- What type of rockabilly sounds are out there?
- Classic Rockabilly - example would be Eddie Cochran
- Psychobilly - example would be Tiger Army
- NU Rockabilly – example would be The Stray Cats
- Core aspects of the Classic Rockabilly sound
- Type of guitar
- The Gretsch 6120 is a perfect example of the typical type of guitar used in classic rockabilly. The hollow body design provided a twangy sound that is synonymous with early classic rockabilly. Pickup types usually consisted of filter trons or "humbuckers" as well as single coil D'Armond style pickups and they are accompanied by a Bigsby vibrato setup.
- Type of amp
- Basic setup includes a tube amp with reverb and delay, although many folks tend to develop a specific preference for a particular make and model after they have been playing for a while. The Fender tweed amps or Fender Deluxe Reverb would be a good starting point though.
- Guitar playing style
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Rockabilly guitar is a mix of guitar picking and rhythm guitar meshing the sounds of early blues and country, sped up or "hopped up" (before that term meant something else completely). The players sound and style evolved from how they blend the two styles. Elvis, Chet Atkins, Brian Setzer and Jim Heath all use the same principles of guitar picking and rhythm guitar, however their distinct sound comes out in how they blend the two.
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- Type of upright bass
- The upright bass is typically 3/4th’s in size. You can get or build one with a flat fingerboard for better slap action, but the traditional curved fingerboard works just as well. The stings can be steel, nylon or gut (again your preference). The real magic occurs in the type of pickup you select. A rockabilly bass is usually set up with two pickups, one on the bridge to pick up the notes you play and a second pickup under the fingerboard, this amplifies the clicking sound. The sound from the two pickups can be combined and sent to the same amp or you can send the signal to separate amplifiers. This allows you to dial in the clicking sound to meet whatever type of music you are playing. Being that this is a hollow instrument the bass will also produce some feedback when amplified so you need to be careful to choose the right type of pickup that helps to compensate for this.
- Upright bass playing style
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Being that rockabilly was invented by folks who blended multiple styles of music, it is only natural that the style in which the bass is played also mixed different styles. It really comes down to the tone, tempo and rhythm you wish to have. the last contributing factor would be the Drums or rather the absence of drums (early rockabilly didn't have drummers because the Grand Ol' Opry originally didn't allow drums on it's stage) This increases the need for a percussive sound that the strings make when hitting the fingerboard.
Finger picking – this is the jazz style and is used for playing soft tones in slow or romantic songs, or really in any situation where the bass needs to take a supporting role.
Single slap – this is similar to finger picking, however you pull the string rather than pluck it. this method adds one slap of the string against the fingerboard per note played.
Double slap/ Triple slap – these methods add two and three slaps per note played. The double slap will have a sting pull, followed by a slap of the upper palm of your hand. The triple will have a sting pull followed by an upper palm slap then ended with a lower palm strike. This is perfect for upright bass solos and adding percussive sound to a song that does not have drums in the lineup.
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- Type of guitar
- Music Theory
- 12 Bar Chord Progression
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Rockabilly most commonly uses the Blues “12 Bar Chord Progression”. This means that each section of the song is broken up into 12 bars and then the pattern repeats itself until the song ends. How those 12 bars are grouped is up to the folks writing the song. Example would be (4 measures, 2 measures, 2 measures, 1 measures, 1 measures, 1 measures, 1 measures). Together these measures equal 12 bars and this will create the typical blues/rockabilly sound.
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- 12 Bar Chord Progression