Getting started playin the Ska

Before going into the details of how to play ska, lets just play a couple of examples. In order to understand this lesson you will need to be able to read tablature, and have basic understanding of chord strumming.

Ska Guitar, Example #1

In this example you are playing major chords on the first 3 strings only, something that is very common in ska. Strum down on the beat where you see the x, this is a "rhythmic click". This is done by holding the shape of the chord, then lifting your left hand fingers up so that they are touching the strings, but not pressing down. For the chords strum up on the off beat.

How to play the strum

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Jam with the Virtual MIDI Ska Band pick a speed 90 95 100 105 110 115 120 125 130 135 140 145 150 155 160 165 170 get crescendo MIDI player

Ska Guitar, Example #2

Page 1, The 30 second history of Ska

Page 3, Ska Strums