This is a reflective essay where I reflect how I contributed to a reggae song named “Does our nation…”. This is a piece where I played rhythm guitar and did some improvisation over a A minor chord to a E minor chord progression where my role was to keep the group’s groove as well as have some time to shine to show off my improvisation skills.

The group project had an array of instruments as well as vocalists. I was on guitar, and there was a bass guitar, piano, synth, drums, and vocalist that I had to accompany. We were given creative control over our piece through our creative practice instructor. We started our brainstorming for the piece through pieces of paper where we’d jot down ideas that were swirling through our head at that time. I put down about the political state of the US at the current moment, sparking inspiration from the other members of the group. Whereas, someone else in the group decided to incorporate Reggae into the piece which is where my rhythm guitar playing came into play.

Firstly, There are two grooves involved in the making of this piece, Groove 1 was a much slower groove, whereas Groove 2 is much faster. I prefer Groove 2 as it feels more like Reggae than the first groove. My rhythm guitar playing on this piece was in a certain groove, playing each chord on the 2 and 4 of each beat, as this was something I had learned in high school when playing Reggae rhythm guitar. I would alternate between the A minor chord into the E minor chord which went along with the bass playing. I will also have to say that Groove 1 was easier to play too as it was at a much slower tempo, whereas playing the 2 and 4 repetitively at fast tempos can be super exhausting playing rhythm guitar.

Playing rhythm guitar over a Reggae piece is what makes Reggae what it is, meaning it’s one of the more important parts of the genre. Using a technique called “The Skank”, it’s a style of rhythm guitar, where you emphasize the upbeats. Using a clean tone is an important part of Reggae rhythm guitar which is why you can hear me use one throughout the recording of the piece. As a key part of playing rhythm guitar over a Reggae piece is complementing the drums and bass, I tried to do this to the best of my ability throughout the recording. I think because of the use of Bass being the core bridge between the chordal instrument (piano) and the rhythm instrument (drums) in Jazz, I spent most of the time throughout the recording listening to the bassist in the piece.

This brings me to my next point, the improvisation. Nick, the bassist of the group, felt bad that I was playing the “chops” over and over again, so he thought that playing some improv over the piece would sound good. Coming from a Jazz background and having been on the course so long, I wasn’t the most comfortable playing over these chords, as well as soloing over a Reggae song. This meant that my playing was a little halted on this piece. I wasn’t the most sure of the right notes to play and my rhythm wasn’t the best when playing. However, I was given encouragement nonetheless which was super positive and I think helps me a lot when it comes to my development as a Jazz guitarist.

When I finished playing and the recording was over, one of the members of the group thought that using a Wah-Wah pedal over the piece would be a nice touch for the overall sound of the song, however because in Reggae one of the key parts is using a clean tone on the guitar, I thought that it wouldn’t be necessary. As well as, in Jazz clean tone is the most used tone when it comes to how guitarists play, so I thought it’d be best not to use one.

While interviewing the people in my group, they gave thoughts on the class as a whole. Most of the thoughts were mostly positive, with some thinking the idea of the creative practice group being a success with good execution. Some thought that it was unusual to have a mix of genres in one room as was done. This is because they thought that with the different playing styles not being able to mesh well with other genres, for example pop and jazz. This is especially prevalent in the Aural and Theory classes, where this mix isn’t done the best, for example the pop and jazz groups might have different niches and choices when it comes to composing music. For instance, using a 2 5 1 chord progression, where some jazz compositions are full of them, whereas in pop the 4 5 1 chord progression is the same way. This may cause some confusion when in classes with different styles of music and genres.

In conclusion, My overall role in the piece as the rhythm guitarist, I think I did well, but not well enough for a real Reggae rhythm guitarist. This is because of my background as a Rock n Roll guitarist and Jazz guitarist. This is the same with improvisation of the piece, with my background being from completely different genres, the execution wasn’t the best musically but it was a nice challenge and I would love to try a Reggae piece again if given the chance.