Chords for Reggae Guitar for Absolute Beginners!
Tempo:
74.5 bpm
Chords used:
Em
C
D
G
Bm
Tuning:Standard Tuning (EADGBE)Capo:+0fret
Jam Along & Learn...
Whenever I want to feel the essence of a smooth reggae vibe but not have to dry clean and
turn to guitar.
and how you can kind
[C] [G]
[D] [Em] So it's really really easy, it's just a few different techniques that we're going to go
example here, I'm going to be playing this in the neck position.
do an E minor, right?
strings.
turn to guitar.
and how you can kind
[C] [G]
[D] [Em] So it's really really easy, it's just a few different techniques that we're going to go
example here, I'm going to be playing this in the neck position.
do an E minor, right?
strings.
100% ➙ 75BPM
Em
C
D
G
Bm
Em
C
D
Whenever I want to feel the essence of a smooth reggae vibe but not have to dry clean and
Febreze my clothes afterwards, I turn to guitar.
So we're just going to do a super quick crash course in reggae music and how you can kind
of use a guitar to really get the gist of it.
It's going to sound like this. _ _
_ [C] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _
_ [D] _ _ _ [Em] _ So it's really really easy, it's just a few different techniques that we're going to go
over in just a couple minutes, rocking the Fender Ultra Strat.
As an example here, I'm going to be playing this in the neck position.
This is going to be the first thing you might want to think of when you're trying to get
like a reggae tone.
We're going to do an E minor, right?
But instead of an open E minor, we're going to get to [E] that in a second.
We're going to play just the highest three strings.
In fact, the [Em] first kind of groove we're going to do is all going [N] to happen on the G, B,
and E [Em] string.
So I'm just going to bar the 12th fret, which is an E minor voicing, just like open, right?
Like this.
And I'm going to upstroke with a pick, or if you're playing with your fingers, upstroke.
It's important.
We're not going to play the downbeat, we're going to play the and beat on an upstroke.
What that means is, instead of going one, two, three, four, we're going to go one, and,
two, and, three, and, four, and.
It's on the backbeat.
It's a very important kind of sound of the vibe that you're going for, right?
Now a lot of times it can be really hard just playing on the backbeat in space without like
a drummer or something like that.
Like a one, and, two, and, three, and, four, and.
So one thing that you can do to kind of help yourself keep that downbeat, [D] steady vibe is
maybe hitting [Bm] like a one, _ two, three, four, and.
I'm just getting a muted downstroke.
Again, the whole thing is I'm just using my pointer finger to bar that 12th fret.
One, and.
Okay?
Now you'll notice I'm also not sustaining that.
It's not one, and, two, and, three, [Em] and, four, and.
It's not getting sustained.
I'm choking it with the [D] pressure of my pointer finger pretty much right after that upstroke.
[Bm] One, and.
Right?
You don't hear a lot of it.
Okay?
All I'm going through right now is an Empress compressor pedal with a little bit of reverb
on the Fender 65 reissue.
So this is what it sounds like.
One, and, two, and.
Now some purists may want me to get in the bridge position, _ _ which maybe if you're in [F#] a
band that's what you're going for.
I just think solo guitar.
I always like it in the neck, specifically with the UltraStrat tone kind [Em] of S1 switch
on.
Now I'm getting all the pickups in this model.
So, one, and, two, and, three, and, four, and.
Anytime you see a minor chord in a progression, just find the root note on the high E string,
and then just kind of bar those top three strings.
_ And we can go to A [Am] minor fifth fret.
_ _ Okay?
But that's kind of the vibe that we're going for.
Now if you want to get super reggae, [Em] do the double upstroke.
_ _ _ So I'm going.
_ _ _ _ [Am] _ _ _
_ Okay?
So, [G] do it in space or do it with that muted downstroke to kind of keep yourself [Am] in time
until you can just _ _ space it out.
Right?
[F#] Now the only other voicing you really need is a major voicing to pair in case you ever
see a major chord in a progression, which I'm sure you will in pretty much every song.
[C] So again, we're starting on the 12th fret.
Now we're going to move this all the way back to the 8th fret.
And your middle finger is going to settle [E] right here, kind of on this fret dot on the
9th fret G string.
This is going to be a major chord voicing, where your root note [Fm] is right here.
The C is [C] the 8th fret on the high E string.
Right?
In case you don't know any of the names and chord voicings, I go over all this in my Complete
Fretboard Mastery Master Class, which is on sale.
If you want to click the link, the first 100 people get a super discount on that.
But yeah, basically we're just going to take that same chord voicing, but we're adding
a major third right here.
Okay?
So 8, 8, 9 from the top up.
We're going from 12, 12, [Em] 12 to 8, 8, 9.
[C] This is just E minor to C.
_ _ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _
[Em] Go back and forth between that.
_ [C] It really sounds cool if _ [Em] you can get that slide in between them.
Right?
But first we're going to add a few more chords right here.
Really common one is E minor to C [G] to G.
G, 3rd fret on the high E string is G, that same thing.
_ _ _ [Bm] _ That slide right here from 3 [D] to 10, the 10th fret on the high E string is a D, from G to
D [D] major, is a great [A] way to kind of get that cool sound and _ slide into it.
[Em] E minor. _
_ [C] C.
_ _ _ _ [G] _
_ _ [D] _ _ _ [N] Now, you can kind of get the same vibe.
If you want to do something, maybe even on an acoustic guitar or something that's just
like a solo thing to accompany your vocal to get the same vibe, but using fuller open
chords with the exact [Em] same progression, E minor, [C] C, G, major, [D] D.
Okay?
[Am] So now we could just do the exact same thing where it's [E] like, _ _ _ [C] _ _
I'm kind of getting [G] that muted downstroke.
_ _ [D] _ _ _
I kind of think it sounds good if you have maybe the root note a little bit muted as
part of the downstroke in a solo accompany type [Em] way.
Like I'm _ _ _ [Cm] _
[E] getting a little bit of tone, you can tell in that downstroke.
So it's not totally just like a muted, a dead mute, it's a [C] tone full.
_ _ _ [G] _ _ _
_ [Bm] _ _ _ [D] If you've never seen this D major chord, this is a great one to use in solo accompaniment right here.
_ [Bm] [C] Specifically, all it is is just a C, [D] two frets higher.
Okay?
Specifically in this progression, which you'll see this progression a lot of times, or at
least some kind of juxtaposition of these chords in a progression in a key like this.
[E] One way I really like to play this is E [Em] minor, _ C.
[C] _ This same C shape, but make it a [G] G bar chord.
It doesn't have to be a bar chord, just [Bm] middle. _ _
And from the [G] middle, G, again, so right now [D] I've got my ring finger, [G] 5A, pinky 5D, middle
finger 4G, pointer 3B, which again is kind of indicative of, there's that one we started
with, but again, G major bar chord, thinking of the third fret, but not really barring it.
That's kind of how [Em] I'm seeing that.
And then now if you just take this, and take everything but your pointer [D] finger and move
up a string, that gets us into that C kind of shape, but on a D, always [Em] sounds good in this key.
E minor, [G] C, G, [Em] D.
_ _ _ _ _ _ [G] _
_ _ _ _ _ [Bm] _ _ _
_ [C] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _
[D] _ _ _ _ [Em] _ So again, just a quick, [N] quick crash course in some kind of reggae style vibe guitar playing
that is excellent to practice your rhythm, specifically feeling that backbeat, that upstroke
on the and of one, the and of two, the and of three, the and of four, so on and so forth,
right?
So definitely let me know what you think.
I'm gonna link you to this really, I'm loving this strap in the description.
And also like I said, the masterclass for the first hundred people who check it out.
If you have any questions or comments, hit me up in the comments section, Instagram,
Febreze my clothes afterwards, I turn to guitar.
So we're just going to do a super quick crash course in reggae music and how you can kind
of use a guitar to really get the gist of it.
It's going to sound like this. _ _
_ [C] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _
_ [D] _ _ _ [Em] _ So it's really really easy, it's just a few different techniques that we're going to go
over in just a couple minutes, rocking the Fender Ultra Strat.
As an example here, I'm going to be playing this in the neck position.
This is going to be the first thing you might want to think of when you're trying to get
like a reggae tone.
We're going to do an E minor, right?
But instead of an open E minor, we're going to get to [E] that in a second.
We're going to play just the highest three strings.
In fact, the [Em] first kind of groove we're going to do is all going [N] to happen on the G, B,
and E [Em] string.
So I'm just going to bar the 12th fret, which is an E minor voicing, just like open, right?
Like this.
And I'm going to upstroke with a pick, or if you're playing with your fingers, upstroke.
It's important.
We're not going to play the downbeat, we're going to play the and beat on an upstroke.
What that means is, instead of going one, two, three, four, we're going to go one, and,
two, and, three, and, four, and.
It's on the backbeat.
It's a very important kind of sound of the vibe that you're going for, right?
Now a lot of times it can be really hard just playing on the backbeat in space without like
a drummer or something like that.
Like a one, and, two, and, three, and, four, and.
So one thing that you can do to kind of help yourself keep that downbeat, [D] steady vibe is
maybe hitting [Bm] like a one, _ two, three, four, and.
I'm just getting a muted downstroke.
Again, the whole thing is I'm just using my pointer finger to bar that 12th fret.
One, and.
Okay?
Now you'll notice I'm also not sustaining that.
It's not one, and, two, and, three, [Em] and, four, and.
It's not getting sustained.
I'm choking it with the [D] pressure of my pointer finger pretty much right after that upstroke.
[Bm] One, and.
Right?
You don't hear a lot of it.
Okay?
All I'm going through right now is an Empress compressor pedal with a little bit of reverb
on the Fender 65 reissue.
So this is what it sounds like.
One, and, two, and.
Now some purists may want me to get in the bridge position, _ _ which maybe if you're in [F#] a
band that's what you're going for.
I just think solo guitar.
I always like it in the neck, specifically with the UltraStrat tone kind [Em] of S1 switch
on.
Now I'm getting all the pickups in this model.
So, one, and, two, and, three, and, four, and.
Anytime you see a minor chord in a progression, just find the root note on the high E string,
and then just kind of bar those top three strings.
_ And we can go to A [Am] minor fifth fret.
_ _ Okay?
But that's kind of the vibe that we're going for.
Now if you want to get super reggae, [Em] do the double upstroke.
_ _ _ So I'm going.
_ _ _ _ [Am] _ _ _
_ Okay?
So, [G] do it in space or do it with that muted downstroke to kind of keep yourself [Am] in time
until you can just _ _ space it out.
Right?
[F#] Now the only other voicing you really need is a major voicing to pair in case you ever
see a major chord in a progression, which I'm sure you will in pretty much every song.
[C] So again, we're starting on the 12th fret.
Now we're going to move this all the way back to the 8th fret.
And your middle finger is going to settle [E] right here, kind of on this fret dot on the
9th fret G string.
This is going to be a major chord voicing, where your root note [Fm] is right here.
The C is [C] the 8th fret on the high E string.
Right?
In case you don't know any of the names and chord voicings, I go over all this in my Complete
Fretboard Mastery Master Class, which is on sale.
If you want to click the link, the first 100 people get a super discount on that.
But yeah, basically we're just going to take that same chord voicing, but we're adding
a major third right here.
Okay?
So 8, 8, 9 from the top up.
We're going from 12, 12, [Em] 12 to 8, 8, 9.
[C] This is just E minor to C.
_ _ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _
[Em] Go back and forth between that.
_ [C] It really sounds cool if _ [Em] you can get that slide in between them.
Right?
But first we're going to add a few more chords right here.
Really common one is E minor to C [G] to G.
G, 3rd fret on the high E string is G, that same thing.
_ _ _ [Bm] _ That slide right here from 3 [D] to 10, the 10th fret on the high E string is a D, from G to
D [D] major, is a great [A] way to kind of get that cool sound and _ slide into it.
[Em] E minor. _
_ [C] C.
_ _ _ _ [G] _
_ _ [D] _ _ _ [N] Now, you can kind of get the same vibe.
If you want to do something, maybe even on an acoustic guitar or something that's just
like a solo thing to accompany your vocal to get the same vibe, but using fuller open
chords with the exact [Em] same progression, E minor, [C] C, G, major, [D] D.
Okay?
[Am] So now we could just do the exact same thing where it's [E] like, _ _ _ [C] _ _
I'm kind of getting [G] that muted downstroke.
_ _ [D] _ _ _
I kind of think it sounds good if you have maybe the root note a little bit muted as
part of the downstroke in a solo accompany type [Em] way.
Like I'm _ _ _ [Cm] _
[E] getting a little bit of tone, you can tell in that downstroke.
So it's not totally just like a muted, a dead mute, it's a [C] tone full.
_ _ _ [G] _ _ _
_ [Bm] _ _ _ [D] If you've never seen this D major chord, this is a great one to use in solo accompaniment right here.
_ [Bm] [C] Specifically, all it is is just a C, [D] two frets higher.
Okay?
Specifically in this progression, which you'll see this progression a lot of times, or at
least some kind of juxtaposition of these chords in a progression in a key like this.
[E] One way I really like to play this is E [Em] minor, _ C.
[C] _ This same C shape, but make it a [G] G bar chord.
It doesn't have to be a bar chord, just [Bm] middle. _ _
And from the [G] middle, G, again, so right now [D] I've got my ring finger, [G] 5A, pinky 5D, middle
finger 4G, pointer 3B, which again is kind of indicative of, there's that one we started
with, but again, G major bar chord, thinking of the third fret, but not really barring it.
That's kind of how [Em] I'm seeing that.
And then now if you just take this, and take everything but your pointer [D] finger and move
up a string, that gets us into that C kind of shape, but on a D, always [Em] sounds good in this key.
E minor, [G] C, G, [Em] D.
_ _ _ _ _ _ [G] _
_ _ _ _ _ [Bm] _ _ _
_ [C] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _
[D] _ _ _ _ [Em] _ So again, just a quick, [N] quick crash course in some kind of reggae style vibe guitar playing
that is excellent to practice your rhythm, specifically feeling that backbeat, that upstroke
on the and of one, the and of two, the and of three, the and of four, so on and so forth,
right?
So definitely let me know what you think.
I'm gonna link you to this really, I'm loving this strap in the description.
And also like I said, the masterclass for the first hundred people who check it out.
If you have any questions or comments, hit me up in the comments section, Instagram,