[Harp-L] A tune out of left field.....

["John F. Potts" <hvyj@xxxxxxx>]

Never tried that tune, but I do sit in regularly with a reggae band.   
A lot of reggae material is only two chords.  Quite a bit of it is in  
minor keys.

Anyway, for major key reggae material, I almost always use 2d  
position.  For minor key reggae, I almost always use 5th position.   
The trick is to cop the groove, LEAVE SPACE and understand when NOT  
to play.  Minimalistic repeating patterns can sound very cool.  Since  
a lot of reggae tunes stretch out, you can really take your time and  
work off the repeating pattern you originally lay down.

The "Sick and Tired" version Ryan Hartt posted is reggae. "The  
Israelite" and the other tune Ryan posted are actually ska which is a  
different Jamaican idiom.  Ska has a different groove that is busier  
and  more uptempo than reggae and would require a different approach  
than one would use playing reggae.

Playing reggae is a blast.  Love that groove!

JP