Joseph Alexander - Funk Guitar Mastery: The Complete Guide to Playing Funk Rhythm Guitar

Published by www.fundamental-changes.com

ISBN: 978-1-910403-211

Copyright 2015 Joseph Alexander

The moral right of this author has been asserted.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing from the publisher.

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Funks earliest beginnings were in the music of James Brown and were driven by the drumming of Clyde Stubblefield, whose unique rhythmic style had in turn grown out of New Orleans swing. The popular feel of the New Orleans drum beat evolved through James Browns music and helped define the disco, soul and funk derivatives of the 1960s and 1970s.

Funk encapsulates the sound of Sly & The Family Stone, George Clinton, and The Isley Brothers which evolved into the disco-soul of Chic, Tower of Power, and Earth, Wind and Fire.

Funk made a dramatic resurgence in the 1980s and 1990s through the music of The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Zapp and Extreme, and evolved into the new millennium with bands such as Jamiroquai, Maroon 5 and Daft Punk. The stylistic rhythmic and groove-based approach of funk has been constantly present in the pop, rock, dance, and fusion music of modern times.

From a guitarists perspective, funk encompasses a wide variety of musical approaches and disciplines. The most important technical requirement of these approaches is the mastery of 1/16th note rhythm playing, either as single note riffs, specific chord placement or scratches on muted strings.

While funk is often harmonically dense, such as in the huge horn arrangements of Earth, Wind and Fire, in many cases the guitar part simply serves to add rhythmic interest and momentum to the song. While this may appear to be simple at first glance, the truth is that these guitar parts can be extremely intricate and need to be played accurately, consistently, and tightly for long periods of time.

Despite funks harmony being dense (extended chords such as 9s and 13s are frequently used), the chord progressions themselves are often fairly static. It isnt unusual to be playing a single chord for a long period of time. It is the placement of these chords that can make or break a funk guitar part.

You will often find that the placement of a note or chord isnt exactly where you want it to be; chord stabs can often be one 1/16th note earlier or later than you think. These tiny rhythmic idiosyncrasies are essential to the groove of the song and always work intricately with the bass line and drum hi-hat patterns to create a rhythmic feel much greater than the sum of its parts.

Writers of great funk and disco music, such as Nile Rodgers, have talked about a collaborative approach to writing funk parts. Nile said he was often asked, after jamming for a while with Bernard Edwards, O.K., is that your part?.

What Bernard meant was, Is that the final riff youre going to stick with?. Once the guitar riff was set in stone, the bass and drum parts were built around it and the groove was created. The next time they came to play the song, the guitar part had to be identical to what had been agreed.

In funk there is always room for improvisation and deviation as a tune progresses. However the placement and groove have to be the same night after night. Otherwise the band is simply playing a different song.

Building the technical skills to master this kind of consistency can be challenging. It takes time to develop enough control to place one single note exactly where you want in a bar of 1/16ths. It is also necessary to build the chordal knowledge to create authentic-sounding guitar parts.

The majority of funk chords are three-note triads or small fragments of more complex chords. These fragments are played with the same precision and placement as single-line 1/16th note riffs.

This book breaks down the skills needed to be a great funk guitar player into their smallest possible components. You will develop excellent rhythmic competency and great control of specific note placement. You will also master genre-specific chord sequences and approaches.

Every important nuance of funk rhythm guitar will be discussed. These include timing, sliding chords, extensions, hammer-ons and pull-offs, scratches and rests. These skills will help you not only to develop your rhythm guitar skills in every genre, but also help you master one of the most essential parts of funk guitar playing: articulation.

You will also explore a funk guitarists approach to chord voicings and combine these with double-stops, single-note lines and many other techniques in order to create legitimate funk guitar parts.

Rhythmic phrasing is particularly important. The way any riff or phrase is articulated has a massive bearing on the groove of a song. Changing a picked note to a hammer-on can have subtle and far-reaching effects on the groove.

The aim of this book is to break down, teach and give insight into the specific elements that are combined to make a living, breathing funk guitar part. We will build these elements from the ground up to help you internalise and feel each essential skill. By learning and writing enough examples, you will soon begin to feel and build your own legitimate funk guitar rhythms.

The first part of this book focuses exclusively on rhythm. The first goal of any funk player is to develop the ability to phrase and articulate 1/16th note rhythms perfectly on the guitar. In this book, the journey to accurate 1/16th note playing is broken down into many small, logical progressions. Every 1/16th note combination is covered.

You will notice that the study of rhythm guitar can be broken down into two main areas:

1) Rhythm Recognition and Performance.

By working in a methodical way, you will quickly build up the technique and stamina to perform any 1/16th note rhythm pattern. Developing the skills to recognise and articulate any rhythm on the guitar will allow you to emulate the style and feel of musicians you listen to, as well as create your own interesting parts.

2) Vocabulary

By studying rhythm in such detail, you will practice rhythms that you probably wouldnt have thought of (or played naturally) on your own. This alone will dramatically increase your creativity. Just as we incorporate new words into our language by reading the works of others, you will find the same thing happening in your playing as you master the rhythmic vocabulary in this book.

As always, the most important thing you can do is listen deeply to the music you wish to play, but unfortunately this is the one thing I cant do for you. Every example in this book is included as an audio track you can download from www.fundamental-changes.com .