↳ reharmLovers Rock, rocksteady 7s · diatonic sevenths on every stop — the horn section's voicing
Inside moves to graft onIN·07 Borrowed 4-borrow the 4- for the dread verse — mixture at half tempo hits twice as hardIN·09 Dominant of 41⁷ into 4 on the turn — reggae's gospel roots showingIN·01 Sus Delaysus the 5 across a whole bar; release with the one-dropWays outOUT·10 Relative Swapslide to the relative minor for the roots section; the skank never changesOUT·02 Truck Driver: Down a Half Stepdrop the final section a half step — heavier, slower, deeper
Target notes, chord by chord3rds and 5ths voiced high and tight — the skank is the top three strings only. Bass targets roots and 5ths in melodic counterlines; the two never crowd each other.How the scale is playedMinor pentatonic played sparse and behind the beat. Space is the loudest note in reggae — one phrase per four bars is plenty.Genre theoryThe offbeat carries the harmony (skanks on the &s), and the one-drop leaves beat 1 empty — the whole genre is a lesson in where NOT to play. Staccato is law: choke every skank.