Monthly Archives : October 2014

Funk 2

In the last post I talked about using a combination of scratch rhythm and chords to create accented rhythmic grooves. But I only looked at accenting the first 16^th and the third 16^th notes of a four note group.

 

A reminder of those two:

 

You may be wondering about accenting the second 16^th note and the fourth 16^th note. Perhaps you’ve been playing around with them. If not, here they are.

 

The procedure here is pretty much the same as what we did with the first and third 16ths. It’s just harder.

 

Body rhythms

It’s harder because of the way we use our body when we play. Most of us tap our foot on the beat. This makes it necessary to lift our foot on the offbeat.

 

Here’s what I mean:

So we have a clear movement for the downbeat (the number) and the offbeat (the “and”). But there’s no foot movement that corresponds to 16^th notes. They’re somewhere between your foot going down and coming up.

 

Some people tap their foot on every 16^th. Understandable, but this destroys the sense of the beat. Developing a good sense of rhythm means accenting the downbeat while feeling different rhythms in different parts of the body. Drummers do this every time they play.

 

So our foot “feels” the 8^th notes simply by moving up and down. Our strumming hand “feels” the 16^th notes. In doing so, it goes twice as fast as the foot. This requires body independence that can take a bit of work to attain. Be patient if this is difficult.

 

The new rhythms

As always, play the 16^th notes slowly and count “1 ee and uh, 2 ee and uh, 3 ee and uh, 4 ee and uh”. Just use scratching to start. Keep counting. Now play a chord when you say “ee”. Loop that rhythm until you’re comfortable with it. You should still be playing slowly.

Now speed it up, but not too much. Funk generally falls somewhere between 75 and 90 beats per minute (bpm).

 

Which reminds me…

 

The metronome

Get a metronome if you haven’t got one already. I use this one.

https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/metronome-9th/id448155296?mt=8

 

Set it at a tempo slow enough to make the 16^th notes easy to play. When you’re comfortable at that speed gradually increase the tempo. So if you start at 60 bpm, increase the tempo to 65, then 70, etc.

 

Here’s a good article on issues to consider when using a metronome.

http://tomhess.net/PracticingGuitarWithAMetronome.aspx

 

Switch to the other new rhythm. Same procedure as the other one, but play the chord when you say “uh”.

 

Mixing it up

Now create some loops using all four rhythms.

Here’s one. This is an exercise designed to challenge your concentration. No hook or riff is going to change this rapidly.

 

As always, take it slow. Then speed it up.

Create a few of your own by making one of the rhythms the main focus. Then improvise by inserting the other ones wherever it feels right to do so.

Or you can structure this work more by deciding to play one of the rhythms three times in each bar. Then fill in the fourth beat with one of the other three rhythms.

 

16th notes and funk

Back to sixteenths…

A discussion of 16^th notes needs to include funk. Develop your ability to play funk, and you develop feel and groove. This is important for overall development of rhythmic abilities.

 

Funk basics

First step: play nothing but four 16ths to the beat.

 

The ‘x’ noteheads mean that you need to mute the strings while you strum them. This is called scratching.

To get the right feel, do the following:

 

• lay your left hand fingers lightly on the strings
• keep your right arm and wrist loose as you strum
• go through the strings quickly as you strum whether the tempo is slow or fast. Try to make it sound like a percussion instrument

 

Tap your foot on each beat, and count “1 ee and uh, 2 ee and uh, 3 ee and uh, 4 ee and uh.” Be patient. This can feel weird if you’re not used to doing it.

 

Placing accents

 Once you’re comfortable playing the scratch rhythm above, move on to the second step: placing accents on different parts of the beat.

Placing accents on different parts of the beat is really important for funk. It’s also important for developing a strong overall rhythmic feel.

Here are a couple of examples.

1. Accent on the first sixteenth note.

 

2. Accent on the third sixteenth note.

 

Slashes

The slash indicates a chord.  Use scratches for the rest of the 16ths. Pretend your strumming arm is a machine and keep the 16ths even.

This works best if it’s a chord that covers all the strings that you’re playing. Open string chords generally don’t work, since some of the strings will ring when you release the chord.

This one works. A lot do, but this is a classic funk chord. It’s the E7#9 chord.

 

As you’re strumming, release it just enough to keep your fingers lightly on the strings for the scratches.

Try to play just the strings that have your fingers on them. This chord is very forgiving since both the low E and high E strings are part of the chord. It won’t sound that bad if you hit them.

 

Combining rhythms

Mix the two rhythms I provided above, and create some four-beat loops. For instance:

 

 

Come up with as many as you can.