Ska Harmony

Ska has its roots in R&B music of the early 1960's. Therefore the types of harmonies and chord changes that occur in ska tend to be those basic I, IV, V or I VIm, IV, V progressions.

What the heck does that mean you say. Well here is a very brief explanation. The chords that are build from a C major scale are as follows.

The roman numeral represent degree of the scale that the chord is build on. The I, IV, and V chords are major while the IIm, IIIm, and the VIm are minor (the small m means minor, just like in a chord symbol) The chord build on the VII is a diminished chord, and for our purposed here, forget about it. Check out this theory lesson on basic chord construction for more information.

Most rock songs will be in the keys of C, G, D, A or E. These are the "guitar keys". Ska tunes use the keys of C, F, Bb, Eb, and Ab, especially when there are horns in the band (trumpets, saxophones) The reason for this is that trumpets and saxophones are transposing instruments. To make a long story short, when a trumpet plays a C note, it really sounds like a Bb on the guitar. Therefore when the horns are playing in the keys that are most comfortable for them, the guitar has to play in some different keys to accommodate them.

Here are the chords in all of the major keys. Start out by playing the I, IV, V in the "guitar keys" and the keys that are commonly used in Ska. Try using the combinations of the different Ska chords that you have learned.

Page 6, Minor Ska Chords

Page 8, I IV V I chord combinations on the top 3 strings