guitar players.. ska chords?

[mrCide]

anyone have any practice tips/sites for this? or maybe amp settings for the sound?

i just can't get them to sound right (yeah im doin upstrokes).. tia

 

[duragezic]

Yah me neither! If I could only do it I could play like every ska song. They just don't sound right. My friend describes the ska guitar sound as "ick-y ick-y ick-y" LOL.

 

[RSI]

It's easy. I really don't get people who can't do ska upstrokes. That's all there is to it... Mute/half-mute on the way down, let them all sound on the way up.

 

[Mucman]

I believe you only play the bottom 2-3 strings... and they are usually major or perhaps 7th chords... not sure though, never play much ska

 

[duragezic]

Mute/half-mute as in palm mute or when you take your fingers off the strings (appears as X on a tab)?

Could someone post a few "common" ska chords I guess to try with?

 

[johneetrash]

here's an easy example for you

http://home.pacbell.net/genrasn/ska-hearingsong.wav

when you do the first chord, dont hold down the frets, just be touching it so it makes a little click sound, then on the upstroke, hold down the frets... it's really not too hard once you get the concept of it (listen to ska trakcs and listen for that click

btw, they dont only have to be the top 3 strings, they can be full chords, like the one i posted (im using a pc microphone so it's sounds kinda distorted)

[edit] fixed link [/edit]

 

[OREOSpeedwagon]

Bah, learn some real guitar

i.e. Led Zeppelin

 

[johneetrash]

Originally posted by: bryce
Bah, learn some real guitar

i.e. Led Zeppelin

yah i agree but it's nice 2 know anyway (i hate ska)

 

[mrCide]

thanks for the tips guys.

real challenging song for me is superman by goldfinger.. thoe ska chords are hard to move around with too.. (finger positions) ..kills me..

and ill play anything that sounds fun/interesting, includes any kind of rock or even country..

johnee your link isnt working.. and you gotta teach me how to tune dadddd

 

[johneetrash]

fixed.. and it's easy to turn DADDDD with a tuner

 

[OREOSpeedwagon]

Originally posted by: mrCide
thanks for the tips guys.

real challenging song for me is superman by goldfinger.. thoe ska chords are hard to move around with too.. (finger positions) ..kills me..

and ill play anything that sounds fun/interesting, includes any kind of rock or even country..

johnee your link isnt working.. and you gotta teach me how to tune dadddd

Led Zeppelin - Heartbreaker

^ song I'm learning right now. Not really all that difficult and fun to play. Well until you get to the solo anyway Download it and you'll see what I mean

 

[mrCide]

Originally posted by: johneetrash
fixed.. and it's easy to turn DADDDD with a tuner

what kind of tuner do you have? i have some generic cheapo $13.. i assume i need something a little more sophisticated..

and bryce, ill check it out thanks

edit; thanks for the wav btw.. im gonna practice some more tomorrow.. what kind of amp do you have btw?

 

[thomsbrain]

here is a "ska chord". A major:

---5---
---5---
---6---
---7---
--------
--------

ta-da!

minor:

---5---
---5---
---5---
---7---
--------
--------

ta-da!
move that up and down the neck and you're set. Stroke as per instruction mentioned by others above me. Congradulations, you now all there is to know about ska music. Now you can move on to real music.

 

[yellowperil]

Don't know much about ska but the chords are barre chords except you usually only play the top 3-4 strings. You rest the side of your picking hand against the strings near the bridge and use quick upstrokes followed by muting. Re: DADDDD tuning, it is easy to do with a tuner, but you have to replace the G and B strings with D and E strings respectively because you can't tune those strings to D without tension problems (either too much or too little).

 

[johneetrash]

Originally posted by: yellowperil
Don't know much about ska but the chords are barre chords except you usually only play the top 3-4 strings. You rest the side of your picking hand against the strings near the bridge and use quick upstrokes followed by muting. Re: DADDDD tuning, it is easy to do with a tuner, but you have to replace the G and B strings with D and E strings respectively because you can't tune those strings to D without tension problems (either too much or too little).

yah, i was told to get thicker gauge strings or else it'd rattle.

the strings on my acoustic dont rattle though so it's okay just tune down to D (well, Db for dashboard) and it's set. it's too bad im too lazy to keep it tuned that way.

btw i have a boss tu-12h chromatic tuner

 

[duragezic]

can someone post some more ska chords... I guess i kinda got the sound... somewhat... with those two...

 

[Fritzo]

It's just a rhythm you have to learn. Practice doing random chords first and then go to songs.

You think that's hard...try doing the proper rhythm for Pinball Wizard by The Who....now that's tough

 

[Scootin159]

easiest way to do ska chords is to use a slightly modified "open D" chord pattern:

--2--
--3--
--2--
--0-- (4th string optional)
--x--
--x--

and then slide it up to get the chord you need i.e. an "E" would be:

--4--
--5--
--4--
--2--
--x--
--x--

or an Em:

--3--
--5--
--4--
--2--
--x--
--x--

You also can use modified "G" patterns, like an "A" would be:

--5--
--5--
--2--
--2--
--x--
--x--

and like said before: mute down, play up.

 

[alee25]

bah: led zepplin might be some of the best rock, but that solo in heartbreaker is not that hard. he plays the diatonic harmonic minor scale (i think, gotta listen to it again) up and down about 3 times, then he does a series of pulls offs and hammer ons just like in the end of the solo to stairway cept faster. Just does some standard shredding. but if shredding is what your into, cool go for it.

You want a good/relatively hard solo? try the solo in steely dan - kid charlamange or even better yet the intro in john mayer - man on the side, dont even say anything until you try it with an acoustic, sooo incredbily hard with an acoustic guitar. They have awsome rhythm and speed. Just figured out the one in man on the side today (took probably about 6 hrs total of playing), but i still need to get the last rift down really solid, he goes with so freakin impossibly quick speed on a acoustic. Sigh, when will i ever be that good?

edit: to tune dadddd, what you do is get the guitar in standard tuning (with a pitch fork or tuner), tune the 6 string down until its in tune with the open 4. Then tune the open 1 string to either the open 6 or the open 4. Do bascially the same for the 3,2 string. Oh ya you gotta have like high gauge string on the B and G string if you are gonna do this tuning because your tuning the B string down 9 notes, and the G string six, which basically makes your string loose almost all tension, so what happens is that if you even just barely barely, ever so slightly (espeically the B string) bend the string up or to the side, the chord will sound aweful because it will be out of tune. I wouldn't do a DADDD tune unless the song specifically calls for it, just learn the chords.