How to Play funk Guitar

Hello! Welcome back again. So, today in this lesson, we’re going to look at funk and, you might have noticed I was using a wah-wah pedal then. And what that is, is a pedal on the floor and you rock it back and forth, and creates this sound that goes wah-wah-wah-wah… Now you don’t need a wah-wah pedal to play funky stuff. You can do it with just a normal clean sound and that’s fine… Okay, I think you get the idea. And generally speaking, the idea with funk, is all about the rhythm, and usually it’s quite cheeky sounding. The notes are quite short and sharp. And the specific technique that I’m going to teach you today on the guitar is that how to play dead notes, or muted notes. And what is, let me just explain this a little bit better, when we’re playing funk, often the riffs are quite simple. But it’s not just the notes that we play, it’s also the in between notes. That make up the rhythm. So for example, a riff might go like this… Now if you listen carefully, you’ll notice that I’m playing the notes that sounds like this… And then I’m going … And then I’m playing another note … And then playing another note … So when you join it together, it sounds like this … Okay, so it’s usually clicks in between, that are so important to the rhythm of funk. But a lot of people don’t realize that they’re in there, they’re called passing note or dead notes, or you know, or clicks, so you can call them what you want really, but the point is, here’s the point, if you just played the proper notes on their own, it wouldn’t have the same effect, because you would have played it like this … that’s without the clicks. Now if I put the clicks in … Okay, I think you understand what I’m talking about. So let me explain, how to do this clicks. The first note I’m going to ask you to play, I’m just going to give you a little example. A little exercise to work on, so you can practice this. So the 4th string in fret 7. Now the first thing to realize is that when you hold down a note on the guitar … the note sustains for as long as you hold the note down. But as soon as you lift the pressure from the string, the note stops … And you can see the moment I lifted my finger up. I’ll do it again … Okay, now I’m not taking my finger totally away from the guitar. All I’m doing is lifting the pressure, so the finger is still touching the string, but it’s not holding the note down. And result, you know it stops the notes, it mutes it … So, what you can practice doing is, doing long notes … Where you’re just holding your finger down, then you can do notes where you stop it each time, like this … And then, if you want to practice further you can practice doing really short, sharp notes by just holding the string down for a millisecond … And you can see, I’m playing the string down at the exact same second that I pluck the string, and then I immediately release the pressure … and I’m only holding it down for a split second long enough to get a short note … like that, okay. I think you understand what I’m talking about now. So, the next thing I want to explain is how to these dead notes, these clicks … These muted notes, okay. And it’s quite simple really. All I’m doing is, touching the string, and plucking the string, and then we get that muted dead sound. So what I suggest you do to begin practicing is to play one note normally, and then lift the pressure, so you’re just touching the string, not holding it down. And give it a pluck, and you can do it alternatively, like this … Okay, now you can build it up. Perhaps try playing the note and then 2 clicks … And if you want to take it one step further, then what I suggest you do is use the plectrum to put down on notes … And then down, and then up on the 2nd click. So if you watch my right hand carefully, you’ll see me plucking down, and then down-up, okay. So what that means is, when we speed it up it’ll sound like this … Okay, I hope that makes sense. So, now, you should totally understand what I’m on about when I talk about dead notes. Now let me give you an example of you know, of me doing a little bit of improvising. And you can watch my right hand, and you can watch my fingers, and you can see whether I’m playing proper notes or dead notes. So, have a listen … Okay, I think that was a good enough example. Now of course, at this stage you already know a few scales. You know the minus scale. So, what you can do if you want to take this upon yourself to give away, and practice improvising, then using those scales and combine it with a technique I just showed you, that little funk rhythm. And to create a funky little improvisation like I just showed you. Now also, I want you to remember that the next lesson, the last lesson in this e-course, I’m going to really teach how to improvise okay. I’ll explain exactly what that means, you know. How to make up solos as you go along, so you’ve got that come as yet. But you know, if you want to jump ahead of yourself, and go and start creating stuff, then brilliant, that’s absolutely fine. So let me finish shop here by giving you a specific rhythm to practice … So you’re going to pluck the 4th string at fret 7 once … And then you’re going to play the muted note down-up, down-up … Like that. That should be simple enough for you. And then you’re going to play fret 5 … Normally, and then back to fret 7, normal … Okay, so when we join that together, we’ve got … Okay, I hope that makes sense. Let me play it out full speed so you can really get a feel for the full funky energy … Okay, I think you get the idea. So, I want you to practice that rhythm that I just showed you. Practice the click, practice the mutes, and do everything I told you in this lesson. You know, do the long notes, the medium notes, the short notes and really get used to, you know, holding and releasing the pressure from the notes. If you need to, watch this video several times, you know, so it makes perfect sense in your mind. Okay, now you’re building up a whole scale set here. We’ve done so much stuff so far in this free course. It really is quite exciting, and remember, like I said, there’s one more lesson to come as yet. It’s the final lesson. I’m going to teach you how to improvise, so that really is a big part, that’s the important lesson, so make sure you’re there to watch that one. So, as usual, go and get on with it. And it’s usually, I tell you this every time, be patient with yourself. There’s no rush. It took me a long time to get this stuff sounding smooth. So, It would probably be the same for you. So, go and enjoy yourself, and I’ll see you soon in the next final lesson in this e-course. And in the meantime, if you’re finding this really easy, go and check out the website. There’s a lot of funky songs that you can learn in there. There’s full length video guitar lessons, okay. So, thanks for joining me, I’ll see you in a few days. Bye-bye.