Ska stroke

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The ska stroke or ska upstroke, skank or bang, is a guitar strumming technique that is used mostly in the performance of ska, rocksteady, and reggae music. "Reggae is most easily recognized by...the skank." 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.  Play 

Ska strokes create a bouncing rhythm, going up then down in pitch. Played in ⁴

₄ time (?1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & ?), 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. 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 slower as opposed to ska.

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

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

Video Ska stroke

See also

• Chop chord
• Mento
• One drop rhythm

Maps Ska stroke

Sources

src: i.ytimg.com

External links

• Basic Ska Strokes

Source of article : Wikipedia