How to Play Funk Guitar Video Lecture - The Ultimate Guitar Course From

if you're like me and you feel like you
were cheated out of getting to
experience an era when guitar players
dressed like friendly pimps you are an
excellent candidate to learn some funk
music so today we are going to look at
kind of like an intro to playing funk
music and it's all just about one rhythm
that you can kind of manipulate and for
different chord voicings right so again
it's more about learning the techniques
and actually one single thing to play
but it's going to sound something like
this
so basically all that is is chord
voicings you already know and we're
going to talk about it just by using the
bottom three strings or the top three
string so everyone look at it the G B
and E string for the purposes of this
lesson we're going to pretend as if the
e a and D strings do not exist right and
that's kind of how we get that real kind
of high-pitched I guess these higher
chord voicing tones and basically I'm
using I'm using a strap which is kind of
a typical funk guitar it's not that you
can't play funk on any type of guitar
but I am actually using the pickup
selector in position number four right
so I'm getting kind of like a tit to me
this is kind of the Spanky's tone on
this strap now a lot of stress actually
the middle pickup will be the best one
to do it again you can do it every
anywhere you want like in the bridge I
think it's a little too harsh but if you
bring it up just for whatever reason
this strap I think sounds best in this
position but really just kind of
experiment to see the best one you can
get right so the first chord voicing
that you probably learned on guitar in
general is most likely in an E minor
chord right now we're going to take just
the bottom or the top three strings of
this a minor chord if you look at that
it's just open G B and E right now if we
apply that to a bar chord we can do that
anywhere and the root note being the
open E string right if we did the same
thing I'm like a so the fifth fret is a
a right if we just barred
these right here this is a minor chord
so this is going to be kind of like our
first funk chord voicing that we can
move around okay so here's just one oh
now the tip that I can give you that'll
kind of get you sounding funkiest right
off the bat is constant motion with your
strumming hand right so what I mean by
that is again I'm just borrowing three
strings on top here and if you notice my
pointer finger is nudging up against the
D string right so I can't hear it so
doing that allows my pick greater
flexibility when I'm trying to
concentrate on just hitting these
strings right so
so if I'm muted again I'm just not
holding down I'm touching the strings
but not squeezing them down right if I
muted it sounds like this just down up
down to one and two and three and four
and now I can selectively choose where
the pressure goes is it to get the chord
right so if I want on the 1 it would be
1 & 2 M 3 M 4 M 1 and 2 M 3 M 4 M 1 M 2
M 3 M 4 hands a good exercise is to
cycle through all the beats and start
adding different chords different
sustain chords right so if I start on
the one one and two and three and four
and one is you handed so basically the
idea you're just kind of getting the
feel for the rhythm cuz funk guitar is
all about rhythm by it choosing one
you're squeezing that chord down right
so again we're gonna learn four chord
voicings all together and put them
together right so the next one is and
you already know these so the next one's
gonna be Oh like a D chord right another
one of the first chords you learn now if
we just focus on the three strings right
here and pretend the low strings don't
even matter this is a movable shape
right so D d sharp F sharp G so we're
actually gonna go down to this G chord
which I'm thinking of my root as where
my ring finger is so it's really
valuable to know how to find the root
notes and where they exist on the
strings I'll link you to a video in case
you want help on learning where notes
are on the fretboard stuff right so so
this right here the 8th fret on the B
string is is a G so this is a G chord
and again I'm selectively just aiming
with my pick yeah the top of this court
here right and my pointer finger is
budging up against the D string so I'm
not getting like a so it's really all
about selectively hitting what you're
trying to go for right okay so I got
this G chord and the next one we're
gonna learn is gonna be an a minor
voiced chord right so is the the open a
minor now if we just take the bottom
three strings oh this kind of new one
open which is a staircase type thing so
if we do did it in the context of E
minor we get this right this is like
it's just like a staircase 9 + G 8 B 7
here now your root nut would be where
your ring finger is in fact this is just
part of like an E minor Barre chord
voicing but without the lower strengths
now the nice thing about this is you can
go from this G here to this a minor and
it much easier way by adding your pinkie
here G E minor G E minor doesn't matter
okay so the next one we'll learn is
going to be an E major voicing right
so again if the taps really easy it's
just one open open so we can recreate
that by this right here so in a major
chord the root note is the e so it's
just the open string whatever the high E
string is that is how this voicing is
going to be applied right so the eighth
fret on the high E string is to C so you
get to C major chord we just go eight e8
b and nine
so you notice I'm doing all of these
chords in kind of the same area I've got
a G major to a minor to a C major and
then the nice thing about this is we can
just slide this down to a D major right
so this is all the key G right now so
we've got a G major E minor C major to D
major
now the progression of this would be a
one a six a four of five G is 1 6 g a b
c d e is 6 yeah I've C G a B C is 4 and
D is 5 right so we can think of this as
just our progression right so we're
gonna learn one more chord voicing as
you already did this one is the minor
point where you just bar it but we're
gonna do it on the high e this is gonna
be octave E minor so we're gonna take
ourselves from this chord voicing to
this one to here slide into this one and
then end on the E minor however you want
to do it right now another really
fantastic thing about funk music is that
you give things cool names right so
we're gonna rename some of these chords
because it kind of sounds lame doesn't
sound funky just call this G major so
we're gonna call this G major super fly
alright and then this minor voicing is
gonna be a minor electro shizzle and
then this major voicing is going to be C
major starship and then the bar one is
going to be e minor huggy huggy boots so
we've got G major Superfly - E minor
electro sizzle - see major starship D
major scholarship to E minor huggy boots
right so that could be just different
when you look at all chord voicings in
general but the next thing we're going
to do is to slide into a course so that
G major starship thing right did we call
it a starship yeah no super fly Oh super
fly my bad
so the G major one or conspiring to like
this like you're arriving from one frat
back is kind of like cool thing you can
do to get like cool funky sound like so
instead of just going right to the G you
go to up and you can use any of the
chord voicings for the C to the D so
just slide from one front back to front
back as long as you're just kind of
momentarily arriving from there it's
cool thing now the last thing we're
gonna do is we're gonna work a scale
into this right so we're gonna go to the
E minor
Huggy boots lon all right we just hold
the 12th fret now if we play the E minor
scale and again pretending we don't have
the lowest three strings on the guitar
it's going to look like this this is
gonna be the minor scale like if I did
the whole thing we actually start on G
so really this is the G Major scale
we're doing an n E minors position
whatever and we're gonna start adding
notes from this scale into the chord
right so there's the bard chord the g
string is going to be twelve fourteen
the b string is going to be twelve
thirteen fifteen and the high E string
is going to be 12 14
all right so we could just add any of
those you play through the scale like
this are we going to start randomly
adding notes to this chord all I do is I
added my pinkie to the high E string
which I'm making another chord this is
actually a G major voicing for this
chord but I'm thinking of inflecting an
E minor chord voicing to make it more
interesting so right now all those are
different chords didn't have themselves
but we're thinking of them more as
inflections that we're getting from a
scale right so all together let's work
on just a little bit more of the rhythm
right so we're gonna get on the G
Superfly 1 here and I want to work on
accenting or sustaining every third
stroke so this is going to be our rhythm
so it has kind of a triplet feel because
I'm getting every third note right
not technically triplets but I'm
thinking in threes so the first down
stroke one and two so I get a Down
stroke into mutes one and two and three
and right so those are my first six
beats the first one and the the fourth
one are squeezed
Arnon muted right or sustain Harlequin
whoa and to every and right
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 1 & 2 and so if we do
two of those that's how we count it 1 &
2 & 3 M om 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 so the last
four beats are gonna be a just all
sustained so all together then I can end
on that other G major voicing because
that's the the one the tonic so it kind
of wraps up right there now I'm going to
link you to a song that I did off of
that Andreas and Shawn album that kind
of has a few of these principles
involved because you don't have to use
these techniques just in funk music
these are just kind of general playing
techniques with more of a funk sound
because of the nature of the pickups
because of the nature of how we're
playing it and the nature the chord
voicings but again overall this is just
a great way to learn more of the
fretboard by moving some of these shapes
that you're already very intimately
familiar with but doing it in the
context of a funk playing atmosphere