What is funk really like?

[zuluMusic2]

Thanks again Mihai. That bass is awesome, I suppose I need some more practice and listening and maybe I will one day be able to do something like that. I appreciate your giving those loops, but I doubt using them as I prefer doing everything myself, and that's why I'm here gathering information. Of course I listened those loops too and I must say they are good. And by using some crappy software I will never get anything as good sounding as those but something that is my own.

I found a good video on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvw2UuofYyQ
It's a tutorial for guitarists (and I know nothing about guitar playing), but I found it useful too as he is damn good explaining. The rythm characterized by 16th notes with accent at 1 of 4 is some nice info. He's also mentioning some chords including the mother of all funk chords, E9.
Then I found this site: http://www.guitar-chords.org.uk/
There are some chords listed there and I wonder which of those I should favor and which I should avoid. Also some hints about how the chord progression works would be really nice.

Later I will post here the beat I'm currently composing. I'm sure I can make improvements to it by the help of those links.

[zuluMusic2]

Okay, here is what I have achieved so far. I wish someone could tell what parts sound funky, what is good, what is bad, which things need improvements and so on. It's 135 BPM, which is quite fast, but that's the way I like it. I want this to sound rythmic and happy. Have I done it? Is this still far from funk or am I getting there?

[Mihai Sorohan]

1- way too much stuff
2- most of the parts don't match tonality (that's very bad)

If the keyboards go that complicated, there is not place to anything else. Music should be like a nice dialog, as in life is not polite to talk over someone's else talking, same in music.
Let spaces for instruments to shine.
and get to the same subject (same tonality).

[zuluMusic2]

Whether it is not polite to talk over someone's else talking depends on the culture, I must correct you Mihai. There might be too much stuff crammed in there I agree, but making the tonalities match with each other is not easy until I have a scale wherein to stay. So, that's the next part that needs to be covered.
And this was testing, I'm just trying out different things to find out what works and what not.

[Mihai Sorohan]

Originally Posted by zuluMusic2

Whether it is not polite to talk over someone's else talking depends on the culture, I must correct you Mihai.

Well, not really.
Our brains are built to be able to focus on one thing at the time, is the way we are built not really the way we want to be so, if you have a thing that have to "sparkle" and catch attention, is better to put it into a context that make it get more attention. This way the soloing part stand out more.

Also, if you have things going in different grooves at the same time the groove is not building right.
Americans says "less is more", in Romania we say "less is for better", kind of same concept.As a general rule in music, is just like sex , you just can't get to the "action" without the right preparations, with a good foreplay and "warm up" you are on the right way to make the audience yours.

Hope that was understandable.
the bass groove was right but the guitar was way to fast appearing and not in the same tonality... then keys, too much there. For start keep it simple, just build the groove with the drums and bass, add just a hint of guitar.

For theory, here's some useful readings:
http://www.musictheory.net/
http://www.tonalcentre.org/index.html
http://www.petethomas.co.uk/jazz-theory.html

[zuluMusic2]

I mean the word "polite", that depends on the culture. How much you can focus is another thing, I think though that the human brain is not "built" to be able to focus on only one thing at the time. Take driving for instance, how many things do you actually do at the same time and still you can be talking to your friends at the same time. But that's off topic and besides I agree with what you said about the music, it's just your comparison with the talking that was not the best choise, so leave it.

[zuluMusic2]

As I understand the contents of this discussion http://www.talkbass.com/forum/archiv...p/t-46564.html it says that there is no "real" funk scale, so I suppose I should just pick one. And as I want some happy stuff I guess it could be the Mixolydian scale.
There ishmael_the_god said also: "The cool thing about funk bass to me is that tonal dissonance is a good thing. You can be grooving in a rigid blues scale (or others...) then break out and play something totally crazy. Hit a random note, hold it out, then switch back to the groove. It has to be done tastefully (which sometimes is difficult), but in my experience, the crowd LOVES it." But that's talk only about the bass. And of course it doesn't work if it's not done properly.

wiki:
"The G Mixolydian mode (Based on C major - on a piano it is all the white keys from one G to the next. GABCDEFG)" or "TTSTTST (T = tone; S = semitone)"

I will "clean up" my beat a bit and post the modified version later on. Also I try putting everything to the same scale so that the tonalities match.


But why did you give a link to jazz theory?

[Mihai Sorohan]

Originally Posted by zuluMusic2

Take driving for instance, how many things do you actually do at the same time and still you can be talking to your friends at the same time.

Yep, you do a lot of things, but the main thing is driving. That's why it's illegal (in some countries) to speak at the phone at the same time, or watch TV, or other thing that could take your attention while you're driving.

Originally Posted by zuluMusic2

As I understand the contents of this discussion http://www.talkbass.com/forum/archiv...p/t-46564.html it says that there is no "real" funk scale, so I suppose I should just pick one.

Well, the most common is actually Dorian mixed with the "Blues" scale (pentatonic with some chromatisations). But you should not think "in scales", you should think more on general tonality and use scales according to the song structure, not tailor a song to scales.

Originally Posted by zuluMusic2

"The cool thing about funk bass to me is that tonal dissonance is a good thing. You can be grooving in a rigid blues scale (or others...) then break out and play something totally crazy. Hit a random note, hold it out, then switch back to the groove. It has to be done tastefully (which sometimes is difficult), but in my experience, the crowd LOVES it." But that's talk only about the bass. And of course it doesn't work if it's not done properly.

Well, actually that's more of a soloing technique, in jazz is called "in and out", is playing in tonality then out of tonality and then in again. There are certain rules to do that, not easy to master, but as a general idea is creating tension and release it.

Originally Posted by zuluMusic2

But why did you give a link to jazz theory?

Funk have the very roots in jazz, actually some people say that funk is a sub genre of jazz, so...
Also knowledge is useful, always.
Can't run if you don't know how to walk.

[mkoenig]

Thanks Mihai.. this turned into a great post

[zuluMusic2]

A great post it is I agree and I hope also others will have use of all the information that we can get here. I know I should not too strictly limit the notes in my beat in the frames of one scale, but it's one way to work and it's easier (at least I think so) to test off-tonal parts once I have a solid main structure than trying to repair a beat with no structure at all, you see?