Members pan760 Posted November 17, 2008 Members Share Posted November 17, 2008 Do any of you guys play funk? How do you go about learning this particular style with all the slap style and rhythmic strumming? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members NotDead Posted November 17, 2008 Members Share Posted November 17, 2008 I dabble, but the ideal guitar seems to be either a mustang or jaguar, with the phase switches and other things, and playability, they're nice choices. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BoredGuitarist7 Posted November 17, 2008 Members Share Posted November 17, 2008 I just play funk on my bass... Can't help you TOO much with guitar. A Mustang, Jaguar or Jagstang are all great choices for it, as Notdead said above. A QTron is also a necessity for funk, and you might want to look into a Crybaby 535Q. Alternate picking is also a plus. The Qtron makes your guitar sound like this... PvXcHm2hPl4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mistersully Posted November 17, 2008 Members Share Posted November 17, 2008 9th chords are a good place to start... work on you right hand ...and muting maybe do a search for 'funk guitar' on youtube Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Alecto Posted November 17, 2008 Members Share Posted November 17, 2008 - Funk happens on the 'E's and 'Ah's. - Listen to a lot of funk. James Brown, Sly and the Family Stone, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Graham Central Station, Parliament, The Meters, Prince . . . you gotta listen to it in order to feel it. - Jam along with CDs, listen to what the guitarists are doing. Funk involves tons of listening; lots of interlocking parts that add up to one big mofo of a groove. - Guitars? Michael Hampton (P-Funk) uses a Schecter, Wendy Melvoin (Prince, Wendy & Lisa) used Les Pauls or Teles, Jimmy Nolan (James Brown) used a Super 400, Prince uses a Hohner Tele copy, John Frusciante uses various Fenders, Miko Weaver (Prince) used an Epiphone Emperor, Catfish Collins (James Brown, P-Funk) used a Vox Ultrasonic, Eddie Hazel (P-Funk) used a Strat, Leo Nocentelli (The Meters) uses a Tele or a ES-335, Gary "Diaper Man" Shider (P-Funk) used a Travis Bean, Kat Dyson (Prince) uses Godins, Glenn Goins (P-Funk) used a Tele, Michael Scott (Prince) uses a Gibson Les Paul or a Gretsch Chet Atkins, and Blackbyrd McKnight uses a Parker Fly. Translation? Whatever works. - FX? Handy but non-essential. Jimmy Nolan never used FX and he was an incredibly funky guitarist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jimwratt Posted November 17, 2008 Members Share Posted November 17, 2008 funk is whats up. its more of an attitude than a genre. that said, it has some conventions that you should learn. Subdivided scratching is one of the fundamentals (pronouncing a more dense rhythm than the part in and of itself entails), muted strumming, string bending. It really comes down to timing though. All of the technical and technological devices you will come to possess are aimed at timing. Hope that helps. BTW, a strat, tele, es335, lp, sg or any other kind of guitar suffices in the right hands. You might need to try some things with different pickups, but in general, the guitar itself isn't as important. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jimwratt Posted November 17, 2008 Members Share Posted November 17, 2008 - Funk happens on the 'E's and 'Ah's. and on the one - Listen to a lot of funk. James Brown, Sly and the Family Stone, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Graham Central Station, Parliament, The Meters, Prince . . . you gotta listen to it in order to feel it. - Jam along with CDs, listen to what the guitarists are doing. Funk involves tons of listening; lots of interlocking parts that add up to one big mofo of a groove.- Guitars? Michael Hampton (P-Funk) uses a Schecter, Wendy Melvoin (Prince, Wendy & Lisa) used Les Pauls or Teles, Jimmy Nolan (James Brown) used a Super 400, Prince uses a Hohner Tele copy, John Frusciante uses various Fenders, Miko Weaver (Prince) used an Epiphone Emperor, Catfish Collins (James Brown, P-Funk) used a Vox Ultrasonic, Eddie Hazel (P-Funk) used a Strat, Leo Nocentelli (The Meters) uses a Tele or a ES-335, Gary "Diaper Man" Shider (P-Funk) used a Travis Bean, Kat Dyson (Prince) uses Godins, Glenn Goins (P-Funk) used a Tele, Michael Scott (Prince) uses a Gibson Les Paul or a Gretsch Chet Atkins, and Blackbyrd McKnight uses a Parker Fly. Translation? Whatever works. - FX? Handy but non-essential. Jimmy Nolan never used FX and he was an incredibly funky guitarist. truf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members taintric Posted November 17, 2008 Members Share Posted November 17, 2008 this is relevant to my interests. proceed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members atxstrat Posted November 17, 2008 Members Share Posted November 17, 2008 in my opinion there isn't a defined style of funk guitar, so pretty much anything could work, but it seems alot of funk guitarists prefer fenders. As for playing it, just play along with any funk albums you have. Alot of Funk guitar doesn't exactly sound great when played on its own, so jamming it with friends or with a cd is for sure a must. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Volitan Posted November 17, 2008 Members Share Posted November 17, 2008 I'm a funk player. A lot of it lies in picking techniques, and on the G,B, and E strings. I don't know how to explain it, I've just always been a naturally rhythmic player, so funk kinda came naturally to me, as much as I hate to say it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pathofspirit Posted November 17, 2008 Members Share Posted November 17, 2008 Funk guitar? My all-time favorite - Nile Rogers of Chic. Used a strat. His rhythm guitar is classic. Combined with the bass of Bernard Edwards made for some of the funkiest grooves going. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members clay sails Posted November 17, 2008 Members Share Posted November 17, 2008 Funk is my favorite style after blues rock, although I'm more enthusiastic about it than skilled. I'd start learning it by taking a "less is more" approach: get a simple, funkworthy beat going, get in the "zone" and strum something (a 9th?) on the 1st beat of each measure, mute any other notes you play until the 1st beat of the next measure. Repeat and change chords as needed, but stick to major blues scales at first. After awhile, you'll find ways to improvise and THAT is when the funk happens... The bassline I play on the song "Incorrigible Funk" below was made in the style mentioned above (it does have two tracks going at one point but only to fill in a mistake in rhythm). There is also a decent funky lead about 1.5 minutes into "Smog in Wonderland". http://doodleplex.com/matt/kansas/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mustang5 Posted November 17, 2008 Members Share Posted November 17, 2008 and on the one On the one y'all HIT IT! (couldn't resist it) In my opinion, the best way to get the hang of funk is work on timing and listen to good music (as already said here). Any guitar or amp will probably do the job fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members B Money Posted November 17, 2008 Members Share Posted November 17, 2008 Funk guitar? My all-time favorite - Nile Rogers of Chic. Used a strat. His rhythm guitar is classic. Combined with the bass of Bernard Edwards made for some of the funkiest grooves going. hell yeah! Nile Rogers is incredible. I love funk playing, not so much the genre. I can't listen to an entire funk CD, but a couple of songs really getcha going. A strat would be a really good choice for funk, really clean and clangy. I don't know the players name, but the guitarist in "The Time" did some nice stuff. Funky yes, but they could also Rock occasionally. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Stratman Tigers Posted November 17, 2008 Members Share Posted November 17, 2008 I learned my funk from listening to Hendrix, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Funkadelic. I'd probably say use a Strat because of thos guys. The 9th chord and palm muting are essential. Aside from that, you just have to listen to funk records to get into the "groove", as someone said. Its alot about feel and technique. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Neon Soul Posted November 17, 2008 Members Share Posted November 17, 2008 My essentials of funk: -A strat in the 4th or 2nd position -A compressor, I use a dyna comp and the squishy sound is great for funk -Picking technique, I play heavy handed and flick my wrists at the strings for fast attack. Playing in 16th notes helps and just mute the places you don't play -Muting. John Frusciante is a good guy to look to for this. Instead of just playing the note you're after, mute the strings around it and hit a few of them at once. That way you get the note and the percussion of the muted strings. Edit: And a Q-tron is NOT a necessity of funk. It's cool and gives you a funky sound but I've never heard it in any big funk bands. It's too new. Parliament/Funkadelic? James Brown? Sly and the Family Stone? DeFunkt? No Q-Tron. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Burgess Posted November 17, 2008 Members Share Posted November 17, 2008 Do any of you guys play funk? How do you go about learning this particular style with all the slap style and rhythmic strumming? Try growing up in Oakland (Berkeley) in the 70's. If you couldn't play funk where I grew up you couldn't gig. Had to learn it. I didn't particularly care for it but I wanted to work. Of course as I got better at playing it I learned to appreciate it more and I love the stuff today. It pretty much all starts with James Brown. If you can learn that style the rest is easy. It's not altogether different than the way a folk guitar player strums. Biggest difference though is you're muting the chords quite a bit and the rhythm falls in where you actually let the chord ring out. Also you'll be accenting in accordance to whether the chord sounds on the upstroke or downstroke. If you learn to play James Brown's stuff then youll easily be able to pickup Stuff like Prince, T of P and much of the 80's funk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Burningleaves Posted November 17, 2008 Members Share Posted November 17, 2008 Do any of you guys play funk? How do you go about learning this particular style with all the slap style and rhythmic strumming? learn some James Brown tunes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members nwtsnma Posted November 17, 2008 Members Share Posted November 17, 2008 its more something you just do than something you learn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jerry_picker Posted November 17, 2008 Members Share Posted November 17, 2008 Youtube up some Eddie Hazel. Example: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Hubert Stumblin Posted November 17, 2008 Members Share Posted November 17, 2008 I'd start learning it by taking a "less is more" approach: get a simple, funkworthy beat going, get in the "zone" and strum something (a 9th?) on the 1st beat of each measure, mute any other notes you play until the 1st beat of the next measure. Repeat and change chords as needed, but stick to major blues scales at first.After awhile, you'll find ways to improvise and THAT is when the funk happens... Word on the less is more part. Particularly with the "scratching" or "scritching" or as I call 'em the "chicka-chickas". A lot of people over do it in that department. But it's as much about what is left out, what's implied, the spaces, as it is what's played. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SuproSuper Man Posted November 17, 2008 Members Share Posted November 17, 2008 Youtube up some Eddie Hazel. Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfGatOUwyMg cool vid thanks jerry [YOUTUBE] [/YOUTUBE] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DaveAronow Posted November 17, 2008 Members Share Posted November 17, 2008 Here is One of My favorite guitar players EVER!! He was a combination of southern rock, blues, hair metal, with a little wash of funk thrown over the whole thing. R.I.P. Ronnie Garvin. XZKMPG1ICv4&feature=related A1SnKcVf1fI&feature=related Check out the solo in this song at about 2 minutes into the video.... And again at 4:20 (no pun intended) NNC_qw1uScQ&feature=related Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jerry_picker Posted November 17, 2008 Members Share Posted November 17, 2008 Funk covers a lot of ground, starting with James Brown. Consider: Stevie Wonder, The Brothers Johnson, Earth, Wind & Fire, Bootsy's Rubber Band, The Meters, Tower of Power, The Commodores, War, Kool & the Gang, Parliament/Funkadelic (George Clinton is immensely important in funk), the Isley Brothers, Sly and the Family Stone, Ohio Players, Confunkshun, and many others. Jazz musicians including but not limited to Horace Silver, Herbie Hancock (with his Headhunters band), Grover Washington, Jr., and Cannonball Adderley, Les McCann, Eddie Harris, Fela Kuti, Tony Williams, and Miles Davis combined jazz and funk. Check out this Youtube fusion cat (He is as much Larry Carlton as he is Eddie Hazel.) Hendrix's Voodoo Child (Slight Return) ia VERY funk-y. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Hard Truth Posted November 17, 2008 Members Share Posted November 17, 2008 One common technique is to have one guitarist play a repeating single note phrase while the other guitarist plays rhythmic chords. If you don't have people to play with, with an application such as Acid can give you some good drum and bass parts to play along with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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