Unit 22: Music Performance Session Styles
You are to recognise 3 genre of music and evaluate that style with the aim of performing that style accurately.
P1 Explain the fundamental stylistic elements of a wide range of musical genres. You will understand the stylistic elements across a wide range of musical genres
Reggae
Reggae is most easily recognized by the rhythmic accents on the off-beat, usually played by guitar or piano (or both), known as the skank. This pattern accents the second and fourth beat in each bar (or the ands of each beat depending on how the music is counted) and combines with the drums emphasis on beat three to create a unique feel and sense of phrasing in contrast to most other popular genres focus on beat one, the "downbeat"
Stylistic elements:
The tempo of reggae is usually felt as slower than the popular Jamaican forms, ska and rocksteady, which preceded it. It is this slower tempo, the guitar/piano off-beats, the emphasis on the third beat, and the use of syncopated, melodic bass lines that differentiates reggae from other music, although other musical styles have incorporated some of these innovations separately.
A standard drum kit is generally used in reggae, but the snare drum is often tuned very high to give it a timbales-type sound. Some reggae drummers use an additional timbale or high-tuned snare to get this sound. Cross-stick technique on the snare drum is commonly used, and tom-tom drums are often incorporated into the drumbeat itself. An unusual characteristic of reggae drumming is that the drum fills often do not end with a climactic cymbal. Wide ranges of other percussion instrumentation are used in reggae. Bongos are often used to play free, improvised patterns, with heavy use of African-style cross-rhythms. Cowbells, claves and shakers tend to have more defined roles and a set pattern.
The bass guitar often plays the dominant role in reggae, and the drum and bass is often the