USE PENTATONICS IN REGGAE

This month, we’re going to look at a very specific application of our pentatonic shapes, and talk about reggae. Through the history of the genre, from the late Sixties onwards, one of the hallmarks of reggae has been its flowing, melodic bass-lines, which often make extensive use of triads to outline the chords and other notes from the pentatonic scale to connect them. It’s not uncommon for the bass-line to be the most recognizable aspect of a reggae tune, something that was certainly true of so many of the incredible lines played by the great Aston ‘Family Man’ Barrett with Bob Marley’s band, the Wailers.

So, this month we’re going to look at some rhythmic variations that we can use on our pentatonic lines that allow us to outline the chords clearly, while bringing a reggae flavor to the songs. Even outside of actual reggae bands, it’s a style that’s been combined successfully in so many other genres—whether that means the Police, the Clash and Blondie fusing punk, new wave, and reggae, or hip-hop