Playing the off beat

[Rog]

Obviously Stuu is a master of the up-beat, which is the staple diet for reggae etc. I find it a very easy and natural style to play, possibly due to my bass background (experienced bass players learn all sorts of strange timings along the way), but I've worked with a lot of guitarists who simply cannot sustain that style and many who can't get it in the first place. That's not saying anything bad about them, it just doesn't come naturally to some people - to others it does - we're all different.

I know we don't represent a large guitarist sampling, but how easy do you guys find that syle to play? Can you easily sing and play the off?

I only sing a few songs like it: Kingston Town, Boys Light Up, I'll Be Your Baby Tonight etc and I find it a cool beat to play & sing over.

[stuu]

"master of the up-beat"


haha. my only talent has finally been recognised.

i can now die happy


the best way (ive found) to lean the whole offbeat thing is to start playing sublime and bob marley when youre drunk at parties. nice little singalongs that arent too complex for inebriates.

then once you've got the feel for it the offbeat-world is your oyster.

[Rog]

> i can now die happy


LOL - just wait for some time yet, OK?

[offender]

Obviously Stuu is a master of the up-beat, which is the staple diet for reggae etc. I find it a very easy and natural style to play, possibly due to my bass background (experienced bass players learn all sorts of strange timings along the way), but I've worked with a lot of guitarists who simply cannot sustain that style and many who can't get it in the first place. That's not saying anything bad about them, it just doesn't come naturally to some people - to others it does - we're all different.

I know we don't represent a large guitarist sampling, but how easy do you guys find that syle to play? Can you easily sing and play the off?

I only sing a few songs like it: Kingston Town, Boys Light Up, I'll Be Your Baby Tonight etc and I find it a cool beat to play & sing over.

I can sometimes find it hard - I have a few pieces in my grading books that are really heavily oriented towards the off-beat or have licks that rely on it.

What I do is essentially sit there playing one note (doesnt matter which) to the beat - da da da da, then play quavers to the beat da de da de da de da de and then drop the beat note de de de de which gets me in the frame of mind to "Feel" the offbeat.

I find that for me its a real feeling of hearing the beat and then playing the note - and once ive got it for a piece it becomes easy. I have found that playing more pieces that center on the offbeat has become easier.

The technique I described above was taught to me by one of my guitar tutors.

[goldtop0]

It follows that if you can sing and clap in the off beat you can play it and sing also.
As you say Dr loads of folk struggle with it.

[stuu]

another way of thinking about it is to percussively downstroke a muted non-chord.

that way you only play on the upbeat, and you make it sound cool and fuill with a pseudo-percussion too.

hits on the beat, chords off the beat.

[Tsuken]

Up to a certain speed I can do it without a problem - but those really madly fast ska (?) things often just lose me.

On a (sort of) related note; have you noticed how most styles of popular music have moved away from the back-beat? Rock'n'Roll comes out and everything's 2 and 4. I remember playing with a Big Band, the guy counted in each tune by snapping his fingers on the back-beat, not the one and 3. But if you listen for the accents in most popular music (by which I mean everything but jazz and classical; metal, pop, Rubbish 'n' Bullshit, hip hop - it's all the same in this regard), they all accent the 1 and the 3. I know the snare drum still hits on 2 and 4, but if you actually listen to where the accents are, it's 1 and 3. And if you watch people at a concert or wherever, they clap on the 1 and the 3.

Bring back the back-beat, I say!

[Rog]

I spent 6 weeks at a jazz course with Rodger Fox and he strongly insisted that swing was all about the 2 and 4. If it doesn't swing, it'll be the drummer &/or bass players fault, apparently.

[Tsuken]

and it don't mean a thang if it ain't got that swang

It was interesting with the big band; I didn't realise at first (cos no-one said) that the finger snaps were 2 and 4, not 1 and 3, so I kept wondering why the hell was I getting screwed up right from the start Once I figured out it was 2 and 4, it was much better. Still took some getting used to though - especially at faster tempos.