Ska Guitar Songs: 5 Classics to Improve Your Rhythm
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Ska Guitar Songs: 5 Classics to Improve Your Rhythm · Source: Alamy Stock Photo / John Bentley
Ska guitar songs are great for developing your rhythm as a guitarist. Adding a new genre to your playing is vital for growth. Here are 5 songs you should consider learning.
5 Ska Guitar Songs:
All About Ska Guitar Songs:
- Ska guitar is all about rhythm. The genre’s trademark offbeat skank helps players develop tight and precise chord muting.
- These 5 ska songs feature memorable guitar parts that are fun to play, whilst also teaching useful rhythmic lessons.
- Learning ska on guitar enforces quick chord changes, string muting, and adds an overall groove that other genres can’t provide.
One Step Beyond – Madness
Our first ska guitar song comes from six cheeky Camden Town chappies in London, way back in 1979. Madness were huge in bringing ska music into the charts and to the masses. Whilst only reaching No.1 once with House Of Fun, here we’ll be checking out the wonderful chaos of One Step Beyond.
Chris Foreman’s guitar work in this track is solid. It doesn’t move for nobody. Across the track, you can hear the archetypal ska feel. What is a ska rhythm on guitar? The off-beat stabs are what make a ska track sing. Resting on beat 1, but playing on the and, +, of the beat. One and two and three and four and.
Here, we play a bar of Cm, followed by a bar of Fm. Each chord is played on the off-beat of a quaver. In the strong beat gaps, it’s important to either not play or mute the strings. Whilst One Step Beyond is a notable example of ska on guitar, it is very quick and therefore difficult to grasp at first.
Ghost Town – The Specials
The Specials were another group that brought Ska music into the charts in the 1970s and 1980s to wider audiences. With its risky political comments throughout the song, Ghost Town also features some funky chord work that makes it a great ska guitar song.
The opening chords of the track have a spooky nature that is appropriate for the feel of the song, landing it in many Halloween playlists. The chords in question are F#dim7, Gdim7, G#dim7, Adim7, A#dim7 and Bdim.
The diminished chords look scary, but we can make the same chord shape to move up the neck chromatically. Moreover, the main groove of the song once again vamps on that off-beat rhythm. Coincidentally, also on Cm and Fm. But in different voicings.
A Message To You Rudy – The Specials
For our third look at ska guitar songs, we’ve got a double entry from The Specials! They’re so special, we had to include them twice. This pick actually adds in some other genres, making it a great piece to learn on guitar.
A Message To You Rudy blends some reggae, blues and ska together. An obvious reggae stylistic feature is the one-drop snare crack at the start of the song. Furthermore, the chord progression is classic blues, being a I, IV, V in the key of C. Therefore, the chords are C, F and G, all played on that now familiar off-beat.
In this track, the sharp chord stabs need to be played on the bridge pickup of your electric guitar. And I wouldn’t play open chords either; I’d advise playing the bottom strings of a barre chord to get that high-pitched stab that reggae and ska command.
Timebomb – Rancid
Next up, we’re going for some punk mixed with ska. Rancid are a little heavier than what we’ve looked at so far. However, it’s another great example of ska guitar songs that use that trademark rhythm.
In this example, the tempo has been cranked to a brisk 165bpm, and it features some string muting too. Unlike the other ska guitar songs in this list, Tim Armstrong actually hits the strings on the strong beats, but whilst muting the chord. This provides a percussive reggae feel.
What’s the best way to mute chords on guitar? Personally, I like to take my fretting hand off the fretboard, but keep it on the strings. This provides that dampening effect, allowing you to still pick the strings without the chord being heard. Hit the mutes on the strong beats, and let the chord ring on the off-beats.
My Boy Lollipop – Millie Small
Concluding our look at ska guitar songs is something somewhat unexpected, but very important for ska music. Reggae was alive and well in the 1960s; however, ska was yet to make a breakthrough appearance.
This is where Millie Small’s My Boy Lollipop comes in. Thus far, we’ve learnt that to define a ska track, it needs those off-beat chord stabs. Back in 1964, this song provided that in spades. Along with Small’s charming vocals and overall jovial theme of the song, it was a chart hit. Peaking at No.2.
Many other ska guitar songs can trace their routes back to this. But this song is most important for making ska successful in Britain and America, rather than just Jamaica.
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