The Instrumentation of Reggae Music

There are many instruments used in Reggae music including percussion, bass, guitar, keyboard and horn. In general a standard drum kit is used but sometimes an snare drum will be tuned at a very high pitch to give it a timbale type sound. For the drum beat, it falls under three categories: One Drop, Rockers, and Steppers. In one drop the emphasis always falls on the third beat. In Rockers the emphasis falls not only on beat three, but also on beat one. In Steppers the emphasis falls on all four beats giving it a sense of an insistent beat.
          The bass guitar normally plays the dominant role in Reggae music and it is very thick and heavy. The horn generally plays introductions and counter-melodies.


In this video you can see and hear many different instruments being used. You can see the standard drum kit, the bass guitar, the guitar and the keyboard. The guitar is playing its chord on the second and fourth beat of the measure, which is known as the skank.

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