C chord and then playing up to hide my slow changes (happily this works a lot of the time - or not , you let me know) and I did throw in a couple of easy extra riffs on the high E and B strings.
I am missing my whammy bar at some point - J/K@!
Otherwise any change or accentuation that you hear is a result of me hitting the strings selectively (rather than doing a complete stroke) which gives the illusion ( I think) that I am doing some complex picking when instead I am banging away at the same old Em.

My apologies for the looming torso - video editing is turning out to be a whole other ball o' wax

[allanv]

Hi from an absolute beginner and a big THANK YOU for your excellent 'Easy Songs' series. You say you usually play the reggae strumming with an up-stroke. So I guess for the two-stroke strum it'd be UD-that is the pattern is U UD U UD etc ? If so does that mean you pick the bass note with an upstroke? Sorry if this is a dumb question. I'm amazed you choose to use upstrokes when a D DU D DU pattern seems much easier. Keep up the great work!