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Summary: Play funk bass lines as an advanced bass guitar technique; learn how from a professional bass player and teacher in this free music instruction video.
Views: 953 | Tags: bass, guitar, scales, advanced, key, bass lessons, music theory
About the Expert
Ryan Larson Ryan Larson is a young jazz composer whose teaching technique focuses on the basics of music theory in all twelve keys. When applying his twelve-key technique... read more
CASEY CORMIER: So now let's look at the funk genre, which has some similarities to the reggae genre, in particular that a lot of things involve offbeats, playing on the offbeats, but funk does take it to another extreme. So, we usually will start on the downbeat for a funk groove, but pretty soon we'll be playing on the "ands." One-and, two-and, three-and, four-and, one-and, two-and, three-and, four-and [SINGS FUNK RHYTHM]. A popular funk groove that you might have heard before is F, G, B flat, C, D, F, D, F, D F, G. With a metronome, One-and, two-and, three-and, four-and [SINGS FUNK TUNE], one-and, two-and, three-and, four-and. Notice how a lot that happens on the "and." So, without even counting [PLAYS FUNK BASS LINE, so pretty much if you want to make your own funk groove, basically all you have to do is start off with something on the quarter notes [PLAYS BASS LINE] and then playing offbeats, One-and, two-and, three-and, four-and [SINGS FUNK RHYTHM]. So funk is really about those offbeats and everything like that, while the drummer really keeps downbeats going.