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Funk-adelic 70's guitar


Ricardo.

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Another question from me :)

 

How do you approach producing the funky, jangly(?), sometimes wah'd guitar chords heard in 70's funk(?) music? For example, the chord hits in the song 'Funkytown.' The reason I have question marks is because, although I've heard the term jangly used before, I've never heard an example of it. I can guess at the meaning but I don't want to have confused it with a different kind of jangly. And, I'm thinking the music these guitar chords are used in is 'funk,' but again, I'm not 100% sure that funk is the genre used by it.

 

Know what I'm talking about? I've tried hitting 7th chords on the 12th frets and holding down the high e string with my pinky on the 15th to get the sound but there's something missing. Are there certain chords that get the funkadelic-ness happenin'? Help me out!

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Now that I've thought about it; I think I'm thinking about disco style. I'm 17, so I'm not exactly sure how willing people are going to be to help me play disco music/guitar since the most common words I hear after disco is, "Is dead." :) Is there any special way to approach playing in such a manner?
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Listen to Brick House http://www.minibite.com/passion/brickhouse.htm

the kind of funk is a combination of partical chords some sevenths and some nineths.. it is as or more right hand technique as it is left or chording hand..it involves picking hand heel of hand muting over the bridge it uses string CHUCKS that is a sort of percussive picking while doing string muting... this is how MOtown type funk is done... the wah wah is used on some but only usually rocked slowely to find the trebly jangle which is different than the jangle found in say the tone of a Telecaster in country music,... funk technique is very useable in all kinds of music actually and is someting you should know how to do and then modify these techniques for other styles of music. Hope this is helpful to you it is difficult to explain in words how this works.

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Answers so far are not bad but what I read as the main question ("jangly" tone) is more a matter of personal audio perception & may than something that applies to funk or any particular genre.

For instance, the music of 1960s rock band The Byrds is often described as jangly, in their case because of the 12 string guitars they regularly used.

 

 

Ellwood's description of (one) funk-style playing technique (the choked/muted rhythm style) is one thing you could try although, to me, that sort of clipped attack is hardly "jangly".

I'd suggest, though, that that technique of string muting is usually done with the fretting hand by raising the fingers from the fretboard to punctuate a steady right hand strum that's set in the meter of the song, usually 16th notes.

Raising the chording hand cuts out the sound, leaving a rhythmic pattern that's much easier & cleaner than trying to play the rhythm with just the strumming hand.

This also helps one keep in time & is an extension of the common practice of using alternating up/down strokes to keep meter.

[No offense, fellow Detroiter :cool: ...actually I'm a former Detroiter...& long-time funker]

 

As mentioned, there's a bit of difference between funk & disco. Primarily funk is more rhytmically pliable; the rhythm's actually more syncopated & stretched in places, whereas disco & it's derivations like house or techno-trance/whatever are very metronomic but such distinctions are often blurry.

That doesn't mean funk is rhythmically sloppy, just looser.

For example, the bassist/drummer lock is less strict, with funkers regularly slipping around each other in a way somewhat like jazz cats.

A great example is one of Bootsy Collins's favorite tricks. If you check out his work (w/James Brown, George Clinton/PFunk & on his own) you'll notice that in some songs he'll vary where he hits the "1" compared to the bass drum; sometimes they'll both hit it dead-on, other times Bootsy anticipates the '1' by 1/16th note, giving the music a feel that pulls you into the next measure.

The same, or similar, effects can be heard & achieved between any instruments, however, not just the primary rhythm section, & that rhythmic slipperiness is a large part of what makes funk.

 

Back to "jangliness" or timbre, another distinctive element of funk is a sort of liquidity or fluidness of the sounds. You'll notice that many sounds are "non-steady-state"; envelope followers & tricks like slow, slight shifts in the wah-wah (as Ellwood descibes); synth modulation; etc., are regularly employed.

I suspect that's one of the things that gives the music a more human, body-oriented atmosphere.

Remember that song "Kiss" by The-Artist-Formerly-Known-As-The-Artist-Formerly-Known-As-Prince [yes, I typed that right ;) ] ? Listen to the start; that guitar lick is a good example of both the rhythmic strumming style discussed earlier & the slight timbral changes I described.

 

As always the best way to understand & learn is to actually listen to examples of what you want to emulate. :thu:

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Ya right on! nice description.. I guess I didnt go far enough with the muted technique I just gave the heel mute over the bridge and didnt focus on the string mute or whole chord mute with the fretting hand. Actually I use both in and out or the meter but the fretting hand one is so very important to master!! Lets see here how can we tell our young friend here how to do it and how it feels? OK and maybe you will jump in there and add or subtract from my descripiton but here goes... on any chord release the pressure and raise you fingers just enough so that you still hear the chord value(and feel the vibrations of the strings on the tips of your fingers and barr) but it is deadned or muted while setting up a cadence that complements the drummers snare or kick drum cadence...sort of your rhythum fill. All funk players use this technique but players like Hendrix use it all the time and blues guys like Johnny Winter ... listen to the start to the refrain part of Rock and Roll Hoochie Coo by Winter or the start to Voodo Child by Hendrix and listen to the fretting hand string mutes at high volume.
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when i hear that kind of playing i think of 70's porn movies :D

i love that style of funky guitar.

my recipe is position 2 on a strat with a cleanish tone (dirt is allowed). add a wah and scratch while accenting double stops and partial chords. the intervals of 6 and 9 chords add coolness. this is by no means a guaranteed funk recipe. but it is fun and a start. dig out some old disco and classic funk and blues tunes and drink it in.

owww! can you feel it? :D

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Speaking of "Maggot Brain", here's a link to a recent thread on Funkadelic hero Eddie Hazel:

sensuous string stretching & gripulating guitar gyrations

 

 

I feel I must apologize to Ellwood for overcorrecting his original response here.

 

After my earlier post, while talking & playing with some friends, I realized that I almost always play with my picking hand lightly touching the strings, in just about the way he described. This is so ingrained that I don't even realize I do so.

I focused on the fretting-hand grip but he was really quite correct otherwise. :thu:

Apologies...& thanks for not whacking me upside my big head!

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I stumbled on a nice funky tone the other day - prteyy much like Guitarzan says above, with minor differences -

 

I used pos 2 (mid, bridge?) on my Strat, and used an Multi-FX pedal to set up a SLOW phase, with a Medium chorus & a bit of reverb. Play Amin to Dmaj, etc.

 

Works for me!!

 

Geoff

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power the World will know Peace": Jimi Hendrix

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=738517&content=music

The Geoff - blame Caevan!!!

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Originally posted by d:

Speaking of "Maggot Brain", here's a link to a recent thread on Funkadelic hero Eddie Hazel:

sensuous string stretching & gripulating guitar gyrations

 

 

I feel I must apologize to Ellwood for overcorrecting his original response here.

 

After my earlier post, while talking & playing with some friends, I realized that I almost always play with my picking hand lightly touching the strings, in just about the way he described. This is so ingrained that I don't even realize I do so.

I focused on the fretting-hand grip but he was really quite correct otherwise. :thu:

Apologies...& thanks for not whacking me upside my big head!

d: No problem at all man..we do these things so automatically that it is sometimes difficult to take them apart in order to explain what we mean..when I posted that messge about funk technique I actually had to go get a guitar sit down play some and then try to say in words what I was doing... I gotta admit Im probably not very good at teling how Im doing things!! I guess that one of the main differences between a player and a teacher!!..anyway the technique you said is of coarse right on and I guess so was mine ..hopefully we helped out the fella who was trying to understand the technique. see ya later d.
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A Telecaster is the guitar for funk rythym, IMO, with a Strat being a close second. You need lots of treble bite for funky chords that sound like chick! Lifting my fingers off the fretboard to deaden the strings after the initial attack is the way I play funk & raggae chords.

 

Listen to the guitar in Burning of the Midnight Lamp by Hendrix. Hendrix liked Curtis Mayfield's guitar style and copied it on this song, IIRC.

BlueStrat

a.k.a. "El Guapo" ;)

 

...Better fuzz through science...

 

http://geocities.com/teleman28056/index.html

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  • 2 weeks later...
Originally posted by Blue Strat:

A Telecaster is the guitar for funk rythym, IMO, with a Strat being a close second. You need lots of treble bite for funky chords that sound like chick! Lifting my fingers off the fretboard to deaden the strings after the initial attack is the way I play funk & raggae chords.

 

Listen to the guitar in Burning of the Midnight Lamp by Hendrix. Hendrix liked Curtis Mayfield's guitar style and copied it on this song, IIRC.

Hay gotta disagree on this one... the soul based funk is most definately the old strat on the neck pickup.Listen to my band do "Pappy" on sound click.thats the strat on the neck pickup..see how funky and James Brown that sounds.
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