put a similar thread at talkbass, and got this...could help future wikis digging threads too...
Quote:
Originally Posted by simmerdown
right hand techniques common to funk?...i think i hear a lot of hammers, slides and such?
Those are left hand techniques, unless you are left handed. There's a type of "vibrato" (not sure of you can call it a vibrato) where you slide up and down ~ a half step to a whole step up and down in both directions. You can hear it a lot on Stevie Wonder's I Wish, Boogie Oogie Oogie by Taste of Honey, and a lot of mid to late 70s funk tunes.
Quote:
Originally Posted by simmerdown
chords and chord progressions that sound legit
Most common funk chord progression is just to groove on a single chord in either Mixolydian or Dorian mode. You can even use both modes interchangeably, and the tonality can switch back and forth between a dominant 7th chord sound, and a minor 7th, based on context.
Other common chord progressions are I - IV, V - I, VI - V - I, and the standard blues progressions.
Chord tones that make a bass line sound funky are the major 6th and minor 7th, which are both found in the Mixolydian and Dorian modes.
Sorry for all the theory in a thread about technique. Funk isn't really about technique.
As for technique that would apply to both funk and hip hop, you want to pick cleanly, preferably with fingers, and make liberal use of left hand muting to keep notes short and punchy. Listen to Jerry Jemmott. He's more known as a blues and soul bassist, but he's been sampled a lot, and he played on Gil Scott Heron's The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, which was a tune that laid one of the cornerstones of hip hop.
Edited by
simmerdown on April 12 2012 16:52