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Chords Funk guitarists usually play partial chords based on chords of the dominant family. Common chords are 7, 9, 7#9, 6, 13, m7, m6. Click here to download a .txt file with tabs for some common fingerings. Scales Since the harmony is usually dominant, it follows that the scales used in soling have a flat seventh. Pentatonic minor and blues scales are often used, as are the major pentatonic, pentatonic minor with the sixth replacing the seventh and Mixolydian. Occasionally you'll hear some jazz-influenced inside-outside playing using either chromatic embellishments or (rarely)the halfstep-wholestep scale. The most important scale in funk however, might well be Dorian. The Dorian mode features the very funky combination of minor third and natural sixth, as heard in the riff to James Brown's Soul Power and Prince's awesome solos to Kiss and Sign "O" the Times. Classic Parliament intro licks like Flash Light, Bop Gun and Dr. Funkenstein are also constructed from this scale. It can be thought of as minor pentatonic with a natural second and sixth added, or as the natural minor scale based on the V chord. So for A dorian, play from the E minor scale. The jazzy solo to Prince's Sexy MF combines Dorian and blues runs with chromatic lines to great effect. To chuck or not to chuck "Chucking" means playing relentless sixteenth or eight notes with the right hand. A rhythmic pattern is created by alternately muting the strings with the left hand and alllowing chords or notes to sound. To many, this is THE sound of funk guitar. Beginners tend to think chucking is all there is to playing funk. Conversely, some teachers and writers preach that constant chucking is wrong, citing James Brown's Sex Machine and others classics from the 60's era as an example of non-chucking funk. In my opinion a funk guitarist should be able to chuck like crazy, yet also be flexible enough to leave a little space when necessary. This can be achieved letting chords ring, by sliding into your chord from a half step below or by simply not playing. In order to keep your timing tight, I highly recommend "floating" your strumming hand above the strings, keeping the rhythm going without actually playing. The bottom line on chucking is that the constant rhythm is a staple of mid-to-late seventies funk, heard less on earlier recordings. Nile Rodgers' playing on Chic's early classics is a veritable chuck-fest. Listen to James Brown's Superbad to hear how effective chucking can be when alternated with non-chucking parts. Some compression will make your chucking parts sound more constant and defined. But only meticulous and hard metronome practice will prepare you for the ultimate goal of this technique: completely locking your guitar with the snare and hi-hat pattern. Listen to James Brown's Cold Sweat to hear a prime example of this. A light to medium pick is recommended when you do a lot of this "chicken scratch" style playing.
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Uh-oh... solo!
A good funk rhythm guitarist is in trouble once it's time to solo. Not because his leads skills are necessarily bad, but rather because soloing means that an essential element of the groove (i.e. your rhythm part) disappears. Obviously your band mates will try to make up for this. But most good funk guitarists try to keep to rhythm going in one way or the other while soloing. Using octaves (à la Wes Montgomery or George Benson) is one way to keep a full sound. Catfish Collins plays some funky octave leads on James Brown's Talking Loud and Saying Nothing (20th Anniversary Collection), as does Roger Troutman in Zapp's More Bounce to the Ounce. Partial chords also help, as do country style sliding sixths and double stops. Check Prince's Sign "O" the Times for the latter and The Meters' version of Sing A Simple Song for the former. But even single notes can sound full and rhythmic. The key to this is a technique called clanging. It works like this: mute all strings except the one you want to hear with the left hand (this may take some practice). Then, instead of picking only this string, simply hit 'em all with the pick like you were playing rhythm. Kool and the Gang's Jungle Boogie features some choice clanging. Of course, you can also hit the overdrive/fuzz pedal and fill the space with screaming histrionics. That's the beauty of funk: anything is allowed, as long as it's groovy! Wah-wah Conventional rock wisdom has it that rocking the wah-wah pedal back and forth to the beat is NOT good. In funk, it is. Period. Whatever your foot does, it's gotta be in time. That said, you can open it more slowly or quickly and work out some pretty complex patterns, requiring the kind of independent co-ordination of limbs usually reserved for drummers. The key to great wah-wah playing is in the combination of muted and pitched strums. Getting a good wah-wah sound may also require inventing different fingerings for your licks. As a rule, wah-ed chucking sounds better higher up the neck. Listen to Isaac Hayes' Shaft, The Temptations' Papa was a Rolling Stone, The Bar-Kays' Son of Shaft (the live at Wattstax version is a real scorcher), The Meters' Just Kissed My Baby, The Ohio Players'Skin Tight and Prince's Kiss to get a taste of what can be done with a simple Crybaby.
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