A
lot of guitar players
think they know how
to play funk. Step
on the wah-wah, play some
wocka-wocka, chicka-chicka
nonsense and voila, you just
laid down some funk guitar,
right? Wrong.
This knuckleheaded
approach to funk guitar is
unfortunately common. Ask
any random J. Schmo with a
guitar in their hand to play
some funk, and this will be
the result roughly 82 percent
of the time (believe me,
I’ve done informal studies).
One might assume that this
widespread failure to funk
is the result of an almost
total lack of familiarity with
one of America’s most
important and influential
musical creations. If so,
that is a sad state of affairs,
indeed. I surmise, however,
that most players do have
at least a casual familiarity
with the music, it’s just that
they haven’t ever taken
the time to dig deep and
study the ins and outs of the
technique. The fact is, funk
is a lot harder to play than it
sounds.
10
TONE TALK //
FU
NK
U!
All You Need
to Know about
Funk Guitar
Guitarists are frequently
duped by how simple
funk guitar seems on its
face. Many of the genre’s
signature tunes only make
use of a couple of chords,
and countless others make
do with just one. Funk is also
highly repetitive, and many
of its greatest guitar hooks
are repeated throughout
the song that contains them
with little-to-no variation.
This minimalist approach has
Funk U: All You Need To Know About Funk Guitar
hornswaggled six-stringers
into thinking funk is easy
and doesn’t require study or
woodshedding to get it right,
but this could not be further
from the truth. Try playing
any old riff perfectly and in
the pocket, without variation,
for five minutes straight, and
then get back to me. Not so
easy, huh?
All this technique talk is sort
of beside the point, though.
I’m not here to teach you