Bahama Beach (lesson)

Reggae on the Classical Guitar

Alright, this tune is a bit of reggae on the classical guitar.

Feel and Rhythm

Reggae on the classical guitar, well, it's all in the feel. It's all in how you start out the tune.

• Swinging Feel: You want to have that swinging feel.
• Count: Think 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3, and have that feel going on like this.
  • I'm hitting harmonics at the seventh fret.
  • I'm also hitting some of those ghost notes on the D strings.

It's not a real note; it's kind of muffled. You want to bring out that feel.

Verse Structure

Let's hear that against a click. This leads us to our verse.

• If we go way up the neck to this shape up here,
  • I have another one of these chord clusters where I have:
    • An F sharp on top at the 14th fret.
    • First finger at the 10th fret playing an A.
    • Third finger at the 12th fret playing a G.

That takes me to another cluster with D, G, and then F sharp, followed by a D major 7th chord, followed by another D major 7th chord (just clustered a little differently), and then a G major 7th with B in the bass to an E minor 7th chord.

• Repeat that again, but then we use those shapes again up at the ninth fret.

That's a lot of shapes! So you'll have to rewind your DVD and check it out.

• Listen in Time: Let's hear it nice and slowly so you can understand why I place those chords.
• Now a bit more up to speed, which leads us to our second verse.

Second Verse

I like this shape that I start with because I enjoy hearing that C sharp ringing against the D.

• Then to a D chord with F sharp in the bass.
• There's an interesting technique I'm using here:
  • I'm using my index and ring fingers (I and A) to split the strings.
  • You can see this creates a nice harmony.

See how that creates a lovely harmony there? And a little triplet feel comes down here with the string splitting.

• In Time: Let's hear it in time now, but a bit faster.

Chorus

That leads us to our chorus.

Once again, I have these shapes, and I'm putting a nice reggae feel to it.

• Slower Play: Let's play that a little bit slower so that you can feel it more.
• I slide off beat with the same shapes.
• Now, let's see a bit more up to time now.

Think to yourself:

• I want and two and three and four
• Ready, go to the final chorus.

Conclusion

There's a figure; it's just a groove figure that I play through.

Once again, I want to encourage you to add your own improvisation to this section at the end.

• Groove Setup: Basically, it's set up as a groove like this.
• While you're playing that, feel free to include your little improv , anything in D major will sound good.

When you want to take it out, go to those chords.