In most cases, playing every 16th-note is just too busy. In this lesson, we’ll add chord progressions and combine accents in different ways to create practical strumming patterns.Īs we progress from our previous exercises, let’s keep something in mind: Being able to strum continuous 16th-notes with varying accents is super cool, but in reality, we usually don’t want to leave all these notes in. In those exercises, we muted the strings to fully focus on the strumming hand technique. We practiced accenting every beat while placing extra focus on strengthening our upstrokes. In a previous lesson, we explored different ways to accent 16th-notes and generate compelling rhythmic patterns with them. But ain’t nobody got time for that kinda funk.
![ghostnote oakland fox ghostnote oakland fox](https://64.media.tumblr.com/ec33936dc28c990bc6bbad43bb0310d7/3833e951e15fda0c-b0/s1280x1920/da1640054fc20687d8f562d4af0b0f78ba551e52.jpg)
Just remember: Like everything else, funk can be predictable. Whatever you do, once you stumble upon a badass riff, grab on to that sucker and repeat it like a snake charmer messing with a cobra. Or, ignore your pedals completely and let the primeval snap of your axe and amp work their voodoo. And maybe throw a horrid-toned fuzz on top just to make sure the damage is done. And those telephone-wire strings you’ve been using might make you feel like SRV, but if you want the cutting stank tone, try going down to. Get a metal pick and work on riffs and rhythms that are exclusively spasmodic downstrokes. If you can’t get your bridge or neck pickup to sound thin as a shiv, turn on your wah and leave it toe-down. No matter what you play, see if you can’t occasionally get your rig to sound like a banshee whose reedy-as-hell shriek would make heads explode-if its ratty-ass rhythm didn’t combine with the rest of the band and channel the energy to everyone’s butts. It’s the combination of it all that works.
![ghostnote oakland fox ghostnote oakland fox](https://thefoxoakland.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/TySegall_IG-1-750x750.jpg)
![ghostnote oakland fox ghostnote oakland fox](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/6c/2a/1c/6c2a1c3ad009df212e10da6681d8f2e3.jpg)
But all of these things in isolation are worthless. And it’s not a swivel-action coordination contest between your wah foot and your picking hand. But it’s not about who has the nimblest wrist this side of the continental divide. And each of them wasn’t afraid to step completely out of the mix to let the song breathe.
Ghostnote oakland fox full#
Each of those bands is/was full of badass players, but their songs matter because the musicians could write a simple part that stuck in your cranium for, like, ever. That sped-up, crazy-compressed guitar at the beginning of the Sunshine Band’s “Get Down Tonight” would destroy small rodents by itself, but instead it gets you floating just before the nasty high-hat-and-snare grooves and the throbbing bass send you to boogie town.īut it’s not just the tones. And that proverbial “ice-pick” tone we always dump on? Actually, it’s pretty freakin’ useful. Everybody’s got their own space, and they dial in their tones so they don’t step on the organ or the bass or the sax, let alone the vocal. But check out how the guitar pops like crazy. See if you can’t occasionally get your rig to sound like a banshee whose reedy-as-hell shriek would make heads explode-if its ratty-ass rhythm didn’t combine with the rest of the band and channel the energy to everyone’s butts.įor starters, these bands have seriously dense mixes. Even if you don’t become a funk fanatic, you’ll learn tons. Get yourself some Kool & the Gang, KC and the Sunshine Band, Earth Wind & Fire, and Commodores. So try this: Buy yourself James Brown’s The 50th Anniversary Collection.
![ghostnote oakland fox ghostnote oakland fox](https://thefoxoakland.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/HippoCampus_020219-750x750.jpg)
We chase after sounds that rage in our bedrooms, but we wrinkle up our noses at sounds that, in a full-band mix, might be the difference between only guitar dudes caring and regular people actually giving a cuss. Too stuck on isolated-in-a-laboratory definitions of cool sonics. Too apt to go for that phat-toned whole-step bend on the G string-followed by either a fifth on the high E or maybe a super-sustained B-string bend up at the 15th fret. Too addicted to the same old progressions or chord shapes. Too prone to plodding, predictable rhythms. Take this literally or figuratively-either way, it’s turtle-soup-for-the-soul advice: We have a propensity to be too damn un-funky. To the first, I say, “Enjoy your naïveté.” To the second, I say, “Beware of Michael Bay.” And to the rest of you I say, “Enough is enough-it’s time to funk shit up.”