Members Pr3Va1L Posted December 27, 2008 Members Share Posted December 27, 2008 Anyone got an idea on where I could try to lean how to play Clavinet... I'd like to be able to play Stevie Wonder music and stuff but I just can't seem to "get it" :poke: So how do you groove and funk with a Clav? Any tips? Thanks alot! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Tomkeen Posted December 27, 2008 Members Share Posted December 27, 2008 Anyone got an idea on where I could try to lean how to play Clavinet... I'd like to be able to play Stevie Wonder music and stuff but I just can't seem to "get it" :poke: So how do you groove and funk with a Clav? Any tips? Thanks alot! Groove with your hands, like you're playing congas, but hit the right notes. And Stevie Wonder is from another planet, he plays Clav in a league not reachable for humans Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members augerinn Posted December 27, 2008 Members Share Posted December 27, 2008 Yeah, it's more of a comped, syncopated rythym type thing. Toms right, play it like drums, with left hand and right hand syncopating. Lot's of short, machine gun stabs. And forget playing like Stevie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members goldphinga Posted December 27, 2008 Members Share Posted December 27, 2008 its all about rocking from hand to hand and question and answer between the hands almost like playing congas as previously said.. HOWEVER! its really worth noting that most of the groove should come from the right hand only and not from the left, the left is only for accents or pull offs a bit like slap bass.. my advice to really lock the technique is to practice with just one hand on the clav and one hand tapping the case or something else so you really build up the power of your right hand.. imo the best exponent of clav technique is Herbie Hancock so check out records like thrust and manchild for starters Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pink floyd cramer Posted December 27, 2008 Members Share Posted December 27, 2008 Keyboard mag had a tutorial on funk clav some years ago that helped me quite a bit. It was taken largely from Mark Harrison's "Pop Piano" book, I think. I'm still not a particularly funky white man but I can play a clav break now and other musicians don't hold their noses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Pr3Va1L Posted December 27, 2008 Author Members Share Posted December 27, 2008 Thanks a lot for the tips! Pretty helpful advice.. I think I'll look up Herbie Hancock on Youtube or something... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Gribs Posted December 27, 2008 Members Share Posted December 27, 2008 Hey white guys can play funky too! No stereotyping allowed I got into playing funk style, and jazz (and - ulp - sorta discoish) too, on the guitar in the mid-late 70's when I was a teenager. Progressive rock and metal, funk, jazz, disco, anything. I always loved Stevie Wonder (I listed Songs in the Key of Life as one of my 12 influential albums in another thread here). Some of the stupid guys that I jammed with who were "punk" wannabes used to tease me for "playing like a black guy", which I thought was a major compliment Anyway, I have no idea how to play the clav right, but I started bouncing in my chair here just thinking about Stevie playing "Superstition". I am mouthing the clav part softly as I groove to the tune in my head. I think the rhythm and feel of the playing must be similar to playing rhythms like that on the guitar - you feel them in your whole body and just let yourself get into the groove of it. I think there is something to the drumming thing too. It is like doing a dance and playing rhythms. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members memphis Posted December 27, 2008 Members Share Posted December 27, 2008 I've unearthed tons a of great clav recordings in my short time as a keyboard player. One classic is The Band's "Up on Crippled Creek". Garth plays the clav through a wah pedal giving a really distinctive funky tone. A lot of mid period Stax recordings feature great clav parts. Booker T. & MGs instrumental version of "Elenor Rigby" is one example, along with Rufus Thomas "Do the Funky Chicken", and some Isaac Hayes cuts like "Hyperbolicsylabicsesquedelamistyc". The back bone of all of those parts are very rhythmic, as other posters have described. When I play clav I find myself doubling some guitar riffs (especially the ones that have the more 'chicken picked' guitar tone) and comping short stacatto chords along with the backbeat. The greatest clavinet part I've ever heard is actually an Ovations cover of the Sam Cooke tune, "Shake". It's available on a compilation album called Memphis 70. I'll post a clip when I return home from my holiday trip to the parents. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members niacin2.0 Posted December 27, 2008 Members Share Posted December 27, 2008 Check here for Stevie: http://acapella.harmony-central.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1535866&highlight=superstition Most clav players do the two-fisted 'congas' thing, rather like comping guitar with your right hand and filling it out with accents in your left. Note choices are predominantly your basic i, v and vii. Left hand sits across the keyboard spanning an octave - thumb and neighbouring fingers filling out in between the RH groove, and pinky effectively 'dropping bombs' as you would on Hammond pedals. Most players play something similar to what you find on Superstition (the two-fisted 'conga' thing that's been mentioned), though usually simpler. It's hard to describe really, listen to the MP3s posted on the thread. Herbie is different. Mostly just his right hand comping. Check out Thrust. His sense of time and funk is right alongside Stevie's, but it's quite a different approach. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members cram1960 Posted December 28, 2008 Members Share Posted December 28, 2008 Play it percussively and funky...like ElectricPuppy: http://polkadotdictator.net/kss/warpath.mp3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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