I hope all of you had a fab time playing along to ‘Tower Of TNT’, experimenting with funk lines and expanding your repertoire, both playing- and listening-wise. Ideally you will have also been out and about hooking up with other musicians willing to give it up for the funk, rather than just staring at this mag and endless YouTube clips of, let’s say…to be kind… varying quality. My hope is, as I said last month, to inspire you and to get you out, interacting with other musicians. Only after practising, listening, shedding (ie practising and learning in the shed) and playing with others can you fully appreciate the exquisite delight that is playing funk bass.
Back to exploring the art of repetition: it may seem dull and mundane to repeat a one-bar riff over and over when you first start to play it, and it may appear to be neither big nor clever to you. However, aficionados of the style will love you for it, and all serious players will absolutely appreciate you for it. Remember that playing a killing funk bassline means to ‘give it up for the funk’. The bassline is not about you, it is about the well-being of the music – so easy to write, so hard to pull off when on the bandstand or in a recording situation.
The best live gigs I can remember playing are those where I’ve stopped being aware of what it is I’m playing and enjoyed instead being part of the whole picture – the other musicians and the audience. It is almost like I’m watching the gig from outside of myself – the best thing for me about the hypnotic capacity of funk.
I’m not sure if I could give anyone the recipe to experience similar situations. However, I do think that listening, copying and jamming with other musicians – ideally the ones that you like musically and personally – will take you on the right path towards funk enlightenment.
Listening to Parliament’s Mothership Connection, with Bootsy on bass, is in equal measures hypnotic, inspiring, and most of all…FUN… And it has accompanied and mesmerised me on many late nights driving back from a gig. It might be able to do exactly the same for you.
Right On It
Listen to the full version of Right On It by RB Funkestra at Soundcloud
Here is a track from the Foyer/ Redtenbacher funk stable that we believe to be another ‘muscular’ bass feature. It is a hard-hitting track with four different funk riffs. I recorded this tune with my black alder body/rosewood neck/thin ‘A’ neck 1973 Fender Jazz straight into a UA LA-610. Reminder: the ‘tr’ above notes means ‘trill’, ie slide your fretting finger as quickly and often as possible between the main note and the next fret up from that note.
Intro / End
The tune starts and ends with a one-bar phrase. Dig in hard with your picking hand. The little hats on the notes indicate that you need to play these notes short and ‘phat’. The dot means play short and the dash means play long.
The A Section
The main riff of this tune is a two-bar riff with an alternating second bar, making it a four-bar phrase. The ‘bird beak’ symbol indicates an accent, ie pick out those accented notes. This riff is slightly unusual as none of the bars start on ‘the one’. If you like this kind of line, check out ‘Jupiter’ by Earth, Wind and Fire, with Verdine White on bass. Breathe life into this phrase by adding slides, grace notes and trills.
The B Section
Trusty funk octave playing is coming in handy in this section. Note that the octaves are played really hard (so the strings are hitting down on the frets); it almost sounds like the notes are popped. Of course, you could play the whole section with the slap technique. The ‘0’ underneath the notes indicates using the open strings. The double stop looks complicated on paper but you just have to hold down the D, pluck its octave and slide both notes down a half step.
The C Section
It is time to dig in really hard: this line features hitting the E string with the picking hand on beats 2 and 4, with the snare as well as ghost notes and plenty of hammer-ons. This one is definitely influenced by Louis Johnson, but without the slap bit.
The D Section
This section is a recapitulation of the melody (letter A) but with a diff erent bassline to give the end of the track a diff erent fl avour. Again, this is a two-bar riff with an alternating second bar, making it a four-bar phrase. You can have fun and play your own fills every time in the fourth bar as indicated. Imagine the chord being E7#9, so E minor pentatonic or blues scale licks will definitely work. Check out ‘Get On The Floor’ by Michael Jackson, with Louis Johnson on bass. He is extremely funky and he hits his bass very hard indeed!
As always, having written all this, of course you can use the backing track to jam along to and make up your own bass lines as much as you like. Creativity is always welcome.
Right On It-no bass by RB Funkestra
Listening Recommendations
All these tunes fit loosely into the topic of ‘The Art of Repetition’. Have fun listening to these, and also listen to the entire albums once you like the flavour of a tune.
Meshell Ndegeocello
‘The Way’ from Peace Beyond Passion; bass: Meshell Ndegeocello
Parliament
‘Unfunky UFO’ from Mothership Connection; bass: Bootsy Collins
Earth, Wind and Fire
Let Me Talk’ from Faces; bass: Verdine White
D’Angelo
‘Chicken Grease’ from Voodoo and Live At The Cirkus, Stockholm (I heard this at a friend’s house); bass: Pino Palladino
Lettuce
‘Sam Huff ’s Flying Ragin’ Machine’ from Rage!; bass: Erick ‘Jesus’ Coomes
Repertoire
Here are two classic funk jam tracks, in my opinion ‘must-knows’ for any Funkateer.
John Scofield
‘Sissy Strut’ from ‘Flat out’, bass: Anthony Cox
and, of course, before you start wagging your finger, the original (without the chord change) by the Meters on ‘The Meters’, bass: George Porter Jr.
Herbie Hancock
‘Watermelon Man’ from ‘Head Hunters’ and ‘Flood (live)’; note: you might also want to ransack your recycle bin for empty bottles to emulate the enigmatic opening J, bass: Paul Jackson Jr.; also listen to the original from ‘Takin’ Off ’, bass: Butch Warren.
Website of the Month
Play Bass Now with MarloweDK
This is a great site with excellent and inspiring content from seriously funky bassist Thomas Risell AKA MarloweDK and his team of guest teachers.
Follow the Funk!