One of the coolest and most badass-sounding things a guitarist can do is double a long, complex bassline an octave higher. This was my approach for the song Dean Town, which I recorded with Vulfpeck for our 2016 album, The Beautiful Game.

The tune was inspired by legendary bassist Jaco Pastorius’ Teen Town, which he recorded with Weather Report on the 1975 album Heavy Weather.

Like Teen Town, the bassline in Dean Town is a through-composed melody, which means it’s a continuous and non-repetitive piece of music.

The melody was written by our keyboard player Woody Goss and “made famous” by bassist Joe Dart. I decided to octave-double Joe’s intricate bassline through the long initial section of the tune, which was challenging!

Before launching into the melodic line, let’s take a look at the basic underlying chord changes, outlined in Figure 1. In the song, each of these notes – F#, C#, E and B – is played for two full bars, as steady 16th notes. So it’s an eight-bar loop. The tune’s melody is 16 bars long and is played over the eight-bar progression two times.

The first time the 16-bar melody, or “head,” is played, it’s performed by the bass alone. The second time through, I octave-double it on guitar.

This 16-bar melody is shown in Figure 2. Using palm-muting throughout, I begin with a one-beat pickup, and bar 1 starts with the 16th notes E-D#-C#-A, followed by the root note, F#, which falls on beat 2. Right from the start, this is a little deceptive, as the low F# root note hits you like it’s on “1,” but it is in fact on beat 2.

As you play through the line, you’ll see that it includes some complex, syncopated rhythms driven by eighth and 16th notes and rests, with many “holes” dropped into unexpected places.

Bar 6 begins with a four-note chromatic row, from F# up to A, followed by high melodic notes that bounce off open low-E 16th note syncopations. Bars 7 and 8 circle around B7 with the notes of B major pentatonic (B, C#, D#, F#, G#), which resolves in bar 9 to F#m, with the bar ending with dead-string hits and a high chordal accent on the final 16th note of the bar.

Bars 10-12 offer a break from the barrage of 16th notes with repeated eighth-note accents on the F# root note, only to return to very syncopated lines in bars 13-16.

The biggest challenge when doubling a complex, rhythmically dense bassline like this is precision. It simply will not work and will sound sloppy if I don’t nail every phrase and mirror the articulations of the bass.

Later in the tune, I play a funky rhythm part high up on the fretboard that consists of syncopated double-stops on the G and B strings, shown in Figure 3. Notice that each bar repeats and how the notes work with the underlying chord changes. Utilizing two-note chords like this is a great way to outline the harmony with just a minimal amount of information and textural density.

This is the last installment of my column Follow the Groove for now, so I hope you’ve enjoyed reading these columns and the ideas presented have been useful to you. See you on the road!

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

Robert “Kool” Bell knows a thing or two about writing hits. After all, his band, Kool & the Gang, spawned tracks like Ladies' Night and Celebration, sold over 70 million albums worldwide, and has been sampled en masse. Not bad for a bassist who started out by learning how to play one song (Coming Home, Baby) on one string.

And, speaking of greatest hits, one of the Gang's best-known tracks, Get Down on It was inspired by an unlikely source – Bob Marley.

“With Get Down on It, a friend of ours talked to my brother and said, ‘Listen, have you ever listened to Bob Marley?’” Bell tells Bass Player in a new interview.

“My brother said, ‘Well, no…’ And our friend said, ‘Well, you should listen to a little bit of Bob Marley…’

“So, we’re in the studio, and my brother came up with this idea, which was not quite reggae, but had a reggae feel to it. That song became Get Down on It.

“But at the time, we said, ‘What are we gonna call it?’ We ended up calling it Get Down on It, and again, we had no idea it was gonna become so big. It’s still a big record for us.”

Upon release, the song hit the top 10 on the Billboard Pop and R&B charts and clinched the number three spot on the UK charts, becoming their highest-charting UK hit at the time.

Kool & the Gang’s success, grooves and genre-blending repertoire meant that their records were – and still are – ripe for sampling, a fact that doesn’t go unnoticed by Bell (“Just ask Will Smith [who sampled Kool & The Gang]. He got a platinum record and went on to become a movie star,” he quips).

“We felt very good about it when they first started sampling us. But we had to put somebody on a ‘sample patrol’ to catch who was playing what,” Bell adds. “Eventually, they said that when you sample a record, the record company will charge you for the sample. After that, we became – actually, we are – the most sampled group in hip-hop.”

Bass Player’s interview with Robert “Kool” Bell will be published in the coming weeks.

The Temptations' version of Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer was originally recorded in October 1968 and released both as a single and as part of the December ’68 album Merry Christmas From Motown. It also made the group's 1970 side, The Temptations Christmas Card, as well as the top-selling 1973 double-album A Motown Christmas.

The track captures the legendary Jamerson at his peak powers, before personal and health problems began to take their toll. So said Allan Slutsky, author of the epic bass tome Standing in the Shadows of Motown, which he later developed into the 2002 film of the same name.

“It's a smorgasbord of many of the revolutionary techniques and devices he pioneered,” Slutsky told Bass Player in 2016.

“Not to the level of masterworks like Bernadette and I Was Made to Love Her, but a quality performance nonetheless, with a feel similar to other challenging Jamerson tracks, such as Darling Dear, I Second That Emotion, and Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing.”

The track begins with a rubato intro that contains the true revelation of the entire part: Jamerson climbing to the upper-register 10th (F#) on the G string, while playing an open D, at 00:27.

“I've never heard Jamerson use this device. By then, it had made its way onto the bass guitar landscape, so he probably picked it up from hearing it somewhere.”

Tempo starts at 00:32, which contains the song's AA sections, in what is an AABA form. Jamerson immediately establishes several keys to the part, including his use of two eighth-notes on the downbeat of one as the main pulse; pivoting between the root, 5th, and octave; adding arpeggio movement and color tones like the 6th and 2nd/9th for variety; utilizing chromatic approach and passing tones, as well as open strings; and adding his trademark sense of syncopation.

“With a lot of space between the two chord changes, Jamerson is thinking linearly and constantly developing the part, with one interesting exception being the 16th-note run at 00:47, which he restates throughout the track.”

For the song's B section, Jamerson changes his approach. “Because you basically have two chords per measure, he uses shorter phrases as he navigates through the changes. But that doesn't stop him from laying down a deadly cool, highly syncopated figure at 01:27.”

Following the final A section in the AABA form, the track makes its way back to the bridge, or B section, at 01:54, before a return to the final A section at 02:15, which includes the original extended V-chord ending at 02:30 (featuring Jamerson's signature use of above and below approach notes).

Strap in for the outro, at 02:35, which pivots between C and Bb9 chords. Jamerson – likely on his 1962 Fender P-Bass – plays a flurry of ascending and descending arpeggiated figures connected by chromatic movement.

At 02:45, Jamerson grabs the ear with a rising and falling one-and-three-quarter-octave arpeggio figure reminiscent a similarly treacherous span in the chorus of the Gladys Knight version of I Heard It Through the Grapevine – and dig his use of a D on the ‘and’ of two, instead of the anticipated E.

Sums up Slutsky, who also worked on a feature-film-length documentary about Philadelphia's famed Sigma Sound Studios, “To think that Jamerson could compose this entire bassline spontaneously and still be locked into the groove and sound so relaxed is pretty astounding. That's his genius.”

On December 5, one particular Fender Jazz Bass – bearing the serial number 266610 – belonging to arguably one of the coolest cats on bass, Bootsy Collins – and previously, James Brown – went up for auction.

Initially, the bass was up for grabs at a remarkably low price – just $5,250 – before it shot up to $40,000 during the auction's final moments.

There's still time to beat that amount, though: the Heritage Auction website allows you to make an offer to the new owner – but the offer will have to be more than $50,000.

To say the James Brown- and Bootsy Collins-owned 1969 Fender Jazz bass is simply “storied” is a massive understatement. The instrument was originally purchased by Brown in 1970 for Collins, who was then a young bassist in Brown's band, The J.B's. The bass was later wielded by Fred Thomas, another one of Brown's longtime bassists, and was used on various records and tours.

Indeed, this bass is a cornerstone of funk and soul history – directly connected to Bootsy and Brown's landmark recordings of Sex Machine, Super Bad, Soul Power, and Give It Up or Turnit A Loose. Thomas went on to use it on more classics – Hot Pants, Make It Funky, and Papa Don't Take No Mess, to name a few.

In an interview with Fender, Bootsy clearly recalls being given this bass: “When I first joined up with the James Brown crew I had a $29 Silvertone guitar, and I thought I was awesome,” he recounts. “Until I met James Brown and he told me, ‘Son, you can't come on my stage with that funny-looking thing right there!’

“He broke my heart, but at the same time, I was like, ‘Okay, well, I would love to have a Fender Jazz Bass.’ He said, ‘No problem. I'll have it for you tomorrow.’ The next day came and Mr. James Brown got me a Fender Jazz 1969 bass. And I was like a kid in a candy shop. It was the bomb!”

The bass comes with provenance tracing directly from the James Brown Band's 1977 Miami tour through multiple eyewitness accounts, including a signed document from bandleader Hollie Farris, which confirms that, “Mr. Brown originally purchased this bass in Cincinnati for Bootsy Collins to play on concerts and recordings when he hired him in 1970. After Collins left the Band in 1972, Fred Thomas played this bass on concerts and recordings as his main instrument.”

For more information, visit Heritage Auctions.

Direct Flyte is a track from my 2022 album, Power Station, and features the great Victor Wooten on bass. The song has morphed a little bit in subsequent live performances, as we’ve tightened up the arrangement and gotten very specific about the individual parts.

What I’d like to talk about today is how the syncopations of the tune’s primary guitar part work in conjunction with the chordal accents supplied by the keyboard, which I think is a good example of effective ensemble arranging.

When you hear how the two instruments work in tandem, you’ll get a good idea of how I like to approach coordinating various musical elements like an orchestral arranger.

The form of the tune is “AABA.” The three “A” sections are in A minor, and the “B” section modulates up a minor 3rd to C minor. The rhythm guitar part I play during these sections is a four-bar phrase that’s fairly simple.

Following the AABA form, there’s a single-note ensemble (band) section, shown here in Figure 1.

In bar 1, a pattern based on the A minor pentatonic scale (A, C, D, E, G) descends across the bottom three strings in straight 16th notes, followed in bar 2 by octave shapes for F# and G. Notice that I palm mute the entire phrase.

My inspiration for this tune was Flight of the Bumblebee by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, but through a funky lens, as if Tower of Power had written and recorded the melody.

As you listen to Direct Flyte, you’ll hear that the guitar part lands in one place and the keyboard part lands in another. We’re very intentional about that because, when you have a 10-piece band, there’s a high potential for individual parts to step on each other. Communication and arrangement is key to making sure all of the parts are precise, serve a purpose and do not get in each other’s way.

Figure 2 illustrates the primary guitar part: I begin on the A root note and then play C and E together by barring the G and B strings. My strumming hand is moving in continuous 16th notes, so that each single note, dyad or muted-string accent will occur at precisely the right place in the “grid.”

In the spaces left by the rhythm guitar, the keyboard adds chord “stabs.” Figure 3 shows the keyboard part. It begins with a heavy accent on Am7 on beat 1 of the first bar. In bar 2, Am accents are played twice during beat 3. Bar 3 is identical to bar 1, and bar 4 is silence.

The initial keyboard accent adds a lot of power to the downbeat, and the subsequent hits effectively fill the space left by the rhythm guitar. If we pan the instruments left and right, it feels like a musical conversation.

Figure 4 puts the entire arrangement together. In bar 9, after eight bars on Am, we move up to Cm, and in bar 12 a chromatically descending line is played as a band figure to modulate back down to Am, where the four-bar “A” phrase is repeated. This is followed by the single-note descending figure from in Figure 1.

The takeaway here is how every element integrates into a very specific Minneapolis/Prince-style rhythm, with all of the instruments coming together on the chromatically descending line shown in bar 10 of Figure 4.

In my arrangements, I use the mindset of an orchestral arranger for the instruments to play off of one another in a “call and response” manner and then to coalesce into a big, powerful unison part.

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

Back in April, Giacomo Turra found himself at the center of widespread plagiarism accusations.

As per accusations made by YouTuber Danny Sapko, original material by Jack Gardiner, Alex Hutchings, Tom Quayle, Marco Baldi, Travis Dykes, Jacob Collier, and Ben Romano – to name a few – was repurposed by Turra, who, in turn, allegedly passed it off as his own without due credit, even monetizing it in some cases.

Rick Beato also weighed in on the controversy, stating that the social media star was slated to appear on his channel, but, as he put it, “he couldn’t play well enough to put the video out."

Back then, D’Angelico, with whom he released a signature model, distanced itself from the guitarist, as did Andertons, who removed a YouTube video they recorded with him.

Fast forward a few months, and Turra is making a musical comeback with the release of Good Lovin' – a collaboration with bassist Alberto Rigoni. However, according to an allegation made by Sapko in a new video, “he's stealing again.”

“Now, I listened to his new song, and I thought I recognized a small part of it, and I knew where from,” he comments.

“So I went back to find Giacomo's clip of [him performing a cover of] Love Never Felt So Good, and found that it had been deleted, which I thought was strange, because he's not deleted any of his other clips. But I've found it because the internet never forgets.”

He continues, “And it wasn't until today that I realized just how cunning Giacomo had been, because this video [referring to the clip of Love Never Felt So Good] of him is made up entirely of different creators' licks. You can piece together all these other YouTuber's playing and make his one solo.”

Sapko doubles down with, “Every phrase stolen from someone else, every pattern, every bend, every note – same key, same tempo, not a second of originality.

“You're probably thinking that's terrible... but what's this got to do with his new song? All he had to do with his new comeback song and video was not steal anything from a smaller creator, but here it is.”

Sapko goes on to link to a video from 2018 of South Korean guitarist and creator Lee Jeong Hoon covering Love Never Felt So Good, and compares it to what Turra is playing in a social media clip promoting his new release.

“[He] probably thought a six-year-old video from a YouTuber with a few thousand views would never be found, but he's never met anyone like [me] before,” Sapko concludes.

In June, the players wronged by Turra collaborated on a diss track dubbed Slapocalypse Reborn, delivering a funk masterclass that aimed to reclaim the narrative after months of controversy.

Giacomo Turra didn't provide a comment in relation to these new accusations when approached by Guitar World, other than to promote his next single.

Last time, we delved into the all-important topic of developing solid pick-hand timing when strumming. To me, that’s where the groove is: the pick hand is the timekeeper, and I’ve spent a lot of time working on exercises designed to bolster my strumming competence. In this column, I’d like to share some more of these exercises.

One of the interesting things that I did to develop my strumming technique had nothing to do with my wrist motion or how to hold the pick. I actually had teachers in college tell me that my technique was terrible and say “you should hold your pick this way!”

I eventually realized that everyone’s bio-mechanics are different and unique, in terms of works best and most efficiently. So, I don’t swear by my technique; I swear by my ability to control my right-hand movement and the exercises I used to get there.

An unorthodox approach I took was to borrow something from my old marching band drum line exercises and adapt them to guitar. In hitting the snare drum, I’d practice the typical “stick control” exercises of “right-left-right-right” (RLRR) or “left-right-left-left” (LRLL) and I practiced “grid-ing” drills of shifting accents from one 16th note to another. I realized that this approach could enhance my right-hand technique.

Let’s pick up from the last lesson’s examples with steady 16th-note strumming on fret-hand-muted strings, utilizing the “steady motor” approach of down-up-down-up alternate strumming on every beat, as shown in Figure 1.

If you verbalize the four beats of 16th notes in each bar as “1-ee-an-da, 2-ee-an-da, 3-ee-an-da, 4-ee-an-da,” the pick strokes are down-up-down-up, etc., with “ee” and “da” being strummed with upstrokes.

When strumming this way, your have three options: hit a note or chord, play a “chuck” (muted-string strum) or play nothing — just let your hand swing over the strings.

Figure 2 illustrates a “grid-ing” exercise to strengthen pick-hand control for strumming, achieved through shifting the accents. We begin with one bar of accenting the four downbeats (1, 2, 3 and 4), strumming them a little harder than normal. This is followed by a bar of accents on “ee,” then a bar of accents on “an” and ending with a bar accenting “da.”

Now let’s switch the accents to two beats each, as shown in Figure 3. On beats 1 and 2, I accent the downbeats, and on beats 3 and 4, I accent “ee.” In bar 2, I accent “an” in the first two beats, then “da” in the last two.

In Figure 4, I shift the accent forward on each beat, which is a little more challenging to do. Proceed slowly at first while tapping your foot squarely on each beat, then gradually increase the tempo.

The next step is to work in some chords. In Figure 5, I press down on an E9 voicing at the same accent points specified in the prior examples, moving from one 16th-note accent to the next on each successive beat.

In Figure 6, I apply this approach to a more traditional funk rhythm part with changing chords. As you’ll discover, rhythm parts like these are much easier to play once you learn to control how your two hands work together in laying down a solid rhythm part.

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

Bootsy Collins is the ultimate funkateer, which is exactly why world-renowned film composer Lyle Workman did whatever he could to recruit him for the soundtrack of Greg Mottola and Judd Apatow’s cult coming-of-age movie, Superbad.

“It [funk] was baked in from the get-go – just the name of the movie is a James Brown song,” Workman tells Vertex Effects. “Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, they wrote Superbad when they were in high school. When I saw an early cut of it [the movie], it was all that kind of music tapped in, so I didn't have to figure out, ‘What is the score here?’

“All the demos, all the cues, were done here in the studio with local musicians, and it was great. In any other circumstance, that would have been the score. But man, when it's James Brown, when it's the music that they put in, that they're cutting to – it's those guys.”

Workman is, of course, referring to the J.B.'s – James Brown's band from 1970 through to the early ’80s. While there were several iterations of the outfit – with some of the originals leaving Brown to join George Clinton's Parliament-Funkadelic collective – the J.B.'s' reputation and imprint on classic Brown records such as Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine, Super Bad, and Soul Power meant they could also record and release albums and singles of their own, without Brown being front and center.

“So my thought [was], ‘What if we actually hire those architects of that music and have them be the band?’” Workman continues. And, lo and behold, Superbad (the movie) ended up reuniting the original J.B.'s rhythm section with Bootsy and Phelps “Catfish” Collins, Jabo Starks, and Clyde Stubblefield, supplemented by Bernie Worrell.

And speaking of Bootsy, Workman was adamant about getting him, seeing him as an essential piece of the puzzle. But clinching him involved... well, some sleuthing.

“The thing is, well, ‘How do I get in touch with Bootsy Collins?’ I had no idea. I had nobody, no contact, and I just happened to be looking through emails and Maxon – the pedal company – and I saw, ‘Bootsy Collins appearing at the NAMM booth.’”

He continues, "So I called my buddy at Maxon and I said, ‘Hey, I'm doing this movie. I want to get him to play on it. I'm wondering if I can get his number or information... or maybe I'll just go talk to him at the NAMM Show, since it's in L.A.’”

Workman rocked up to the NAMM Show with the movie director Greg Mottola and the music supervisor/music editor, Jonathan Karp, with the intention of talking to Collins. And, thankfully, his plan worked – and even led him to the other J.B.'s.

“I talked to Bootsy during one of his breaks, and he says, ‘Well, I'll get in touch with everybody.’ We kind of gave him a thumbnail sketch of what it was going to be, and he was totally in for it. He contacted the other people.”

Speaking of Bootsy, the legendary bassist recently conducted a rare interview with Buckethead, where the elusive guitarist spoke through his Les Paul.

Ella Feingold's guitar chops have graced the records (and stages) of many big-name artists, including Ariana Grande, Bruno Mars, Erykah Badu, and Janet Jackson, to name just a few.

And with a new album of duets with jazz icon Charlie Hunter and a solo project in the pipeline, Feingold took the time to reflect on her roots and the guitarists who inspired her.

“Everyone should be familiar with Curtis Mayfield,” Feingold tells Guitar.com when asked about which up-and-coming players should listen to.

“He influenced Jimi Hendrix, Prince… so many more. John Mayer once told me, ‘Yeah, you just play how you are,’ and Curtis Mayfield played in a really gentle soft-spoken kind of way while addressing some hard truths that are still relevant today.”

Mayfield may be somewhat of an unsung hero, but his inventive rhythm playing, wah-laden guitar passages, and alternate guitar tunings set the stage for what many associate with the ’70s: slick funk with a socially and politically conscious soul.

“There is his ‘Black Key’ tuning of F#-A#-C#-F#-A#-F#, using the Maestro rhythm and sound effects unit – all that cool stuff,” explains Feingold, pointing out Mayfield's overarching legacy. “There’s something familiar and comforting about his playing. I think my favourite thing with musicians is their touch.”

As the story goes, Mayfield started to teach himself guitar in his teens, and with no one to guide him, began tuning the strings to the black notes of his mom's piano – F#-A#-C#-F#-A#-F# – giving rise to the Black Key alternate tuning.

In more recent Ella Feingold news, the Grammy-winning guitarist talked about her experience auditioning for Prince – and why he said she was “too funky” on guitar.

Bootsy Collins' larger-than-life persona and driving funk basslines have graced many a record, including most of the early Funkadelic and Parliament albums, a plethora of James Brown hits – including Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine and Super Bad – and of course, his own Bootsy's Rubber Band repertoire.

However, as Collins himself admits, his far-reaching influence wouldn't have been possible if it weren't for James Jamerson, the game-changing Motown bass player who went largely uncredited at the time, despite making an immense contribution to the musical landscape the ’60s and ’70s.

“James Jamerson was the cat that really changed my mind about bass playing,” Collins tells Justin Richmond on the Broken Record Podcast. “Because he played with one finger – all of that stuff he was playing, he used one finger.

“He played upright bass. He got introduced to the Fender P-Bass, and he wanted to play the P-Bass. Motown said, ‘Nah, you can't play that. You ain't [making] no money playing that.’ So they didn't want to change. But he said, ‘If you want me, I'm playing the P-bass.’

“All the stuff after that, he made much more money for them. And you know, he was a perfect example to accept and embrace that change.”

Aside from his transition from upright to electric bass, something that was highly uncommon at the time since the instrument was not yet well-established, another innovation was his off-kilter technique.

His one-finger plucking style – dubbed “the Hook” – carried over from his upright playing, and he managed to play very intricate parts by using his right index finger to pluck the strings, while simultaneously anchoring his third and fourth fingers on the pickup cover, and letting his thumb hang freely.

Taking a page from his jazz background, he also used a lot of open strings, which helped facilitate shifts in flat keys – a quirk that eventually became a trademark of his sound.

Perhaps fellow Motown bassist Bob Babbitt summed up Jamerson's style best in a 2007 interview with Bass Player: “I learned three important lessons from Jamerson. First, feel is the most important thing. You can play two notes or 22 notes, but it has to feel good.

“Second is freedom of expression; James went a step beyond what bassists normally do. At first he took chances and let himself go, and then it just became natural for him, and in the process he changed the course of bass playing. That was very inspirational for me.

“Third, he told me to always make your bass sing like a voice. He felt the bass should have its own voice.”

As for Collins, the funkateer recently reflected on his stints with James Brown and Parliament-Funkadelic, why he stepped away from touring in 2019, and the story behind his now-iconic Space Bass.

Earlier this year, Giacomo Turra – best known for his funk-infused guitar covers on social media – was embroiled in scandal after guitarists and influential figures in the guitar space accused him of stealing their work, monetizing it, and not crediting them.

Now, the guitar and bass players who have been wronged by Turra, spearheaded by bassist and YouTuber Charles Berthoud, have teamed up to deliver a mind-bending funk shred track, Slapocalypse Reborn.

The title calls back to Berthoud’s own collaboration with Turra on his original composition, Slapocalypse, which he released around a year ago.

In a separate video detailing his experience with Turra, Berthoud claims he had “no idea about any of this madness before I agreed to collab with him”, stating that he had never seen anything “even remotely resembling this in my 10-year career as a professional musician”.

“At this point, Giacomo has done tons of collabs with really awesome musicians like Vincen García, Guy Bernfeld, Marcin, and he even opened for George Benson at the Blue Note in Napa,” Berthoud said of his initial collaboration Turra.

“I can pretty much guarantee that none of these guys knew about Giacomo's antics before agreeing to a collab.

“So I wrote the main elements of this song [Slapocalypse] about three years ago and put it in a video called: ‘Slap bass with wah sounds dangerously funky.’ At some point shortly after that, Giacomo covered it on his Instagram, and he did actually tag me.

“I thought it was pretty cool that a guitarist was slapping my riff on guitar, and he actually sent me a message on Instagram asking if I wanted to collab. And I thought, ‘Yeah, why not?’”

Berthoud explains the two went back and forth with ideas, with Turra eventually sending him his guitar parts (Berthoud does say, though, he’s not sure whether the guitarist actually wrote those parts or not).

The two were even booked to shoot a video at a professional studio. However, the night before the shoot, Turra sent his collaborator a message on Instagram saying that “he got really sick at NAMM and he’s not gonna be able to make it to the video shoot”.

Keen-eyed Berthoud notes that, later that day, Turra “literally posted some stories on his Instagram where he was playing at NAMM and looking completely healthy and fine”.

“To me, it was quite clear that he had just chosen to play at NAMM instead of doing our video,” Berthoud added. “This obviously caused me to lose money. It meant that we had to go through the hassle of rescheduling the shoot and paying twice as much money for it as we had originally planned.”

As a creator with a big following, the bassist felt he had to do right by the players whose compositions and arrangements were stolen and deleted his original collaboration with Turra from all his channels – and he re-recorded it with them all involved.

In fact, the “diss track” sees Berthoud team up with a veritable list of talent – Jack Gardiner, Alex Hutchings, Belltone Guitars, Danny Sapko, Jones Basses, Kahil Ferraris, Marco Baldi, Ben Romano, Tom Quayle, and Peter Luha – for a masterclass in shredding, slapping, and pure funk revelry, arguably the perfect response to the scandal that has left the guitar community reeling.

Following the controversy, players who have been wronged have spoken out, brands who were aligned to Turra – including D'Angelico and Laney – have distanced themselves from him, while Rick Beato revealed the pair had collaborated on a video that never saw the light of day due to Turra allegedly not playing “well enough to put the video out”.

Jeff “Skunk” Baxter may be best known for his stints in Steely Dan, The Doobie Brothers, and Spirit, but the versatile guitarist also lent his electric guitar chops to the who’s who of the music industry – including Dolly Parton, Donna Summer, Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, Gene Simmons... the list goes on.

It’s safe to say these varying gigs required him to develop a (to put it mildly) well-rounded playing style – and one that would result in him landing a tour with James Brown back in 1986.

“As far as those guitar parts were concerned, I already knew them because I’d learned to play that kind of music,” Baxter replies when asked in a new interview with Guitar World whether he found Brown’s funky guitar parts challenging.

“Being such a fan of it, I kind of studied it. I think it happened because I was going to a gig with Bobby and the Midnites, and I’d just produced an album for Bob [Weir] and was touring.

“So, James Brown was on the bill, and his guitar player got caught in a snowstorm and couldn't get down for the gig. So, they were looking for somebody, and I said, ‘I know all that stuff,’ and that’s how it started. I put on a nice suit, and it was away we go.”

Seeing the incredible repertoire (and collaborators) he’s accumulated over the decades, what would a guitarist – and session player – as prolific as Baxter say is his key to success?

“The secret to my success… that’s an interesting concept,” he ponders. “I certainly would say a lot of it is application and perseverance. The bottom line is, I think, exposing yourself to as many different musical influences as possible.

“The more eclectic you can make your playing, the more opportunities it gives you to accomplish whatever it is that someone wants you to accomplish, just as a player, which gives you more color and facets.”

In more Jeff “Skunk” Baxter news, the six-stringer recently reflected on that one session with Steely Dan producer Gary Katz where he lugged a ton of gear to the studio, and ended up not using any.

Guitar World's full interview with Skunk will be published in the coming weeks.

It's no surprise that Bootsy Collins' larger-than-life persona (and equally impressive career) extends to his gear – with his quintessential Space Bass, and its many iterations, becoming almost as iconic as the bassist itself. In fact, the star-shaped bass guitar has become so ingrained in music (and gearhead) lore, that both Washburn and Warwick have created their own versions of it throughout the years.

The Space Bass' origins hark back to 1975, when Collins had a dream – and a sketch – of a star-shaped bass. But, alas, no one wanted to have anything to do with it.

“Everywhere I went with the picture, the same picture that I showed Larry Pless that I drew, I would show it to ’em, and they was like, you know, it was something evil. ‘No, we can't do that. We can't sell that,’” he tells Reverb.

Collins recounts how he would go up and down 48th Street in New York, asking different luthiers and music stores whether they knew anyone who could bring his drawing to life.

After many failed attempts, the renowned bassist decided to ditch New York in favor of Michigan's music stores – in the hope that someone, anyone, would help him on his space-tinged quest.

“I just happened to be in Warren, Michigan. This is like my last straw,” he recalls. “And it said Gus Zoppies [music store], and it had an accordion. And that didn't even faze me about it just being an accordion shop. I went in there because I wanted some info.

“And then I showed it [the drawing] to the guy. He was an older guy, and he said, ‘We don't do that kind of work here. But I got a young guy in the back. He makes guitars.’ And I was like, ‘Can I meet him?’ He's like, ‘Sure.’”

As luck would have it, the ‘young guy in the back’ turned out to be Larry Pless, an emerging guitar builder who had spent a couple of years at the shop repairing and building custom guitars.

“He said, ‘What you got? What you want me to do?’ And I showed him the picture that I drew, and he started getting a smile on his face, and he was like, ‘I've been looking for something like this to do.’ When he said that, I knew it was on.

“He said, ‘Come back in about two weeks, and I'll have a rough down for you.’ And sure enough, two weeks, [and] he had a rough down for me. I was so ecstatic like it's already done. That's how I met him. I mean, he was the cat that stood up when everybody else was like, ‘Can't do it.’”

The original Space Bass – with a neck shape modeled after Collins’ go-to Precision Bass, a mahogany body, maple neck, and dual outputs – was delivered just in time for the Stretchin’ Out in Bootsy’s Rubber Band photoshoot.

And while that original bass was later stolen, Pless built him another – until the original was eventually found in a pawn shop in Ohio and returned to Bootsy.

As Pless later wrote, “Who would be dumb enough to steal such a recognizable guitar as the Space Bass?”

In more recent Bootsy Collins news, the funkateer talks about his stint with James Brown, how LSD helped him become a songwriter, and why he’s finally embracing the five-string bass.

The name Bootsy Collins elicits images of his impeccable, one-of-a-kind fashion style – which extends to his cosmic Space Bass – but also of the funk-driven basslines he graced artists as diverse as Parliament-Funkadelic, James Brown, Deee-Lite, and Snoop Dogg with. However, it might be surprising to learn that Collins actually got his start playing guitar – and bluffed his way into the bass player role.

“You would have to say that the bass chose me because I was actually playing guitar,” he admits in a new Bass Player interview. “I wanted to be like my brother Catfish Collins, who was like eight years older than I was, and I was like a nine-year-old.

“When I got the opportunity to be in his band, he needed a bass player as opposed to a guitar player. I told him I could do that, but I had never even attempted to play bass. [laughs]

“I asked him to get me four bass strings because I only had a $29 guitar from Sears and Roebuck, and that’s how I started playing bass. I played one night in the club with my brother; I got my wish. We had so much fun, man.”

Collins explains how, to him, playing bass became second nature, as he was already “hearing things in my head.”

“I didn’t get no training, there was nobody to teach me,” he says matter-of-factly. “Today, they’ve got everything to teach you; you just go online and it's all there. But I just played and practiced all the time, and things would come to me.”

The bass legend had previously talked about another pivot in his decades-spanning career: taking the bass chair in James Brown's band – and how that would change his career – and playing style – forever.

Bass Player's full interview with Bootsy Collins will be published in the coming weeks.

The word ‘funk’ or ‘funky’ can be applied to almost anything, from butt-shaking basslines to scatter cushions. We all instinctively know what’s implied, but in a bass playing sense, what does it actually mean?

Funk music came out of the blues, gospel and R&B of the early ’60s. The difference being that it’s almost always based on a 16th-note subdivision and there is an increased emphasis on rhythm, to the point where it is often the salient feature.

“Funk just makes you stop thinking,” Bootsy Collins told Bass Player. “You go in that zone and it’s almost like an explosive, meditative state of mind, where there’s nothing there but groove and you’re caught up in it.”

“Once you’ve set up that groove you can do anything and everything that you want to do; that’s what the funk is all about!”

Consider these grooves: Bootsy Collins on Soul Power by James Brown; David Hood on the Staple Singers’ I’ll Take You There; Freddie Washington on Patrice Rushen's Forget Me Nots; Jimmy Williams on McFadden & Whitehead's Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now; Oscar Alston on Rick James’ Give It To Me Baby.

Whether you grew up listening to tunes like these on an iPod or a shoulder-held boom box, it’s hard to ignore the wealth of bass guitar players who, with funk at the core of their playing, made strides in showcasing an amazing palette of bass techniques in the process.

“I began challenging myself to see if I could develop a bassline using my thumb.” Marcus Miller told Bass Player. “I still add plucks whenever they're necesary, but the plucks are just accents, afterthoughts – the funk is in the thumb.”

From Bootsy Collins to Flea to Joe Dart, these are just some of the names that made our list of funk bass legends.

1. Bootsy Collins

The living, breathing incarnation of funk itself, William “Bootsy” Collins has stood at funk's ground zero for most of his life. First with James Brown, then Parliament/Funkadelic.

Bootsy went on to form his own outfit, Bootsy's Rubber Band. By that time, he was experimenting full-bore with effects – and funk bass was never the same.

“The most important lesson I ever learnt was how to play ‘the one’, and I learnt that from James Brown. He called me one night and he said, ‘Son, just slow down and give me the one.’ And that’s where it all started for me.”

2. Paul Jackson

History will remember Paul Jackson for at least two things: his groundbreaking work with Herbie Hancock and the Headhunters, and for one of the funkiest basslines ever, Chameleon. With Hancock, Jackson fused jazz, rock, and funk into a million-selling formula that continues to blow minds.

“The bass player has to guide the group sometimes, find subtle ways of leading it. He isn't responsible for keeping time, but he more or less guides the flow. I like doing that – that’s what the bass does for me.”

3. Meshell Ndegeocello

Whether she's singing, rapping, playing keyboards, or laying down solid, funky basslines in the studio, Meshell Ndegecello has just one goal: “If I die tomorrow, I want people to say, 'Well, it was funky!’

“Playing live is totally different for me. The record is Meshell, but when you see the band it’s Sly Stone meets Led Zeppelin. As a bass player I feel you have to be completely adaptive and able to switch.”

4. George Porter Jr.

Beyond his work with The Meters, George Porter Jr has thrown down his thick, greasy style of ‘fonk’ with Dr. John, Robert Palmer, Maceo Parker, Patti Labelle, David Byrne, Tori Amos, Albert King, and countless other Crescent City performers, from Professor Longhair to Harry Connick Jr.

“Bass players and drummers from New Orleans play more together than guys from anywhere else,” he told BP. The bass might venture away from the kick drum to play more notes, but at some point – maybe two and four – we always meet.”

5. Francis 'Rocco' Prestia

Few, if any, have ever moved so much air while fitting so seamlessly into a groove than Francis ‘Rocco’ Prestia. Forged in the iconic R&B horn band Tower of Power, Prestia’s groove-defining use of muted 16th-notes is instantly recognizable in such Tower bass anthems as What Is Hip?

“The function of the bass is to lay it down,” he explains. “That's the key to being able to play as busy as you want without getting in the way, because you're laying it in that groove. You can have all the chops in the world, but if you don't have a feel, a concept, it doesn't matter.”

6. Freddie Washington

Born and raised in Oakland, California and mentored by Bay Area legend Paul Jackson, ‘Ready’ Freddie Washington's credits range from Michael Jackson to Anita Baker to Kenny Loggins.

His bouncing bassline on Patrice Rushen's 1982 hit, Forget Me Nots (which was later sampled for the Men in Black theme) has become a slap standard and a funk classic.

7. Larry Graham

Widely credited as the man who invented slap bass, Larry Graham brought out the rhythmic and percussive soul that lay dormant within the bass guitar.

As a teenager, he famously began to thump the strings to compensate for not having a drummer while playing in his mother's band. Joining Sly & The Family Stone in 1967, he made his new style the defining sound of funk.

8. Joe Dart

Vulfpeck bassist Joe Dart has solidified himself as one of the most exciting bass players of a new generation, thanks to his funky grooves, rapid finger work, and unbelievable pocket. His prowess on his signature Music Man has also earned him major street cred within the bass community.

“My advice is to always develop good time, and build good stamina to be able to play with good time throughout the whole song. Stamina will come, and the vocabulary you can learn from listening to great bass players.”

9. Flea

When it comes to creative energy and overall style, Flea would be the first to call himself a punk rocker before he ever took on the mantle of funk legend. But his infusion of punk ethos into the playing style of Louis Johnson and Larry Graham hipped a generation of rock fans to what funk bass playing is all about.

“I like hearing the bass when it's locking in with the drums. Very seldom do I enjoy bass playing that takes center stage; even on a funk song where the bass is the focus, like Funkadelic's (Not Just) Knee Deep, it's just a funky groove – it's not, ‘Look at me.’”

10. Marcus Miller

Marcus Miller redefined slap and funk bass with his deep mastery of the pocket and full-range tone. As a sideman, he applied his inimitable funk to countless hit records, while his solo career has yielded 10 albums so far.

Miller's instantly recognizable writing and playing style has firmly established him as one of the most important bass voices since Jaco Pastorius.

“Once you've learned your scales and techniques, you have to realize they're all just tools,” he once said of his philosophy. “Now you have to find a way to reach people.”

11. Victor Wooten

Béla Fleck & the Flecktones, Victor Wooten's main gig, is an unlikely place to find the funk – an avant-jazz quartet led by a banjo-playing bluegrass innovator – but Wooten's unearthly chops and dedication to putting the groove first make the Flecktones one of the funkiest groups around.

As if that weren't enough, Wooten's solo releases have also consistently raised the bar.

12. Stuart Zender

As co-founder of British funk disciples Jamiroquai, the U.K.-born but Philadelphia-bred Stuart Zender helped to usher funk bass into the 21st century. His genre-fusing basslines are unforgettable.

You can hear the thick, super-woody tone of his Warwick Stage I 5-string on songs like Alright and Virtual Insanity (remember the groundbreaking “moving white floor in the hallway” video?).

13. Jaco Pastorius

His breathtaking technique made Jaco Pastorius a bass legend like none other before or since. Relentless gigging with funk and R&B bands in his native Florida laid a rock-solid foundation that always grounded his later material in groove.

Whether it was the eye-popping funkiness of Weather Report's Barbary Coast, the syncopated 16th-note onslaught of his own Come On, Come Over, or dancing with a big band on Pee Wee Ellis's The Chicken, Jaco never lost touch with the funk.

14. Bernard Edwards

Along with guitarist Nile Rodgers, Bernard Edwards helped define one of the most distinctive sounds of disco – the sparse, yet highly rhythmic groove of Chic.

One of the greatest basslines of all time, Chic’s Good Times is probably responsible for more players picking up the bass guitar than any other line from the disco movement.

In his lone Bass Player interview back in September 1992, Edwards revealed that his sophisticated sub-hooks were mostly a reaction to the 'chicken-scratch' guitar parts of Nile Rodgers.

“I consider the two of us a rhythm section, even without drums, because we keep so much rhythm going. My basslines are usually a reaction to his guitar rhythms.”

15. Verdine White

Having been nominated for more Grammys than we’ve boiled strings, Earth, Wind & Fire wouldn’t be the household name they are today without the work of bassist Verdine White. His playful and melodic basslines, deep groove, and hip sensibility form the gold standard of pop-funk bass.

“The way to learn to play funky is to listen to a funky drummer – they have a lot to do with it. But the bass is the instrument you need to play the longest to become truly funky.”

16. Louis Johnson

Louis Johnson, or ‘Thunder Thumbs,’ as he's also known, first made a name for himself as co-leader of the Brothers Johnson, whose funk anthems included Get the Funk Out Ma Face, I'll Be Good to You, Strawberry Letter #23, and Stomp!

Johnson also emerged as an L.A. studio ace under the guidance of producer Quincy Jones, appearing on dozens of sessions with artists such as Michael Jackson, Paul McCartney, and Chaka Khan.

17. Chuck Rainey

As a first-call New York session bassist in the '60s, Chuck Rainey became a legend by playing with everyone from Louis Armstrong to Aretha Franklin, often laying down tight grooves with frequent rhythm-section partner Bernard Purdie.

In 1972, he moved to Los Angeles, where he graced gold albums by Steely Dan, Quincy Jones, the Jackson 5, and Rickie Lee Jones.

“I've always described myself as a busy player, but not busy as in playing a lot of notes. I'm rhythmically active – almost like a drummer playing bass.”

18. Willie Weeks

In the finale of Donny Hathaway's classic 1972 Live album, on the song Voices Inside (Everything Is Everything), Willie Weeks takes a three-and-a-half-minute ride that is a seamless melding of groove, melody, and drama, making it one of the deepest bass solos on record.

Weeks has also lent his bass skills to huge names including David Bowie, Bo Diddley, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, David Lee Roth, Eric Clapton and more.

“It all started in church. That was a strong groove – all of us people together, clapping. That was the basis for it. And Donny Hathaway, man – his music was like an army coming at you, a groove so deep it would hypnotize you.”

19. Nate Watts

Born in the heart of Detroit, Michigan, Nate Watts has laid the foundation for some of the most influential music ever recorded. You’ll find him on albums by the Jacksons, Diana Ross, Gladys Knight and the Pips, the Pointer Sisters, Lionel Richie, Herbie Hancock, The Temptations, Sérgio Mendes and Paul McCartney.

Still, it’s as Stevie Wonder’s long-serving bassist, the man he casually refers to as Steve, that Nate has earned a reputation as one of the world’s most proficient bass players, or as Marcus Miller puts it, “Nate is the Godfather.”

20. Robert 'Kool' Bell

Robert ‘Kool’ Bell is the unsung hero of dance halls and karaoke bars across the globe.

With Kool & the Gang, he created the grooves behind the group's '70 hard-edged jazz-funk tracks, like Jungle Boogie, Funky Stuff, and Hollywood Swingin', as well as those that drove the band's later disco/R&B hits, like Celebration and Ladies Night.

Through DJ Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash, De La Soul and – most infamously – the Fugees, British funk-meets-psych outfit Cymande gained cult status in the ’80s and ’90s after dissolving into obscurity in the ’70s.

For those who know, Cymande (1972) and Second Time Around (1973) are cratedigger classics revolving around oodles of funky guitar rhythms. But none of that impacts how founding guitarist Patrick Patterson approaches Renascence, Cymande’s first record in 10 years.

“I felt like I needed to get away from how I used to play,” Patterson says. One wonders why, given the greatness of cuts like Dove, which the Fugees illegally sampled on 1996’s The Score. But Patterson has the answer: “Just to freshen up. I wanted to identify a new approach that’s not too involved.”

The approach might have changed, but when it comes to Cymande’s new songs, like Chasing an Empty Dream, Coltrane and How We Roll, the gear hasn’t.

“I tend to play Gibsons,” Patterson says. “I like my Gibson ES-339. It’s not as if we’ve been out of music completely for the last 50 years. I’ve maintained some consistency, which has been very productive.”

The perception for many, though, is that Cymande completely went away; it’s not entirely true.

Yes, Patterson and his partner in crime, bassist Steve Scipio, disbanded Cymande in the mid to late ’70s. Yes, Cymande probably only came to the forefront, if you could call it that, because of hip-hop.

But outside of hip-hop and vintage vinyl-loving circles, Cymande was a myth – a legend, a coulda-shoulda-been that never was. But that’s changing again.

A 2022 documentary (rereleased in 2024), Getting It Back: The Story of Cymande, brought the group back to the masses, leading to more shows (including a U.S. tour in February) and the new record, which dropped at the end of January.

“We always felt the music had a life of its own,” Patterson says. “We felt it had value and could sustain itself. We set out as young musicians to play music and put our thoughts and musical ideas out there, hoping they’d be appreciated. That’s proved to be true.

“That speaks greatly to the legacy of Cymande, what we created, and what we’re hoping to create going forward.”

• Renascence is out now via BMG.

Hello, and welcome to my new column for Guitar World! Over the next few months, I will demonstrate many of the approaches I use to craft guitar parts.

I’d like to start by addressing rhythm guitar playing and what I believe should be the mindset of a rhythm guitarist: why you should care, why it matters, and how you can make it fun!

For some players, their approach to rhythm guitar is, “Oh, someone else gets to do all of the fun stuff while I do this!” I suppose one could feel that way because they’re not exploring all of the available creative options.

When it comes to rhythm playing, my mindset is the momentum of the song and considering whether I need to add something harmonic and/or melodic.

Oftentimes, the keyboards or bass are covering the chord changes, so I don’t need to play them. This gives me the freedom to think about melody or ways to outline or enhance the harmony.

For example, if the chord chart says “G,” there are many ways to interpret that. I could play Figure 1, which is a straight G barre chord strummed in a syncopated 16th-note rhythm.

Or I could play Figure 2, utilizing an open G5 voicing. The same approach applies if the chart says G7, G9 or Gm. In these examples, I’m just playing a chord; it certainly doesn’t sound like a song or riff.

One thing we can strive to do is make a rhythm part sound like a hook, iconic to the song. For example, if a cover band is playing the song, they would have to play that specific part.

Figure 3 presents a rhythm part that's both melodic and rhythmically syncopated. It contributes to the momentum of the groove while also being so specific that one could sing it.

Let’s say I don’t need as much harmony, but the song could use some rhythmic push and melodic content. Instead of being the “chords person,” I’ll think of myself as a bongo player who can play pitches.

Figure 4 offers an example of this approach: while strumming steady 16th notes, I alternate between sounding single notes and muted strings to create a rhythm part that’s both harmonically and rhythmically strong.

Imagine playing multiple roles. Within a song, there might be a big chordal accent on “one” played by the keyboards, followed by a percussion riff and then bookended by a horn phrase. I can roll all three of those elements into a single guitar part, as in Figure 5.

I start with an accent on G9, followed by muted 16th notes and a single-note melody, then, in bar 2 by a two-note harmonized melody. Figure 6 offers another example, played at a slightly slower tempo.

The key is to create a unique part. My rhythm guitar approach can best be described as looking to create a song within the song, which fosters a more creative and expressive mindset that can help give the song a unique musical fingerprint.

It's safe to say that, as far as newer faces go, Grace Bowers has risen to the upper echelons of the guitar world – with a Grammy performance, accolades, late-night talk show appearances, and nods from Dolly Parton, Lainey Wilson, Susan Tedeschi, Devon Allman, and a string of other big names under her belt.

However, while Bowers cut her teeth playing blues, her debut album, Wine on Venus, suggests she may be moving beyond that label and into pastures new.

“I get the label as a blues rock artist a lot, and I hate that,” she tells Cory Wong on his Wong Notes podcast. “That's not the type of music I make, nor is it the kind of music I listen to. Not to rag on people who do make blues rock music, but it's so overdone right now.

“I'm trying so hard to stray away from it, especially with our live shows. It's very much like more funk and soul-based, rather than blues and rock. And there's definitely still elements of that in there.

“But I can't stand that label, and it doesn't help being a quote/unquote Instagram guitarist either, because that's what most Instagram guitarists are, more than likely, blues players, and I just feel like that's so limiting being labeled as that.”

As to why people have imprinted blues rock onto her playing and music, Bowers admits that a lot of the videos she posted a year or two ago were more blues-leaning, simply because that’s what she was listening to at the time. However, as was the case with her playing, her listening palette has also expanded.

“I'm still learning every day and practicing, but it's not blues anymore at all. And listening to our record that might be a bit hard to hear, but our live shows are definitely not blues or rock.”

“What would you call it?” asks Wong.

“Funk and soul, with some rock thrown in,” she asserts. “I mean, there's definitely still a blues influence behind all that. That's what got me started playing guitar. So, of course, it's going to come out quite a bit, but I would label it more funk and soul.”

That said, Bowers recently named her favorite guitar player of all time – and it's a legendary player from the blues-rock stable.

Welcome to our 1970s based funk lesson, the aim of which is to arm you with the skills you’ll need to create great ’70s-style funk parts.

The first technique to examine is 16th-note strumming, which forms the basis of funk rhythm guitar and we have some easy drills to tighten up your strumming hand.The pattern consists of alternating down and up strums and, as the name suggests, you’ll find 16 strums in a bar of 4/4.

Let’s first establish the pattern of alternating down and up strokes. Lay the fingers of the fretting hand lightly on the strings to damp them. Our strumming pattern is counted 1–e-&-a, 2–e-&-a, 3–e-&-a, 4–e-&-a and starts on a down strum. Once we have established this framework we can mix up the rhythms and start to create far more funky sounding parts.

The easiest way is to finger a simple octave (Example 1). Keep the strumming hand going and only press the octave down when you want to hear them sound. Having all the muted strums in the part can be distracting, so the final stage is to remove some of these, and here’s where the skill lies.

Keep the strumming hand going up and down regardless, hovering over the strings to act as a metronome. Remember the pattern remains the same, it’s just the omission of various muted strokes and the fingers fretting the octave that creates our rhythm.

Closely related is 16th-note popping. This is often just a single note that plays a funky muted riff. The riff can be spiced up with double-stops and unison bends as required. All these strumming and popping ideas can be augmented using a wah-wah pedal, as typified by Isaac Hayes’ theme from Shaft.

The key ingredients of funk are major and minor pentatonic scales and 7th chords, as you’ll hear in this month’s audio examples. dominant 7ths can be augmented by 9th or 13th intervals, and more tension can be created by altering these extensions to form chords like the 7#9.

Another trick is to create the classic dominant 9sus4 sound by using a Major triad with a bass note a tone above the root. So, to create D9sus4, play a C chord with a D note bass (also known as C/D).

This lesson’s audio starts with five examples containing 16th-note rhythms, wah-wah, double-stops, unison bends and a mix of long and short 7th chords.

Each four-bar idea is notated and our demo track has one bar of four clicks to separate the examples. These will not only provide variety but also essential components that are typical of classic funk vocabulary.

Following our technique primer we have five jam tracks that place some of the example ideas into functioning performance pieces.

We have picked five iconic funk bands and guitarists for inspiration, and these are Chic (with Nile Rodgers who’s still treading the boards with the band), Average White Band (featuring Hamish Stuart), Kool & The Gang (with Claydes Charles Smith), Earth Wind & Fire (with the incredible Al McKay), finishing with Parliament (and funkster extraordinaire, Eddie Hazel).

Lastly, don’t mistake funk guitar as a niche subject, as all the techniques seen here can be applied to almost any other style. Now let’s get your groove on!

Get the tone

Amp Settings: Gain 3, Bass 6, Middle 7, Treble 7, Reverb 1

Plug your guitar into a clean amp and you’re good to go. If using twin humbuckers select the middle option. With three single-coils all positions sound great (Nile Rodgers loves the neck+middle pickup).

A compressor pedal will even out the dynamics, a phaser pedal adds instant retro flavour, a fuzz pedal is stylistically perfect, and a touch of reverb is the icing on the cake.

Examples 1-5

Example 1. Claydes Charles Smith-style 16th-note funky octaves
Lightly spread your fingers across the strings to create a heavy mute for the octaves. Keep your strumming hand moving and only strum the strings when required.

Example 2. Charles Pitts-style wah-wah (Isaac Hayes)
Here we are augmenting our 16th-note strumming with the wah pedal. To accentuate the ‘whacka-chicka’ strum either the bass strings or the top three strings.

Example 3. Hamish Stuart-style popping lines
Make sure you pick all of the notes here. The muted sound can come from a light palm mute, or from lightly fretting the notes to make them short and percussive.

Example 4. Adding rhythm to sustained chords with the wah-wah
This example is one of the simplest to play, but can sound very effective in a track. Strum the chord and then rock the wah-wah in a quarter-note triplet rhythm.

Example 5. Using extended chords like Nile Rodgers
Rodgers is a funk master and his style of strumming often features sophisticated chords and a tight rhythm hand. Using a thin pick is a classic Nile Rodgers choice.

Jam Track 1. Earth, Wind & Fire style

Our first performance track is inspired by Earth Wind & Fire tracks like Mighty Mighty. Guitarist Al McKay was a master of mixing up 16th-note strumming with popping lines.

The fingering we are using for the D9 chord makes moving to the C/D chord (aka D9sus4) easy. Another key feature of this track is sliding into chords from a semitone below. This is a popular trick in many styles and really adds to the delivery.

Jam Track 2. Average White Band style

Hamish Stuart is a great rhythm guitarist (as is Onnie McIntyre) and our example is inspired by AWB tracks like Cut The Cake and Pick Up The Pieces. Again the double-stops are delivered with a finger slide from a semitone below.

The popping patterns are based around the E minor pentatonic scale, but can be augmented by adding chromatic notes. The E7#9 chord is a popular fingering for funk and funk-rock styles (for sonic reference think Hendrix’s Purple Haze).

Jam Track 3. Kool & the Gang style

Kool & The Gang achieved worldwide chart success in the 1980s. However their early ’70s recordings had more of a hard-core funk flavour. Our example is inspired by Claydes Charles Smith and Dennis D T Thomas’ funky rhythm work on tracks like Celebration and Ladies Night.

There are three main guitar elements that run through the track: a low popping line, funky octaves and 16th-note strumming with a double-stop stab. To give you a chance to try out all the ideas the tab features the parts that have been removed in the backing track. However you may prefer just to stick with one part for the whole of the piece.

Jam Track 4. Chic/Nile Rodgers style

Niles Rodgers is a bona fide hit maker (and even named his famous white Stratocaster as such), and has collaborated with a diverse collection of bands and artists right up to this day, including Duran Duran, Madonna, David Bowie, Stevie Winwood and Daft Punk.

In the 1970s his main projects were Chic and Sister Sledge, and our track is inspired by tracks like Le Freak and Thinking Of You.

Experiment by alternating your strumming between the lower strings in the chord and the treble strings, to provide some variety. This is a great way to develop that signature Nile Rodgers ‘bounce’.

Example 5. Parliament style

Our final track is a wah-wah pedal workout in the style of bands like Parliament and Funkadelic. The main riff is constructed using E minor pentatonic scale, and to get more mileage out of this idea we can take it up an octave.

The E9 chord is a funk favourite and it’s easy to move this up a semitone to F9 for some variety. There is an opportunity to play some simple funky lead lines in the final four bars, too. Again the scale of choice is E minor pentatonic.

Have you ever wondered why funk guitar parts seem to have that infectious groove with seemingly simple riffs? Well, sometimes it’s not what you play, it’s how you play it – and palm-muting is a crucial component of tight funk playing.

Funk aficionado Jude Smith is here to show us all exactly how it’s done. He’ll guide you through correct hand placement, demonstrate how to incorporate palm-muting into chords, licks, and doublestops, and provide practical exercises to help you master this skill.

This is part of the Learn Funk In 7 Days course from Pickup Music – you can follow along with the video for free if you want to see exactly how to play each exercise.

Your attack, tone, and dynamics depend on hand placement – so don’t breeze over it. Your pick hand should rest gently on the strings just before they pass over the bridge. Lightly touch the strings with the edge of your palm to mute them.

You’ll notice a difference in sound when you move your hand further away from the bridge – the notes will sound more choked, to the point where they have no sustain at all. Experiment with the amount of pressure you apply, and the distance of your palm from the bridge.

There are other variables to consider, like your picking force and amp settings. It will take time to find the right balance, so be patient.

Chords

These are the chords and the scale you’ll be using in the lesson. Have a quick play through them before moving on to the tab exercises.

Example 1. Palm-muting with chords

Try a ‘before and after’ comparison. First, play the progression with no muting. It’ll sound washy and lacking definition. For some styles that’s fine, but with funk, we want it clean and punchy. Now, play the progression with some palm-muting. It should sound defined, with a staccato feel – and much more groovy, too!

Example 2. Palm-muting with licks

Here, we’re using this B minor pentatonic lick to practise. It sounds cool, but it’s not really giving funky vibes. Try the lick with some palm-muting and see what you think. Keep in mind that you may need to increase your pick attack a little bit to get the notes to stand out.

Example 3. Doublestops

Doublestops are a common guitar technique found in blues, country, funk, and more. It’s just a fancy term for playing two notes simultaneously, but it’s an awesome addition to any funk player’s toolkit.

Again, first play the riff without any muting. It sounds great, but it’s too bold and resonant for funk. We want the opposite – compressed and punchy. Keep that idea in mind and close in the sound with some palm-muting as you repeat the riff.

Blu DeTiger has already garnered hundreds of thousands of fans with her funk and disco-infused basslines, been crowned one of Forbes 30 under 30 in 2023 and released her very first signature guitar. So it should be no surprise that the modern bass icon says her sights are set higher than simply holding it down in a steady gig.

“The bass isn’t looked at as a ‘cool instrument’. It’s always seen as something in the background, or the ‘backbone’ of a band," DeTiger recently told Guitar.com. "I think I’m trying to shed a new light on it. People were very receptive to that online, so that’s always affirming.”

Her explosive bass videos on TikTok have continued to affirm her position. “You grow up and you play for other people, and you might start feeling insecure around other players in bands,” she explains.

“I think when I started putting myself out there and people started to tell me I was the shit and giving nice compliments, I realized, ‘Oh maybe this is something that people like.’ It gave me a confidence boost in my playing, and affirmation that what I was doing was important as it’s inspiring people.”

The viral bassist's Limited Player Plus x Blu DeTiger Jazz Bass is the latest in the line of successes she's been having.

In an interview with Bass Player earlier this year, she revealed that this release, and her relationship with Fender, have been brewing for a couple of years now.

“I’ve actually been working with Fender for a while now. They sent me a bass back when I was 17. I’ve also got a Jazz Bass from the Fender Custom Shop, which ended up being a very early prototype of my new signature model. That bass was a great jumping-off point.”

As to her thoughts on the final result? “It's a really unique bass," she asserted. “It has a chambered ash body, which makes it really light. The pickup configuration is also really interesting with the humbucker, which sounds like a built-in drive! It’s totally different from anything Fender's made in the past. We’re even sending one to Flea.”

From performing with a huge array of big-name artists – including Janet Jackson, Jay-Z, Erykah Badu, Queen Latifah, Nas, Destiny's Child, and George Clinton, to name but a few – to auditioning for Prince, session ace Ella Feingold has done it all, and proven herself to be the one A-listers call when they need an R&B and funk electric guitar player.

Feingold was recently honored with a Grammy for her performance on 2021’s An Evening with Silk Sonic by Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak – a truly well-deserved win, considering the album’s cultural impact and her smooth, groove-driven guitar contributions. So, how did the award-winning collaboration come about?

“Bruno hit me up,” she reveals in an upcoming interview with Guitar World. “And when we initially talked on the phone, he didn't tell me what he was working on. He asked me to listen to records and get my opinion of what I thought they used for amps, strings, and picks. I'm nuts about that stuff; I've done my homework.

“We had a series of conversations; he would send me records, and I would send him records. Then, eventually, he asked, ‘Would you want to play on a song?’ I said, ‘Of course!’ I didn't want to invite myself onto someone’s record, but I hoped he would ask me to be on it.”

Working with Mars and his team proved to be a very different experience from auditioning for Prince, which Feingold did in 2005.

“Bruno was different from Prince. He knew what he wanted,” she recalls. Feingold clarifies that this doesn't mean Prince didn’t know what he wanted – rather, he was testing her.

“He was being cryptic on purpose. Bruno was different; he had ideas of what he was looking for, and I certainly had ideas. I got all his ideas done, gave him extra tracks of things I heard, and let him comp however he wanted.”

At the 2022 Grammys, An Evening with Silk Sonic won a total of four awards: Best R&B Song, Song of the Year, Best R&B Performance (a tie with Jazmine Sullivan), and Record of the Year.

Guitar World's full interview with Ella Feingold will be published later this month.

Things are about to get funky! We’ve got a brand new bag of riffs for you to learn, courtesy of Pickup Music. These 10 rhythm riffs showcase funk guitar styles from across the ages. Whether you’re into the classics like James Brown and Michael Jackson or the more contemporary funksters like Vulfpeck, you’ll find plenty of inspiration here.

If you’re new to funk guitar playing, here’s a handful of helpful ideas to get you into the groove. First up, aim to stay in the pocket – nothing is more important than keeping your timing tight. Second, serve the music – funk isn’t about showcasing your shred skills. Next, find your space in the groove – try to find what’s missing and fill that gap. Finally, you want solid staccato – get good muting with both hands for complete string control.

If you really want to be a great funk guitarist, practice 16th notes to a metronome… practice them a lot!

Chords

These are the most important shapes we’ll be looking at, but with one key difference. These are the full shapes.

It’s rare in funk to play all the strings, but it is still helpful to know which shape the ‘partial chords’ are taken from. Play these shapes first, then see if you can spot them in the tab examples that follow.

Example 1. Inspired by James Brown

This riff is the first of a few in the key of E. Play the top four strings of the E9 voicing. For added funk, slide up from a semitone below. Then, take your pinky and hit the 9th fret – this briefly turns it into an E13 chord. Keep the strings muted where you see X’s in the tab, then press the chord down when you want to activate it.

Example 2. Inspired by Prince

This is a great funk loop. Feel free to experiment with different rhythm patterns to make it your own. Start with an Am7 chord shape at the 12th fret. Use your fourth finger to hit the b7 G note on the 15th fret.

Play that shape twice, followed by two muted chops. Next, play an Am6 by simply moving the fourth finger down one fret, then repeat the same strumming pattern. Lift your fourth finger again for the very last strum to finish on the Am7.

Example 3. Funky single-notes

Time to go low! Start with your first finger on the 3rd fret of the A string. Pick those 16th notes really close to the bridge to get a spanky sound.

The lick is based around the D minor pentatonic scale with that funky trill moving between the major and minor 3rd. The only time you stop the stream of tight 16th notes is during those hammer-ons and pull-offs.

Example 4. “Bubble” line

This is a common sound in many Michael Jackson songs. The guitarist’s job here is to add another percussive layer while creating a short, hooky melody. The ‘bubble’ term comes from that bright popping sound. You can generate this by switching to a middle-position pickup, using the edge of your pick, and plucking sharp staccato notes.

Example 5. Inspired by Earth, Wind and Fire

Grab that E7#9 chord – for the non-jazz players, it’s better known as the “Hendrix chord”. Similar to the first riff, we’ll slide up from a half-step below to give that laid-back feel. It’s very rare to strum all six strings in funk guitar – and this riff is no different.

Use some overhang from your second finger to mute the low E and the same with your fourth to mute the high string.

Example 6. Dominant 7th riff

This riff is based around a D7 chord up at the 12th fret. Again, start with the half-step slide into the D7. For the next chord shape, barre your third finger along the D, G, and B strings on the 12th fret – this is like a mini G chord.

Now move that shape down two frets and play it with your first finger. The final flourish is almost like a little blues run.

Example 7. Unison bend

We’re starting on on an Em11 chord on the 14th fret here. Can you guess what your strumming hand has to do? That’s right! 16th notes – just like most of these riffs. The pattern is four strums of the chord, then two muted.

Play that two times round, but on the second time, follow the two muted strums with a unison bend. For the unison bend, put your first finger on the 12th fret of the E string, then bend the 15th fret of the B string up until the two pitches match.

Example 8. Combining single-notes and chords

Time to mix things up. Quite often, funk players move between chords and single-note lines in the same riff. This riff is based around an E7 shape and the pentatonic box that surrounds it.

After the initial lick, you land on the 5th fret of the A string and hit a few muted strums. The final finesse is that big E9 chord chank at the end. It’s a great way to lead back to beat 1.

Example 9. Doublestop Riff

Don’t have another guitarist to harmonise with? No worries! This riff incorporates doublestops to double the fun. You can think of these like chord fragments. For example, play the G and B strings on the 5th fret, and it’s almost like a tiny C chord.

Move down to the 4th fret on the G string and the 3rd fret on the B string for a ‘rootless’ G chord. Often the bass player will cover the root note, so you don’t always need it in your chords.

Example 10. Moving shapes

Speaking of mini chords, you can play an Em7 using the open D chord shape – just move it to the 7th fret and play the top three strings. The next part of the riff is just moving the shape up two frets, but… there’s a funky bit in between – the “CHIKAPITA!” triplet.

Loosen up your wrist and try to emulate the sound of that word with your picking hand. The “CHI-KA-PI” is played on the first shape and the “TA!” lands on the chord two frets up.

Often in funk, the guitarist’s role is strictly rhythmic. It’s less about shredding or melodies and more about adding a syncopated rhythm or some texture, and that means most of the work lies with the picking hand.

Here, in this lesson from Pickup Music, you’ll learn funk fundamentals like chanking and shell chords.

If you want to tighten up your funk rhythm chops, you’ll need to get down with the ‘chanking’ strumming technique, as used famously by James Brown guitarist Jimmy Nolen, who employed it as part of his ‘chicken scratch’ approach.

Essentially, it’s a mix of sharp strumming and tight on/off muting to cut chords short and give a percussive feel.

A big part of funk guitar is reducing chords down to their core, playing only the most important notes. It’s rare to strum a full barre chord in funk and more common to use only the top three or four strings.

Often, this means removing the 5th interval and sometimes the root note, and even other notes may be ditched for the sake of practicality. These are known as shell chords.

In Pickup Music’s study track, Love Machina, you can try out both techniques.

Chords

Here’s an example of Eb9 and Eb13 chords getting trimmed down to size – making them shell chords.

By removing the lower notes, the guitar takes up less sonic space and makes room for vocals and other mid-frequency instruments.

Don’t worry about losing the root note. In a band arrangement, the lower register will be covered by the bass.

Study Track – Love Machina

Bar 2 is the track’s main groove. Start with the Eb9 shape and play two downstrokes, followed by a downstroke Eb13, and finally back to the Eb9 on an upstroke.

The bass and drums create the foundation, so your job is to sit lightly on top and stay ‘in the pocket’. Bar 6 is a new groove based around an Ab dominant chord played down-up, down-up, up-up-up.

Take note where the shape moves to Gb9 and be ready to walk it back up to the Ab9. Bar 7 is a repeat of the intro which acts as a turnaround to take you back into the Eb groove.

• Get access to the world’s best online guitar courses and reach your guitar goals with structured lessons and personalised feedback from pro instructors. Pickup Music even offer a 14-day free trial so you can take a look before you buy.

D'Angelico Guitars has teamed up with viral guitar sensation Giacomo Turra on an all-new signature model – the Excel Series Giacomo Turra Bedford SH, a unique, funk-oriented take on the brand's already-existing Bedford SH design.

Turra explains that this guitar has the warmth and resonance of a semi-hollow but the ergonomics and feel of a solidbody, which makes it particularly appealing for his style of playing.

InThe Giacomo Turra Bedford SH sets itself apart from the standard model by the inclusion of the all-new Supro Gold Field pickup in the bridge position.

According to the brand, the pickup is “clear like a single coil and bold like a humbucker,” making it an “excellent choice” for “nuanced funk and vintage-inspired rock tones.” The '60s-style tones are further enhanced by two Supro T-Style single coil pickups in the middle and neck positions, along with a Wilkinson tremolo system.

Design-wise, it features a sturdy thin-line construction, a slim-C neck shape, and an ebony fingerboard with a 14-inch radius, plus bend-friendly jumbo frets and mother-of-pearl/abalone split block inlays. The custom peppermint finish tops off the guitar's nod to the '60s.

Turra first began working with D'Angelico in 2019 and has been a major proponent of the Deluxe Bedford SH, Atlantic, and DC models, before collaborating with the D’Angelico Product Development team to find his signature sound. As an early adopter of the Bedford SH, Turra envisioned expanding its sonic palette to funkier heights.

“The first time that I ever saw a D'Angelico guitar, it was on a YouTube video from Isaiah Sharkey and Melanie Faye,” says Turra in an interview with D'Angelico.

“They were jamming together, and I just remember I had this book called Classic Guitars, but I [had] never seen a guitar like a D'Angelico. It was so fascinating and interesting to me that I immediately tried to find a store that had them.

“You can achieve so many different sounds. You can go from funk to rock to other stuff. It's just unbeatable for me [as an] instrument when I'm touring.”

Priced at $1,199.99, the Giacomo Turra Bedford SH is currently available for preorder from D'Angelico partners and distributors.

In other Giacomo Turra news, the funk guitarist recently joined Blue DeTiger for a jam on an NYC rooftop.

Neo-soul pioneer D'Angelo is, hands down, one of the most elusive artists operating in the industry today. Despite the 14-year hiatus between his second and third albums and sparse releases, his repertoire has immense staying power – not only due to its game-changing innovation but also due to the public's fascination with the mystique surrounding the artist.

This all boils down to the fact that the multi-hyphenate D'Angelo, once dubbed “R&B Jesus,” is obsessed with details and musical nuance, as reflected in his three albums: his 1995 debut Brown Sugar, 2000's Voodoo, and 2014's Black Messiah.

In a recently resurfaced – and extremely rare – video interview with music journalist Nelson George that was filmed before the release of his seminal 2014 album, D'Angelo gives his take on the essence of funk, alongside a snippet of his groove-fueled guitar chops.

“I remember George Clinton said, ‘Rock and roll is like the blues sped up.’ It's like a faster version of the blues. So funk is kind of like – it's not as slow as the blues, so it's right in the middle, you know? But I think the whole concept to me, and what funk really means to me is, it's Black rock and roll,” he says.

Later in the interview, he shows off the pink G&L guitar given to him by his mentor, Jesse Johnson – the prolific guitarist from the original 1981 lineup of Prince's funk-rock group The Time. The guitar, an Invader likely from the mid-'80s to early '90s, had been modified with a pickup selector switch instead of the usual three mini-toggle switches.

D'Angelo also confirms that this is the same guitar that appeared on the cover of Johnson's 1986 Shockadelica album, before showing off his guitar skills with a quick, unaccompanied solo rendition of a Parliament-Funkadelic track.

In a 2014 Red Bull Music interview, the once-in-a-generation artist talked about adding guitar to his multi-instrumental arsenal and how the Prince collaborator and producer was key to his guitar journey.

“It’s a natural progression for me, but honestly, I just feel like that’s where it’s going,” he admits.

“Years and years of crate-digging, listening to old music, you kind of start to connect the dots. I was seeing the thread that was connecting everything together, which is pretty much the blues. Everything soul or funk kind of starts with that; that’s kind of like the nucleus of everything, the thread that holds everything together. It’s kind of just a natural progression.”

Furthermore, D'Angelo discloses that he feels his piano style, his primary instrument, has always sought to emulate the guitar and bass. Therefore, when he began taking the guitar seriously, there was an interplay between wanting to make the keys sound like a guitar, and vice-versa.

“I played a lot of keyboards, but I really wanted to produce the sound that was in my head. It’s like I’m looking at the guitar and bass more like meat and potatoes and keys like coloring over the top of it, you know?”

Speaking about Jesse Johnson, who played a significant role in D'Angelo's nascent guitar journey, D'Angelo says that the two experienced an “instant kinship,” which made the Black Messiah artist feel comfortable exploring this new side of his artistic palette.

“We finally met at Raphael’s [Saadiq] studio in Cali, in Blakeslee. He came through and the first thing he did was give me a couple of guitars. Gave me a Minarik, the black Minarik that I play now and he gave me one of his [other] guitars [referring to the G&L Invader].”

Prince was another common link between Johnson and D'Angelo. The former worked closely with the Purple Rain hitmaker for a number of years, while the latter's fascination with Prince is well-documented. Many have compared their shared penchant for a multi-instrumentalist approach to songwriting and for keeping a tight lid on their work.

“I’m sitting with him [referring to Johnson] shredding and, like, we went out and did a couple of shows in Europe. And you know before then, just sitting with him and he’s showing me things, I’m asking him questions, asking him about just everything. Prince," he asserts.

“I mean, you know, it gets a little hairy because the Time and Prince, that feud was very real. But you know there’s no love lost. He still speaks with a high love and respect for Prince,” he said before concluding with: “I’m just like a sponge, you know, just trying to soak everything in.”

In other Prince news, an unreleased Prince documentary claims his iconic While My Guitar Gently Weeps solo at the 2004 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony was an “act of revenge” against Rolling Stone.

Dywane Thomas Jr., aka MonoNeon, has risen to the upper echelons of viral bassists. With his penchant for meme-worthy content that still highlights his bass talent, MonoNeon has managed to grab the attention of music industry icons like George Clinton and Mavis Staples, earn the approval of Red Hot Chili Peppers' Flea, and perform at prestigious festivals like the Newport Jazz Festival.

However, without a doubt, one of his biggest flexes is playing with Prince.

In a recent interview with Premier Guitar, MonoNeon talks about the way the High Priest of Pop changed his rig. “I started using the Whammy when I was playing with Prince, because I saw how he was using it and stuff, and I just saw his swag with it, so I just kind of adapted it.

“But I've always had one when I was playing with David Fiuczynski. But when I started playing with Prince, he put the Whammy on my pedalboard they built me at Paisley Park, and I just started to embrace it a lot more being around him. So yeah, my use of the Whammy pedal came from David Fiuczynski and Prince.”

Elsewhere in the interview, MonoNeon reveals how he got recruited by Prince in the first place. “I think he saw some of my videos on YouTube. I'm pretty sure he did. And his manager contacted me through email, and told me, ‘Prince wants you to come to Paisley Park.’ And when I first got there, I was hired to play with Judith Hill, one of his proteges.”

MonoNeon then moved on to Prince’s new band, which comprised musicians like Adrian Crutchfield, the last horn man to perform and record with Prince, guitarist Donna Grantis from his backing band 3RDEYEGIRL, and longtime drummer Kirk Johnson.

“It still hurts me that it was so short, because he passed on and I just started playing with him,” MonoNeon adds. “But I'm using that inspiration and that fire and that time with him right now."

In a recent Guitar World interview, MonoNeon referred to his time with Prince as “life-changing” and said it was the reason why he eventually started writing his own music.

DeWayne “Blackbyrd” McKnight has played with a who's who of the jazz, funk, and fusion scenes. From being a member of The Headhunters to serving as Herbie Hancock's sideman, and yes, even having a brief tenure as the Red Hot Chili Peppers' guitarist, McKnight has cemented his position as a true guitar veteran.

It’s his role in George Clinton's Parliament-Funkadelic, however, that truly shaped the trajectory of his career and transformed him into a funk all-star.

“I was walking home one day and heard a guitar playing. Back then, I would knock on the door whenever I heard a guitar playing,” he tells Guitar World. “The guy playing the guitar came to the door and invited me in. We became friends from that day on.”

The guitarist turned out to be Ronald “Brem” Brembry, who became a key part of McKnight's journey to landing the highly coveted (and career-changing) P-Funk gig.

“On one occasion, Brem took me to his friend’s house for a jam. His name was Archie Ivy, who also played bass, and we jammed for a good while. I later found out that he was the president of Parliament-Funkadelic, which was my favorite group.

“He told me that in about a year, Mr. Clinton would be forming a new band, and he would set up an audition for me. I never forgot what he told me.”

Fast-forward a year to September 1978, and McKnight finally got the call Ivy had promised, but the conversation didn't unfold as one would have expected.

“It went something like this: ‘What are you still doing at home? You’re supposed to be on a flight going to Detroit to audition with the Brides [of Funkenstein]. You missed your flight. How soon can you get to the airport?’

“Needless to say, there was no flight booked for me. No wonder I was still at home. That was my introduction to P-Funk.”

McKnight embraced what he calls the collective's ethos of “organized chaos”. He promptly caught the red-eye to Michigan, where he was scheduled to meet some of his future band members at Detroit’s Balmar Hotel.

“The next day, I auditioned for the Brides of Funkenstein and was hired. In late September ’78, the Brides set off to open for the P-Funk Anti-Tour. After the Brides dissolved, I became a member of P-Funk in late ’79.”

What followed was a four-decade-plus tenure with Clinton's game-changing music collective, and an even-longer career playing with an enviable list of talent.

“When I started, I set out to accomplish three things: play with Herbie Hancock, play with Parliament-Funkadelic, and play with Miles Davis,” he admitted in a 2022 Guitar World interview.

“I did all those things. I might have only got to play with Miles live in the '80s – I didn't get to make music with him – but I did it, and that's enough for me.

“As for the rest, I've made music that speaks to my soul. I've created cool sounds with George Clinton – the most fun cat to work in the studio with that I've ever met – and I've still got my music to work on.”

Astonishingly, Paul Simon has been in the music industry virtually his whole life, since his first hit came at the age of 15, when he and Art Garfunkel entered the Top 50 with Hey Schoolgirl. Simon started from a background in 1960s pop before moving to American folk with schoolfriend Garfunkel. He has also experimented with ethnic music including styles from Brazil, South Africa, New Orleans Cajun, and more.

The development of Simon’s guitar style is interesting and his sophisticated, worldly approach elevates him above many of his peers. There are all the usual references you would expect of an artist of his era from trad-blues picking (alternating basslines) to deft American folk-style fingerpicking.

Perhaps what sets Simon apart from his contemporaries is the time he spent touring England before Simon and Garfunkel were a household name. Simon became friends with English folk legend Martin Carthy and picked up his signature sound along the way, not least the modal approach at the core of English folk, alongside a Baroque influence you’ll find in the playing of John Renbourn.

All this is apparent in a track like Scarborough Fair. That alone would have been a great achievement but to understand Simon’s range as a guitarist, contrast the pastoral Scarborough Fair with the aggressive Mrs Robinson and its bluesy licks and dynamic uptempo strumming.

The more advanced American folk guitarists of the 1960s and 1970s have a certain sound that moves beyond the trad folk sound that preceded them.

Add to this list a player like James Taylor and you hear more adventurous ideas usually with intricate picking patterns, intro and ending licks, a slight jazz influence and unexpected, often jazz-inspired chords which are a hallmark of Paul Simon’s writing style (think of Fifty Ways To Leave Your Lover).

He has a great sense of timing with picking-hand precision driving things along, whether he is performing solo or with his band.

Matching Simon’s fingerpicking speed and precision can be challenging, so this study focuses on the style of The Boxer (where Paul and session guitarist Fred Carter Jr traded licks). Rapid arpeggios and alternating basslines are the order of the day here.

Most acoustic guitarists are keen to learn some of Paul Simon’s material, so bear in mind that it takes time to build picking-hand dexterity to match his. The fretting hand typically holds a chord shape leaving the picking hand as the engine room. Things get easier when you recognise and learn that Simon’s playing is typically based around stock picking patterns.

Paul Simon is a true music legend as songwriter, interpreter and player. Check out as much of his back catalogue as you can and you’ll discover a rich seam of fingerstyle repertoire to get into your own playing.

Get the tone

Amp Settings: Gain 3, Bass 7, Middle 6, Treble 7, Reverb 2

Simon has used all sorts of guitars (he plays electric, too) but key instruments are a Martin D-28 and OM models, the Paul Simon Martin signature, an Ovation and the black Yamaha acoustic guitar masterbuilt by Terumi Nakamoto and used on the legendary Central Park gig in New York. I used a Martin Custom Shop Expert 1937 D28 through a Soyuz 017, FET microphone.

Paul Simon style examples

[Bars 1-14] This intro is typical of artists like Paul Simon and James Taylor. There are several picking-hand choices; a traditional fingerstyle approach would see you use the first finger (i) for the third string and the third finger (a) for the first string, though you may want to try the thumb (p) for the third string and the first (i) or second (m) finger for the first string.

In bar 3 you meet the alternating bassline (p for bass notes, i, m and a for higher chords), a common picking pattern for folk-pop players. Watch out for the 16th note quick arpeggiating at the end of the bar as the change of pattern and strings can be challenging.

[Bars 15-32] Notice a change of chords and picking-hand position down the strings from this point. However the principles remain the same so focus on getting the accuracy and speed in place.

In bar 31 there’s an alternative shorter version of the intro figure moved down an octave. These ideas based around intervals of 6ths are common in 1960s and 70s American folk-pop so it’s worth learning how to harmonise your major scale, particularly 3rds and 6ths.

Giacomo Turra is so goddamn funky he should come with a government health warning. Take some gentle stretches before listening. Apply Deep Heat to core muscle groups.

Those insufficiently warmed up are liable to do themselves an injury when pressing play on his cover of Stevie Wonder’s I Wish or Michael Jackson’s Rock With You, two highlights from his from his 2021 covers collection The Groove Sessions. The rhythm is gonna to get you.

But under the glitter ball, on Friday nights illuminated by neon and enlivened by something shaken over ice, the Italian funk guitar phenom is just what the doctor ordered to help us reconnect with our physical relationship with music, with dance.

Dance classes are how it all started for Turra. Born in Milan, his funk guitar sensibility can be traced back to the dance studio where his mother taught, and the tunes he heard blasting out of her boombox.

“I like to experiment with a lot of genres, but the really interesting thing for me is I really grew up on funk, and a little bit of jazz and fusion music,” he says.

“My mum used to be a dance teacher and she had this little stereo that she used to bring for her lessons, and sometimes I would go with her and she had this tape cassette made, and it was Stevie Wonder and all these ’90s breakbeat James Brown remixes.”

His father’s record collection introduced him to Weather Report, Herbie Hancock and Curtis Mayfield. Even if the electric energy of the indie-rock scene circa 2010 was hard to resist – it was funk that had the greater gravitational pull.

“For me, it is all about the energy,” he says. “I found that that music for me, playing it on guitar, it was giving me such a physical satisfaction. Every time I pick up a guitar, it gives me such physical satisfaction to play funk riffs, funk rhythms. I feel like there is a very direct connection with the audience. Playing funk is a direct exchange of good vibes.”

The Groove Sessions welcomed an array of guests to reimagine tracks by the likes of Bruno Mars and Jamiroquai, and the aforementioned Wonder and Jackson. Giacomo deliberately chose standards – songs the world knows. When everyone was wanting to be the next John Mayer, he looked to Bobby Hebb and Boney M instead, and the people were ready for it.

More than 675,000 people follow him on Instagram. He pulls ridiculous numbers on YouTube, too. That sort of reach comes with pressures on an artist’s time. Joining us in a bar in Camden, London, he’ll soon make a quick dash to the Midlands to see Laney about a tube amp.

He is working with Supro on something big, which he can’t talk about too much (it’ll involve six strings and gold-foil pickups). A new, self-titled EP of original material has just been released, and he plays dates in Europe before a US tour.

But there’s a sense that this has all just been one long introduction. Giacomo’s career thus far is a little like The Rolling Stones, cutting his teeth on covers and testing the waters for original material. Thereafter he’ll know where he wants to take his sound.

His approach to The Groove Sessions was mandated by circumstances. This was tracked when we were all collaborating remotely or not at all.

“The cool thing about that is that you don’t know how the track is going to sound because you are not playing together in the same room,” he says. “The end result was way different from how I imagined it sound-wise.”

Way different, indeed. These tracks may change your appreciation of the originals. It is one of the great tricks of pop composition that oftentimes so much musical information is presented to the audience in a way that is so digestible they don’t hear just how clever it is. His cover of x brings Bruno Mars’ talents into sharp focus.

“I love Bruno Mars,” Giacomo says. “Even if he is a very mainstream pop artist, sometimes, you break it down – like Rick Beato does – even just the chord progression in a Bruno Mars song, the chords, and the progression, and the bassline, it is so interesting but most of the time it gets overlooked.”

Giacomo’s process involves looping grooves, climbing inside the rhythm. It’s wholly instinctual. He does it all by ear, or by watching videos of the material being performed.

“We would just follow the first verse/chorus of the song and then take the chord progression of the song and loop it, and when you play above it you can hear how amazing it is,” he says. “Most mainstream pop artists today have such amazing music behind them.”

It allowed him to present his sound and get recognised on social media. It was a tool for deconstructing songs, and for establishing the building blocks of groove.

“It is really fascinating to see how the groove builds. Prince was amazing at doing this,” he says. “He was one of my favourite artists because when you break down the Prince concept of groove you can see that the deconstructed elements don’t even make sense, but when you put them together it is so beautiful.”

Giacomo can’t tell you the names of the scales he is playing. Speed is not the goal either. If there’s a conscious effort for his lead guitar it is to make the guitar sound less like a guitar. That informs his tone. Giacomo will mostly send his signal direct via a preamp and some compression, always blended so there is some unprocessed guitar to maintain the attack.

It’s the same approach when he uses his SolidGoldFX Supa Funk envelope filter. Other things you’ll find in his chain are a UAFX Teletronix compressor pedal, Strymon BlueSky reverb, and Cornerstone overdrive pedal.

“I’ll use just overdrive, like very transparent, big-headroom overdrive, with the gain that is as never up over halfway,” he says.

He uses an Electro-Harmonix POG for leads, with plenty of dry signal. “I love putting a little bit of that into my solos,” he says. “When you are playing a line, it will sound a little bit like a synth or a horn section. I have the octave up and the octave down, with a very small mix, like 20 per cent.”

He has used D’Angelico guitars before and is recently favouring custom Mayones electric guitars with Mama gold-foil pickups – again, because the tone is fast and direct. If you want to practise like Giacomo, stick on a drum loop or metronome, mute everything on the fingerboard and focus on the picking-hand rhythm.

Better still, don’t bother with the amp. “Most of the time, when composing, I don’t even plug in the guitar,” he says. “I just literally try to hear the sound of the strings, like an acoustic guitar, because it is really the tightest and most direct that it gets.”

And the logic here says: if you’re happy with your playing under those conditions, nothing can stop you. There’s a freedom to limitations, Giacomo says. There’s a freedom to not knowing what is technically correct. Listen to his original compositions, such as Callisto, and you’ll hear prog. Anything goes.

That’s part of the appeal, too. “Funk allows me to put so many different influences in, like South American music, Brazilian music, jazz,” he says. “Not having those boxes in my mind really helped me a lot to be more free on the instrument.”

As a wise man once said: “Free your mind and your ass will follow.” We don’t know exactly what Giacomo Turra has coming up next, but we’d best limber up…

• Giacomo Turra’s self-titled EP is out now.

Syncopation is a musical term directly associated with rhythm. In short, syncopation is where rhythms tend to fall on and utilise the off-beat, rather than landing on the stronger on-beats. This approach helps to create interesting rhythms, adding musical tension to the flow of a piece of music.

One genre of music synonymous with syncopation is funk, where 16th-note patterns are used to create rhythmic displacement and interest. The use of 16th notes, or semiquavers as they are commonly known, give musicians an extra palette of beats to exploit.

Rather than having eight beats to play with in each bar, counted as 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + within a regular bar of 4/4, further subdividing these into 16ths creates a feel of 1e+a, 2e+a, 3e+a, 4e+a. This gives the musicians 16 beats to play with in each bar, allowing for greater rhythmic flexibility.

An example of a guitarist who revels in this style of playing is Nile Rodgers. Nile is
a master at constructing syncopated guitar rhythms be it for Chic’s I Want Your Love, Diana Ross’ I’m Coming Out, David Bowie’s Let’s Dance or Sister Sledge’s We Are Family.

Cory Wong is a modern-day funk influencer, with his tight, syncopated 16th note rhythm gaining many fans.

The key to playing funk guitar is to keep your strumming hand loose and relaxed, while maintaining a consistent up and down motion. The ideal is to strum the strings on the required beats within your 16th-note pattern.

This technique is a standard method for playing rhythm guitar as a whole, where the constant up and down movement of the strumming hand works like a metronome, helping to keep you in time.

When using this technique to play 16th notes, the e and a beats will land on up-strokes, while the down beat and + will land on down-strokes. Maintaining this for an extended period of time can be tiring at first, so it’s important not to tense your strumming hand, but keep it as loose as possible.

This same approach can be used when playing single-note syncopated lines, once again helping you to stay in time and locked in with the groove.

The following examples and study piece showcase a number of different 16th-note patterns. I have included the strumming and picking patterns for all of the tab and notation to show which beats should fall on either a down or upstroke.

If you are unfamiliar with this style of playing, you could start by strumming a single chord using straight 16ths, getting used to how it feels, where some beats land, and also those where the plectrum bypasses the strings.

Crack your funk chops and it will add a new layer to your playing, because rhythm is one of the most important but sometimes neglected elements of guitar playing.

Get the tone

Amp Settings: Gain 2, Bass 4, Middle 5, Treble 6, Reverb 3

A clean tone is a must for most funk. Many players opt for neck pickup or positions 2 or 4 on a Stratocaster, but a Tele‘s both pickups on, or both pickups together on a humbucking guitar, all work well.

A compressor pedal can be useful to even out dynamics, but care is required with the settings as well as use of delay; too much (or not being in time) can create confusion.

Playing examples

Example 1

This single-note line involves playing a combination of pitched and ghost notes (where the pick glances over the strings but without sounding actual notes). Keep a constant 16th-note picking pattern with a slight rest at the end of each bar. Don’t lift the pick too far off the strings or you’ll lose strumming efficiency.

Example 2

Ghost notes are removed here, where the emphasis is on the off beat, requiring lots of up strokes (and silent down strokes). Aim for consistent timing and fluency.

Example 3

A single A7 chord is the basis for this example, which is played in suitably syncopated fashion. Keep your strumming hand loose and follow the picking directions, making sure that you lock in with the groove.

Example 4

Double-stops feature in this example. Ensure that you avoid or mute the rest of the strings to keep the sound clear and concise.

Example 5

A series of A dominant chords makes up this final example. Play as clearly and fluently as you can, muting any unplayed strings and keeping your strumming hand loose. Avoid needless flailing, which destroys strumming efficiency and can disrupt your timing. You might want to watch your rhythm hand to see how you’re doing.

We feature some bona fide bass guitar legends here, but very few come with a pedigree quite like William Collins, or Bootsy as he's known to the entire bass-playing world (and significant chunks of it beyond).

If you're familiar with the man and his playing, you'll know what a force of nature he is, epitomising the stagecraft of the era in which he grew up, and laying down the parameters of the slap and the pop for a generation of bassists.

Born in Cincinatti in 1951, the supremely talented Rock and Roll Hall of Famer is a legend not just for his interstellar playing, but also for his star-shaped basses and off-the-planet style.

The band he formed with his big brother ‘Catfish’ Collins, the Pacemakers, debuted in 1968 and took over as James Brown's backing band for around a year in 1970 – not bad grounding for a subsequent career alongside George Clinton in the peerless Funkadelic and Parliament.

His next big band was the aforementioned P-Funk collective, whose influence has permeated the very DNA of hip-hop and modern soul, while his own Bootsy's Rubber Band took the brand even further.

Now in his early 70s, Collins has stepped back from the live arena on medical advice, although he continues to work in the studio.

When Bass Player last caught up with Bootsy, we were braced for an encounter as unhinged as his onstage character would suggest. But no – Bootsy was cool as a cucumber, mellow to the core and simply happy that we liked his tunes.

The following interview from the Bass Player archives took place in 2017.

Are you aware that you've influenced a huge number of bass players?

“I look at it like everybody brings something to the table, and I have a signature style and sound – and everybody else is either developing that, or getting it together for themselves. I think it's a good thing. I don't think anybody owes me anything: we're all in this universal mixing pot, and you grab certain things out of it and you make it your own. That's the way I look at it.”

Nowadays funk bass is faster and more technical than ever, it seems, at least judging by the bassists we interview in BP.

“They're taking it way, way, way beyond, and it's a good thing, because at one time I remember when a bass player was the scum of the Earth, you know? You were the last one to get chosen in the band. Now it's like ‘You play bass? Oh, cool!’ It's the thing now.”

When did that happen, from your perspective on it?

“It was a gradual thing – it didn't happen all of a sudden. I think I was a part of the change, because Jimi Hendrix was my superhero, and I threw a little bit of his style into the bass. Now they've taken all of that and much more.

“They took what Larry Graham had done and tripled and quadrupled it and funked it up, and it's all just growing and growing. Nobody knows how far it can go, other than Victor Wooten! It's a good time for bass.”

You were contemporaries with Jaco Pastorius. Did you know him?

“I never met him. I did know of him, but I never had the chance to meet him. I got hip to him when he was doing his thing with Weather Report.”

You're known for star-shaped basses. Is the five-pickup Warwick Space Bass still your main instrument?

“That's the main puppy right there. They hooked me up, man. I got two of them that I take on the road, and one prototype that they made at first. It's heavier than the other two, so I keep that one at home. The two I take out have worked out really good: they're pretty happening.”

Which other basses do you still have?

“The Funkadelic bass that I played is in the Hall of Fame, but I still have a ton of my old basses. You remember the 1958 Ampeg with the holes? I got that one, fretless. Victor Wooten came up and broke that in. Oh man, he killed that sucker! We recorded a whole 60 minutes of Victor just playing that bass nonstop.”

“And then I got this Vox bass – remember those old hollow-bodied ones? It's like a Gibson, but with a single cut. It's got fuzz on it, and sustain, with the little buttons you can push. I played that the other day too. I'm re-finding myself, because those are the basses that I started off with. Getting back to that stuff was a great feeling.”

Do you look back fondly at the early part of your career?

“Coming up at that time was the best, because we had a chance to experience the free love and the peace. Now, getting a chance to share that again is what I love. Those good vibes, man. Everything is a choice: you can share the good vibes, or you can get your business hat on and start sharing all of that mess.

“We weren't used to business back then: all we wanted to do was play, especially in the era we were coming up in, which was about playing and getting a few girls and having a good time. It all turned into business, though, and since we didn't know nothing about business, we all went a little crazy!”

The time communing with your fans, never goes away though – right?

“Yeah. That's all you have to hold onto, plus the time you have together, even if it ain't with the whole group. Bernie Worrell would come to my house just to get away from everything.

“All he wanted to do was just walk by himself, and to be allowed his space. I guess every person would want that, but he really needed it, because he was pure genius. He handled it the best that he could, for a good while. I couldn't do enough for him, I wish I could have done more.”

“You don't get friends and musicians like that, it just doesn't happen. I don't take it lightly. When you start talking about him, it's way under the skin, you know? It's like he's in my skin; something you can't get rid of, and you don't want to get rid of it. I know he's physically gone, but I still feel him.

“His setup is still down in the Bootcave, and for me, he's still there. He's still there. If I can do anything for him now, it's to remind people that Bernie was the key to the mothership.”

I have to ask this question. What was James Brown like?

“Oh man... he was that guy, you know. He was definitely that guy! He was a hell of a cat. He worked day in and day out, and you wouldn't understand why he did the things he did, because he just felt that he was by himself. I never understood that, until I got into having to take care of business of my own.

“When I was with him, he kept me real close, to show me things, as if he knew that I was going to be out there myself one day. He showed me as much as he could, without telling me anything.

“He had me flying on the jet with him, telling me that he'd called the radio stations and had them play his songs. He'd go there personally, and he'd take me with him to do this. Not only did I play the shows, he wanted me to see him taking care of business, for some unknown reason. He was hardcore, man. Hardcore.”

Wasn't he famously stingy with money?

“Man, I've seen some stuff... with James, he would always try to break you down. Any time that you knew you'd played a great gig, and the people were loving it, he'd call you into his dressing room and say ‘Haaargh! You just ain't on it. You just ain't on the one!’ I'd be like, 'What? We ain't on the one?’”

“He called in the sax player once and told him to throw his horn away because he wasn't playing nothing but trash. It got to the point where I had to figure out whether this mother was crazy or if he was just messing with us.”

And which was it?

“I determined that he was both of them. He was crazy and he was messing with us! But I gotta say, him telling us that we weren't on the one and we weren't happening, it made me want to practice more.

“He knew what he was doing. You know how sensitive musicians are. That was the biggest letdown, because I was a kid wanting to please Mr Brown and do the best job – and then he called me in the room and told me that. I'm like, ‘Man, what can I do?’

“He told me one time, ‘Son, y'all the greatest band in the world, but you just can't play.’ And the bad thing about it was that he was serious! Couldn't nobody laugh about it at the time, because this was Mr. Brown talking. But when we saw how stupid this stuff was that he was doing, we just started cracking up any time he would say something like that. We would die laughing.”

What was his reaction to being laughed at?

“It worked, because he stopped calling us in the dressing room. We knew we had it, and we said, ‘Okay, that's what that was all about! But before that, man, he was killing us. He was sweating profusely, his knees were bleeding – we just wore him out, and he would still call us in and tell us it wasn't happening.

“And then, when you went out there and messed up, and the show wasn't really good, we'd all go back to the dressing room with our heads down because we'd had a crappy night.

“Sometimes you just have crappy nights, you know. He would call us in there and he'd be laughing, and he'd say, ‘Haaargh! You're killing it! Son, you're killing it!’ When he did that, that's when I really knew that this mother was gone. He was on another planet.”

Thanks for sharing, Bootsy. You've had a career like no other.

“All this happened for real, man. You couldn't make nothing like that up…”

Though he was primarily a singer and entertainer onstage (one of the best in popular music history, mind), James Brown was a well-rounded musician, with a crystal-clear vision of how his endlessly energetic songs should be presented. Famously, Brown would fine his band members for – among other offenses – playing a single wrong note onstage. 

With that in mind, Soul Brother No. 1, as he was known, rightfully gets a lot of the credit for the transformation of his sound in the mid-'60s – from up-tempo R&B shouters and show-stopping, soulful ballads to something new entirely; a minimalist style that leaned on lock-step grooves. It would come to be known as funk. 

One name that often gets overlooked in the development of the genre, though, is Brown's electric guitar player at the time, Jimmy Nolen. 

Already an R&B veteran – with years of experience in R&B star Johnny Otis's band – by the time he teamed up with Brown in 1965, Nolen immediately made his mark with the singer on the very first song he recorded with Brown, the epochal Papa's Got a Brand New Bag. Immediately after the song's first verse, Nolen scratches out a sizzling, unaccompanied one-chord break. 

Rarely has a single chord been so influential.

Though he never achieved stardom in his own right, Jimmy Nolen's innovations can be heard just about everywhere today. 

Steve Allsworth, Guitar World contributor and author of the lesson book 100 Essential Funk Grooves for Guitar, says of Nolen, “He developed a combination of several important funk techniques that we take for granted nowadays: his infamous ‘chicken scratch’ sound – where the fret hand lightly muted the strings – smaller chord voicings that targeted the higher strings, the high treble sound from his Fender Twin, and plenty of ‘in the pocket’ 16th-note strummed rhythms.”

Though Papa's Got a Brand New Bag remains the anchor of his legacy as a player, it's but one of the many electrifying, hugely innovative parts that Nolen laid down with Brown before his untimely death in 1983.

Allsworth, for instance, points to Nolen's slinky single-note line in Brown's Give It Up Or Turn It Loose as an equally seismic moment in the development of funk.

“It’s such a great lesson in pocket, precision and discipline,” Allsworth tells us. “I don’t think you can overestimate the influence of this sound – without it there wouldn’t be Nile Rodgers, David Williams, or the countless single-note lines of funk guitarists from the '60s to the present day.”

For another fine example of Nolen's fretwork, Ella Feingold – a Guitar Player lesson columnist and funk guitar specialist who Prince once deemed, well, “too funky” – also points to a less ubiquitous recording, in this case, the instrumental Popcorn With A Feeling.

“A lot of people associate him with the 9th chord on tunes like Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag, which I’m sure was influenced by T-Bone Walker,” Feingold tells Guitar World. As for what was unique to Nolen though, Feingold cites his “touch and his staccato stroke with single-note playing.

“He had a way of using lots of ghost strokes and in-between (not fully fretted nor pitchless) notes to create this percussive color that's unique to him alone.”

Aside from his illustrious, decades-long career with Chic – and as a first-call session guitarist and producer – Nile Rodgers is particularly well-known among younger audiences for bringing old-school funk guitar á la Nolen back to the upper echelons of the charts via his work on Daft Punk's inescapable 2013 mega-hit, Get Lucky. 

Rodgers has been quick to acknowledge his debt to Nolen in interviews, telling Rolling Stone with a laugh in 2011, “I mean, come on. Listen to me stealing from Jimmy on [Duran Duran's] Notorious.”

One can also draw a fairly straight line from Nolen's chicken scratching to the playing of Vulfpeck's Cory Wong, and the funkier side of John Frusciante's work with the Red Hot Chili Peppers – just listen to the intro of the latter band's 1991 smash, Give it Away.

Nolen's name rarely comes up when the titans of '60s guitar are discussed, but guitarists have just as much to take away from his playing with Brown as they do from the flashiest, most finger-twisting of guitar solos.

Studying Nolen, Feingold tells us, “will teach you the musical generosity to play just enough of what needs to be there without taking up too much musical space, while allowing others to find their space. It will teach you a lot about your technique and stamina, and make you re-examine your approach. 

“For instance, can you play along to the seven-minute version of Ain’t It Funky Now without your wrist or forearm burning? Do you have the musical humility and maturity to just stay on that part without interjecting other things?”

Citing a pearl of wisdom from another funk guitar icon, Feingold continues, “Prince said something to the effect of, ‘No-one wants to hear you solo if your rhythm isn’t good,’ and I think spending a day with Jimmy Nolen’s playing will get your rhythm tight, clean, focused, and driving like a freight train so that any note you choose will feel good – and isn’t that what we all want? To feel good?”

Hailing from the Bronx in New York, the late T.M. Stevens recorded with some of the world’s most prestigious artists, from James Brown to Tina Turner. “I've had a strange career,” he told Bass Player back in 2010. “I don’t think it’s because I am a great bass player, it’s because I didn’t know how to say no to a gig!”

Inspired by the sounds of Motown, Led Zeppelin, and Jimi Hendrix, Stevens began playing bass guitar in after-hours clubs when he was 12. “I would get home at 7am, take a shower, and go to school!”

Before long, he was firmly ensconced in the fusion scene, forming a band with Narada Michael Walden and opening for Billy Cobham, among others. He soon added Al Di Meola's group, John McLaughlin's One Truth Band, and a heralded recording session with Miles Davis to his resumé. 

In 1993 Stevens played on Steve Vai’s Sex & Religion album. “T.M. Stevens was a force of nature on bass,” said Vai, who paid tribute to Stevens via social media. “I was fortunate enough to have had him play on my Sex & Religion recordings and the Down Deep Into The Pain video with Terry Bozzio and Devin Townsend. I still feel the walls shaking in remembrance of his overall power when he played.”

Released under the band name VAI, the band split up after the album was finished, and Vai subsequently toured without Stevens. So what went wrong? 

“Steve's original vision involved a band concept. He had already hooked up with drummer Terry Bozzio, and while in Spain he saw me in a Joe Cocker video. He called the States to find out who the ‘flashy bassist with the long hair’ was. 

“When he finally located me, we all got together and jammed, and after 10 notes we knew it was happening. As it turned out, during the recording his vision progressed into more of a solo direction, and it was his record deal; he was very upfront about it, though, so we understood.”

This interview from the Bass Player archives took place in June 1996, following the release of Stevens' debut album, Boom!

What did Steve Vai's reaction to you in the Joe Cocker video say about the importance of your image?

“Plenty. I got Little Steven's gig the same way – he saw me in Whitney Houston's I Get So Emotional video and loved all the wildness. I would say that these days, image is at least a third of the entire package. If I say Flea or Bootsy, you conjure up an image of what they look like and play like. So when people think of you, you want them to say, ‘Oh, yeah – he's the guy with A, B, C, and D – get him,’ because they know, or think they know, what you're about, I learned that from people like Sly and George Clinton.”

When did you realize heavy metal funk was your voice?

“As a kid I loved James Brown, Sly Stone, Larry Graham, and P-Funk, but I also dug Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, the Who, and Cream. I was checking out MTV and digging the raw power of metal bands like Metallica, Pantera, and AC/DC; then I started seeing the Chili Peppers, Living Colour, the Dan Reed Network, Bad Brains, Fishbone – bands that added the funk. That inspired me to incorporate those two elements in my own way.”

You've played so many styles of music – what appeals most to you?

“I'm happiest when I'm able to play full-out and really break a sweat, and l've always loved powerful, driving, hardcore music. There's just something about hearing crunch guitars and massive drums that speaks to me, it's the ‘dig-in’  factor. That energy was present at the height of fusion, when I was coming up.”

Tell me about your experience with Miles Davis.

“I was scared to death. We recorded all day long, and Miles didn't say a word to me the whole time. Afterwards, he started play-boxing with me, so I felt brave enough to ask what he thought of my playing. He said, simply, ‘It was cool.’” 

“My pride kicked in momentarily and I said, ‘Cool? I played everything perfectly.’ And he said, ‘That's the problem. The brilliance comes in your mistakes – that's how you discover new things. And the only way to make mistakes is to stretch and take chances, If you play it safe, you'll never progress.’

“From that moment on I realized your ears have to be much bigger than your mouth. The band broke up shortly afterwards, but we made some great music.”

Was working with James Brown equally daunting?

“Not quite. First, we recorded the songs at Dan Hartman's house using vintage guitars and keyboards, because James didn't want to sing to high-tech tracks. Then he came in and recorded his vocals alone. Finally, we re-recorded the tracks around his vocals, using active basses and synths. 

“I did get to talk with James a few times; his message was that funk isn't just a way of life – it's a religion. The biggest lesson for me, though, was having to go back and listen closely to the bass parts on his old records. I found that I really needed to get the original feel down.” 

“Later, when Dan hired me for Joe Cocker's Unchain My Heart and I started funkifying the grooves, I kept that in mind. But Joe liked the fresh approach we were bringing to his music so he refused to let us listen to his old records!”

In between Brown and Cocker, you were a member of the Pretenders.

“Right. I had done a record in L.A. for Bob Geldof with Jimmy Iovine and Bob Clearmountain; they called me and Steve Jordan to come to Woodstock to work on a Pretenders record. I ended up doing most of the album in a day and a half. Chrissie Hynde was very impressed and asked me to join the band; I dug her energy and the punkish feel of the music, so I accepted. 

“We did an incredible tour of Europe, but when we got to the U.S., external problems – including the reaction of the press to a musically and racially mixed Pretenders – eventually caused the band to break up.”

What did you learn from that experience?

“Chrissie taught me a lot about relating to audiences. She opened my eyes to the fact that we were playing for people, not just musicians. That, in turn, got me to simplify my own playing. Onstage, she felt overwhelmed by the band and would often ask us not to be so proficient and precise. She would tell me things like, ‘You're not getting paid by the note,’ or, ‘Don't go above the 12th fret.’”

As someone who has cracked many stereotypes, what advice can you give to young bassists?

“Play with as many different people in as many different styles as possible. Listen to the greats for ideas, but don't copy anyone; strive to be original. In general, stay positive, because every musician encounters peaks and valleys. 

“When I was in my teens and unsure of a career path, I studied to be a medical lab technician. One day, my professor saw me with headphones on, listening to Hendrix, and he suggested I take a leave of absence. I asked why, and he said, ‘Would you rather be a half-assed lab tech or a great artist?’” 

As a major player in the world of funk, Cory Wong tasks himself with placing his considerable rhythm guitar skills centre stage – something he calls “lead rhythm guitar”. 

The result? Well, he delivers some of the finest, slickest and most creative funk playing you’ll hear today. And getting to that level? It takes a certain amount of creativity, and the idea is to go beyond basic chord vamps and inject something “signature” or “iconic,” some musical ideas of your own. 

Here, the Minneapolis maestro takes us through some of the ways he approaches jamming around simple chords – and that’s something we could all brush up on! Using just a couple of well-known barre chord shapes, Cory outlines some creative ways to take your rhythm and phrasing to the next level. 

Example 1. Single-note chord outline

Cory kicks off with a look at how a single-note funk line can outline a chord (Am7 here). He keeps a 16th-note rhythm going, with the strumming determined by the “right-hand motor staying steady.” 

Listen out for muted notes (shown with Xs in the tab). Cory plays first with, then without mutes – and you can hear how sparse it is when you boil it down to just the notes. There’s no right or wrong though. Make your own parts as sparse or energetic as you like! 

Example 2. Chord outline with diads

Here, Cory expands his idea by adding notes from the chord, but notice that these are just two-note shapes – no big chords to be found! But it does sound richer and more colourful, and it’s a creative idea you can employ in your own funk rhythms, or any other style for that matter.

Take a look at Cory’s fingers in our video. You’ll see he’s often spreading them fairly flat across the fretboard, muting out the idle strings so he can strum confidently. 

Example 3. Chord outline with triads

Taking the idea one step further, Cory adds another string on top of the two-note shapes, which again changes the sound, and you can hear our funk maestro accenting those chords as he strums. 

And, as he mentions, the notes are, by and large, from an Am7 chord and the A minor pentatonic scale (which are near identical, notes-wise). If you happen to know the scale and the chord then you have a starting point to take Cory’s ideas further. 

Example 4. Harmonised major pentatonic scale

Here, Cory demonstrates how he plays the pentatonic scale lick using two notes at a time in songs like Julia. Note that he prefers the vibe of downstrokes and palm-muting. 

Example 5. Harmonised major pentatonic scale 2 

A development on the previous idea. As Cory says, “It sounds interesting, but really, it’s quite easy. You’re just outlining a pentatonic scale, but you’re playing two notes at the same time.” 

Example 6. Dominant chord vamp

Listen out for Cory’s quick blast with a straight-strummed C7 chord. We’ve not tabbed it here because he’s talking about how to go beyond the basics of what is essentially just a strummed chord. 

The riff he plays here outlines the C7 chord but with much more going on. Cory plays the most important notes from the C7, plus a few more for added colour, and not forgetting the ever-present string muting for musical punctuation and groove. 

Example 7. Down the octave

A similar idea to the previous riff here, but thanks to being in a lower octave there’s a different feel. As Cory says, what’s important with a lick like this is that it’s memorable and singable – and these two riffs certainly deliver. Go back and listen to his first jam on the C7 chord and you’ll get the idea!

As one of the most respected players working in funk right now, Cory Wong is widely regarded as the Nile Rodgers for the next generation. He explains how to make sure you stay right in that pocket and reveals the chords that can get you through any musical scenario…

Your right hand is often described as a motor – always ticking along even in between the notes you play…

“What I noticed early on is that a lot of things feel easier when all the downstrokes are on the beat or on an ‘and’. And all the ‘e’ and ‘a’ notes are played using an upstroke. If I live by that philosophy, that means my right hand is just pulsing 16th notes the whole time. I’m just deciding what to hit the strings, which strings to hit, how many notes I’m actually fretting or whether to just play scratches. 

“I never have to think about strumming patterns – it’s all taken care of because the motor is always going. And even if the rhythm has a lot of pauses and rests, it sounds less jerky because my internal subdivision is always ticking. If my brain is counting every 16th note and I’m only playing eighth notes, I will play tighter.”

Because there’s less margin for error…

“Exactly. Players who are only thinking in eighth notes might have more leeway to speed up or drag, because there’s more space between eighth notes. Give yourself twice the amount of precision. I always try to think of one subdivision deeper.”

Another part of your playing is how you hint at chords instead of playing every note… 

“That’s something I’ve learned from people like Nile Rodgers. He won’t play the full chord, even though he’s got the full Emin7 grip on his left hand. That way, even if he hits more strings than he planned to, it’s always going to be the right note. But he generally focuses on picking only the upper few strings. Prince did that a lot, and he’s my favourite rhythm guitarist. The idea is to give only the amount of information that’s needed from you.”

Which is one huge difference between a funk ensemble and a rock power trio, right?

“Yup. In a lot of bands I play with, there might be keyboard players, plus a horn section, maybe even another guitarist. All of a sudden there’s a lot of information happening in a lot of different ranges which can interfere with each other. If we’re just jamming on a C7, I might just play a root and a flat seven – like the C on the first fret of the second string and the Bb on the third fret of the third string. I’ll do that instead of the whole shape. 

“On its own it can sound like a weird, clashing two-note thing. But in the context of a big band and wider arrangement, it suddenly sounds really cool. The dissonance is what makes it interesting, people will go, ‘Oh, what’s that?!’ When I first started out playing rock music in trios, I was responsible for taking up space – that’s the point of it. But in a funk band, you don’t need all that pressure on yourself. The role is different.”

That lets listeners fill in the blanks themselves, too…

“I could give away more information, but it’s cooler – especially with instrumental music – to let the listener interpret it for themselves. Leaving space invites the listener into the music. You can make the listener a part of your song and they will connect to it even more if they’re allowed to use their own creativity and imagination in the song. 

“A perfect example is the interval of a 10th on guitar, it sounds so cool and interesting. Just listen to a song like (The Beatles’) Blackbird, which is a root and a third but the third is up an octave. They are far enough apart for your ears to almost hear the notes in between! Our minds fill in the blanks.”

Your chord knowledge is extensive. Which ones do you find yourself using most?

“There are three realms of chords for me. Think of it as three trees: major, minor and dominant, and each one has three branches. So in G the major tree will have Gmaj7, G6 and Gmaj9. Those are the ones I play the most. For minor, I have Gm7, Gm6 and Gm9. To me, Gm7 is the classic Nile chord and all you have to do is play a regular fifth-string rooted minor chord and take your pinky off. 

“With dominant, I mainly think about G7, G9 and G13, though I also like G7#11 and G9#11 because they sound interesting. If you learn these chord shapes, there’s a lot of mileage right there. 

“One thing I got hip to later on is sus chords like Gsus9. It’s funny, in Vulfpeck we always call it the ‘classic’ because you hear it in Earth, Wind & Fire, Michael Jackson and D’Angelo. It’s a very piano-like voicing that you won’t find in a lot of guitar books, but I use it all the time!”

• Lucky One is out now. 

In this lesson, we’re looking at pop-funk. Generally seen as popular, radio-friendly music, pop-funk is a pretty wide sub-genre, ranging from classic Michael Jackson to the output of modern players such as Cory Wong – part of a new breed of guitarists who skilfully blend old-school funk with other genres such as hip-hop, gospel and jazz. So here we’ll look at ideas from seven pop-funk players. 

David Williams is one of the most important funk guitarists, yet remains largely unknown. His  intricate lines have graced some of the biggest ever hits, including Rock With You, Billie Jean and Thriller.

During an era filled with hair-metal and shred, Williams extolled the virtues of the ‘rhythm solo’, as exemplified in his short lead break in Billie Jean. This characteristic style saw him as the most sought-after session guitarists of the ’80s and ’90s.

The other guitarists here surely drew inspiration from Williams’ playing, so here’s where we’ll start our lesson.

Example 1. David Williams

In this Williams-style riff,  precise syncopation and picking technique are required throughout, with a couple of phrases that start on the offbeat 1/16th upstroke. This B major based riff uses an Em7 chord borrowed from the parallel key of B minor.

When jumping between non diatonic chords, you need to use the appropriate notes. Here it means a slight tweak in Bar 4; we’re using a D note derived from B natural minor (B-C#-D-E-F#-G-A) for the Em7 section.

Example 2. Paul Jackson Jr.

Paul Jackson Jnr was one of the most prolific LA session guitarists of the ’70s-’90s, performing alongside Michael Jackson, The Temptations, Luther Vandross, Bobby Womack, The Pointer Sisters, Chicago and Whitney Houston.

His credits are truly astonishing, and extend beyond the classic session player era into the modern day with artists such as Daft Punk and The Weeknd. 

This example centres around an Am11 shape that’s played with the third and fourth fingers (the fourth finger should be barred over the top two strings).

This shape is derived from a concept known as quartal harmony, where 4ths are stacked on top of each other to create a slightly ambiguous, suspended sound that’s great for improvising in many styles including funk.

Example 3. Prince

Prince is one of the world’s most iconic artists who shouldn’t need any introduction. He helped to pioneer the Minneapolis Sound in the late ’70s, a funk-rock sub-genre that mixed in elements of new wave and synth pop. Even through the artistic changes in his career, there’s an identifiable funk undercurrent on every single album. 

The minor 11 shape used in the previous riff features heavily in this example. Most of the ideas are based around the closed A minor pentatonic shape in 5th position, but the extra major 6th (F#) provides that classic Prince twist, especially at the end of bar 4.

Example 4. John Frusciante

The Red Hot Chili Peppers emerged from the funk-rock revival of the ’90s, blending funk with aggressive rock to produce a punk-funk-rock sound. Unlike most of the guitarists here, John Frusciante wasn’t well-schooled in the ways of funk before joining the band. 

Although he was a fan of P-funk’s Eddie Hazel, his main influences were Page, Beck, Hendrix and Zappa. He learned most of his groove and funk style from emulating the playing the Chilis’ late guitarist, Hillel Slovak. 

This groove is based on a simple I-V7 (Em-B7) chord progression, but uses a D#dim7 chord as a great substitute for B7. This jazzy diminished 7th substitution is built on the 3rd degree of the V7 chord and creates a B7b9 sound. The D# also helps the chord resolve really well to the following one.

Example 5. Adam Smirnoff (Lettuce)

Lettuce have been at the forefront of modern, largely instrumental funk ever since their debut album Outta Here in 2002, with guitarists Adam Smirnoff and Eric Krasno providing the backbone to the Boston funk collective. 

Smirnoff effortlessly blends gospel, soul and dub ideas in his funk playing, and this groove features all these styles in quick succession. 

The palm-muted triplet in bar 4 is a typical reggae/dub style rhythm and sounds great against the straight eighth rhythm in the background. It should create the feeling of ‘putting on the brakes’ and is an excellent way to create rhythmic interest. 

Example 6. Mark Lettieri (Snarky Puppy)

Mark Lettieri started out in the R&B and gospel scene of the Dallas, Fort Worth area of Texas, which eventually led to him joining the instrumental jazz funk group Snarky Puppy. In 2018, Lettieri joined up with The Fearless Flyers, featuring Cory Wong and Joe Dart of Vulfpeck on guitar and bass. Lettieri often uses dextrous fingerstyle, combined with gospel chord chops. 

This groove borrows the slap technique of bass and converts it to the more guitar-orientated rest slap denoted by ‘RS’. The picking hand naturally comes to rest on the strings, rather than executing an overt bass-style slap. 

All of the ghost notes (shown by an X in brackets) and rest slap indications use this technique with varying degrees of force, and adding the thumb will accentuate the percussive sound.

Example 7. Cory Wong

Cory Wong, from the Vulfpeck and Fearless Flyers stable, has released several solo albums and collaborated with Dirty Loops. His early influences include David Williams, Paul Jackson Jnr, and Nile Rodgers, which can be seen in his particularly rubbery, loose picking hand wrist. 

This riff uses the bass guitar ‘pat’ technique (lightly patting the fretting-hand fingers on the strings, as opposed to slapping them, but without fretting specific notes, and is best executed with several flat fingers to avoid this). 

It also intersperses some traditional funk chord fragments with improvised double-stops. The lick in bar 4 can be viewed through the lens of a basic E major pentatonic scale shape, slightly tweaked to include the D note from E Mixolydian for a funky E7 sound.

A fierce funk movement that developed during the thriving nightclub scene of '70s America, disco funk is a much aligned – and misunderstood – genre, perhaps best represented by the infamous Studio 54 in Manhattan. 

Unlike earlier funk, this music was much more heavily produced, and more costly, too, with the addition of lush string sections and more complex arrangements. Here, I'll be delving into the styles of three of disco funk's most influential champions: Nile Rodgers, Claydes Charles Smith and Al MacKay.

One of the most prolific funk guitar players known for this style is Nile Rodgers. Best known for his work with Chic and Sister Sledge, Rodgers' incredible career as an artist, producer and writer has seen him sell cumulatively over 100 million albums. 

The incredible roster of artists in his production back catalog include Madonna, Diana Ross, David Bowie, Jeff Beck, Duran Duran and Daft Punk. His instantly recognizable style draws upon jazz and R&B, with multi-layered lines that are put together with impeccable feel and timing. 

Claydes Charles Smith is not a household name, but his work with the multiple platinum-selling Kool & The Gang was a continuation of the James Brown school of part writing, mixed with a jazz sensibility that drew on influences such as Wes Montgomery and George Benson.

His style uses octaves, syncopated single-note lines and choppy partial chords, all of which created the rhythmic backbone of a string of iconic songs spanning early funk, classic '70s disco and '80s pop.

Al MacKay was part of hit-making legends Earth, Wind & Fire, a band whose music has spanned many different genres including R&B, pop, soul, funk, Latin and, of course, disco. 

MacKay helped pen classics such as September and Sing A Song as well as helping to write Best Of My Love for the Emotions alongside Maurice White. His signature style is all about shiny, jangly funk chords and overdubbed single-note lines. These are brought together with a slightly more complex harmonic sensibility and a penchant for effects such as phaser, chorus and digital delay. 

Example 1. Chic-style disco groove

The first example is a Nile Rodgers-style disco groove. Basic minor 7 chords are given a simple tweak by the addition of sus4 ad libs. Rodgers often targets string ‘zones’ (ie. bottom, middle or top), so you’ll rarely hear him play a succession of full six-string chords. 

This partial chord approach demands a more conscious and precise picking-hand movement, but will add more variation to your basic chord rhythms and also keep you out of the way of other instruments.

Example 2. Palm-muted 16th-note strumming

This idea is a throwback to the single-note lines of Jimmy Nolen (James Brown) with some Rodgers-style twists. This technique uses palm-muting, together with relentless 1/16th-note movement in the picking hand. It also uses a number of ghost notes on the open fourth string that are improvised in between the full mutes. 

Aim to think of these as quiet, unaccented notes – we don’t really want to hear the open D note with an obvious picked sound.

Example 3. Kool & the Gang-style idea

The ‘e & a 4’ rhythm on beat 3 of this riff is a classic Claydes Charles Smith device that’s good practice for your general rhythm skills. Try ghosting the initial downstroke in mid-air on the rest before the up strummed chord to help catch this in time. 

The end of bar 2 sees another of his favourite moves, from A9 to A9sus4/Em11 – note that the chords A9/E and Em11 are related to an E Dorian harmony, with the bass guitar holding down a low E. 

Example 4. Octaves with non-linear phrasing

High octaves are a classic disco-era device, and the simplicity of the shape allows for some interesting rhythms. There’s a cool phrase of three that gets recycled a few times here – check out the rhythm of the first three beats – in this Claydes Charles Smith-style line.

Odd, non-linear phrasing like this can really transform a simple idea, because the ear is so used to hearing groupings of 2, 4 and 8. Simple and yet complicated sounding; often a disco funk trademark!

Example 5. Jazzy Al McKay-style line

The next two examples are typical intro and verse ideas for a tune in the style of Earth, Wind & Fire. The first highlights their jazz fusion influence, with slash chords and Whole-Tone movement. 

Although MacKay usually only plays the upper triad from these chords, it’s worth exploring the ‘outside’ sound of the full shape. The E/D chord can be thought of as an alternative E7 chord, with the chord in third inversion (the b7 of E7 being the root note).  

Example 6. Lines in 3rds

MacKay uses a common funk principle of improvising with 3rds made up from chord tones (the D and Bm7, for example, both share the same chord tones of D and F#), plus another diatonic diad, either above or below the chord. 

The main challenge is being precise with the chord placements and mutes in all the correct places. That said, treat this like most of the funk grooves we’ve studied, where the picking hand is loose and not resting on the strings or body of the guitar.

The profound shift from soul and R&B into funk during the ’70s saw many bands take up the mantle of James Brown’s innovations of the late ’60s. In the early part of the decade, African-American bands gained crossover success by moving into funk. Many blended Hendrix-style psychedelia with the JB ethos.

This was also the era of so-called ‘Blaxploitation’ movies, which featured some amazing funk soundtracks, many including the ubiquitous wah-wah (no better demonstrated than by the great ‘Wah Wah’ Watson of Funk Brothers fame).

Funk is a blend of many genres, and all the guitarists in this lesson are skilled at combining elements of R&B, soul, Motown and funk to create a groovy rhythmic soup.

We’ll look at ideas from Leroy ‘Sugarfoot’ Bonner (The Ohio Players), Tony Maiden (Rufus, Chaka Khan), Bruce Conte (Tower Of Power), Onnie McIntyre and Hamish Stuart (Average White Band), Skip Pitts (Isaac Hayes) and, of course, Wah Wah Watson (Rose Royce, Blondie, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder and many more).

Example 1. Single-note line

To kick things off, here’s a two-part riff (Ex1 and 2) in the style of Sugarfoot Bonner. Ex1 features a single-note line that mainly targets the b7 and 6th of G Mixolydian over the groove. 

It’s the first of two interlocking parts and is played very straight, with most of the rhythms landing on strong downbeats or offbeat eighth notes. The inherent funkiness of this line comes from its relationship with the second guitar, as tabbed in Ex2.

Example 2. Funky rhythm with ‘pushed’ feel

The second part of the riff is more heavily syncopated, creating a call and response effect between parts 1 and 2. The 1/16th-note push is a feature that crept into a lot of ’70s funk (the last 1/16th note of the bar is pushed into a tied downbeat) and is seen in aplenty here. 

This can be a tricky rhythm to ‘feel’ correctly, and a great way to approach it is to play a muted downstroke on the ‘and’of beat 4, which allows for a more precise upstroke on the pushed 1/16th.

Example 3. Funky tritone with pushes

The next riff is typical of Tony Maiden’s work with Rufus, moving from chord I to IV targeting the funky tritone shape we saw last month with Cheese Martin.

There are some 1/16th-note pushes at the end of bars 1-3, so ensure your foot doesn’t follow this, but targets the downbeat instead. Focus on achieving a constant 1/16th-note motion over several strings with a much wider strumming arc in the picking hand.

Example 4. Double-stop groove

The Average White Band had a great way of combining chordal funk rhythm with more melodic single-note lines. This is another two-part example (Ex4 and Ex5).

First, a typical Onnie McIntyre groove that focuses on a double-stop shape of A (4th) and D (b7th) which results in a slightly ambiguous suspended sound. There’s no 3rd in this chord, so E7sus4 is the harmony implied by both guitar parts together.

Example 5. Minor-to-major lick

The previous part allows for a more melodic Hamish Stuart style idea to dovetail with it, based around E Mixolydian.

The minor to major 3rd (G-G#) is a typical blues move that instantly gives a hipper sound, as it resolves to the more comfortable-sounding major 3rd from an ‘outside’ note a semitone below. This is a neat trick that you can try on literally any consonant ‘inside’ note, but use it sparingly or it will begin to sound predictable.

Example 6. Jazzy sounding funk rhythm

Bruce Conte from Tower of Power was a huge Jimmy Nolen fan, and this comes through in his frequent use of dominant 9 chords.

Rather than sticking to the James Brown signature ‘static chord’ idea, however, Conte often moves his chords around the neck chromatically. He also brings a touch more harmonic sophistication and syncopation than James Brown-style funk. This can be seen in the jazzy B7#5#9 chord used here.

Example 7. Funky wah-wah groove

Our first wah-wah groove, in the style of Wah Wah Watson, can be seen as an extension of the classic ‘whacka whacka’ sound first heard from Skip Pitts on Isaac Hayes’ classic Theme From Shaft. 

The G octave notes inside the fretting hand mutes are a nice coordination exercise between the two hands. Use an 8th note wah down/up motion while the faster wah-wah rhythm in bars 2 and 4 requires a doubling of your speed to 16th notes.

Example 8. Driving wah-wah rhythm

The next idea is one of Wah Wah Watson’s favourite techniques, which he used almost everywhere on albums by everyone from Rose Royce to Blondie. The triplet rhythm needs a quick down-up-down strum, finishing with an upstroke on beat 1 of the first bar. 

Use this final downbeat as the target for both the rhythm and the wah-wah as it goes from open to closed. If you’re not used to playing wah-wah rhythm it might take a while to get the relaxed feel required.

Example 9. Tremolo-picked slide with delay

This final example is known in some circles as the ‘luxuriant swoon’ and can best be described as a ‘sexy tremolo’. Watson created this with a delay of somewhere between 200-250ms with 3-4 repeats and then tremolo picked while his fretting hand slid from the pickup area down the fretboard. 

Think of those sultry sounds behind Barry White, Marvin Gaye and Maxwell and you’ll instantly see how useful this simple technique can be.

Funk is one of the most important musical styles of the past 60 years. Its musical tentacles reach into so many genres that it’s difficult to overestimate its influence. It can feed into all aspects of your playing, from holding down a basic rhythm to helping develop groove within your soloing.

All forms of funk lead back to the pioneer and Godfather of Soul, James Brown, who, in the mid-’60s, began to experiment with the syncopated rhythms of New Orleans jazz. While R&B, soul and motown tended to emphasise the backbeat (beats two and four), the classic JB signature groove was to emphasise the downbeat with a heavy emphasis on beat 1.

In this lesson, we’ll zone in on three of Brown’s most prominent guitarists: Jimmy Nolen, ‘Catfish’ Collins and ‘Cheese’ Martin. All three were responsible for some of his most iconic funk hooks, where simplicity and space are crucial. 

Example 1. Common funk devices

Ex1 features three common funk devices: syncopation, fretting-hand muting and the ubiquitous Dominant 9 chord. Jimmy Nolen tended to pick close to the bridge where there is less give in the strings, to create a punchy, percussive sound. 

His single-note ideas were based around the chords rather than being derived from scales, and they would often outline the song’s harmony with 3rds, b7s and a sound you’ll often hear in funk rhythm guitar, octaves.

Example 2. Sliding dominant chords

A trademark of JB’s funk was moving to the IV chord for the bridge section, used here with Dominant 9 and 13 extended chords. The move to the V chord at the end of the phrase gives the classic blues-style anticipation of returning ‘home’. 

The emphasis here is on offbeat 16th upstrokes, which create the syncopation against a classic Clyde Stubblefield-style drum groove. The semitone chord slides became a Nolen trademark that all subsequent JB guitarists mimicked.

Example 3. Jimmy Nolen 16th strumming

Ex3 is a great example of Nolen’s relentless 16th-note technique, focused on single notes with swing. It can take some time to build up to his almost superhuman stamina, so take this slowly at first, being mindful of any tension that can easily creep into your forearm or shoulder.

Example 4. Two guitar arrangements; the lower part

The next two ideas show how Nolen and Alphonso ‘Country’ Kellum would find parts that fit seamlessly together without stepping on each other’s toes. The initial descending Bb minor pentatonic idea is split across two guitars in two octaves, then the main low note groove features Nolen-esque single-note picking.

Example 5. Two guitar arrangements; the higher part

Kellum’s job was to keep out of the way of Nolen’s intricate 16th ideas, so we see an economy of movement on beats 2 and 4. It’s important to pay attention to the rests, as they’re crucial to create space between the two parts. Placing each guitar part in a different register creates separation in both pitch and timbre.

Example 6. Chicken scratch style

The next riff draws on James Brown’s hypnotic groove style with what looks like a fragment of a Dm chord. However,  the small triangle chord shape is actually part of a bigger chord.  The notes of F, A and D are the actually the b7-9-5 from a 9th chord, with no 3rd played. 

In this band context, they become part of a Gm9 sound. The three precise string mutes on beat 1 and the switching between single and multi-string mutes are typical of Nolen’s ‘chicken scratch’ style.

Example 7. Catfish Collins rhythm

Ex7 is an example of ‘Catfish’ Collins’ more energetic 16th-note playing, as heard on tracks such as Super Bad. His ferocious picking hand was relentless at higher tempos, so maintain a floating hand position and keep a very loose wrist to replicate his style.

If the pick digs into the strings, you’ll stumble, so try not to aim into the body of the guitar on the downstroke (your pick should not travel into the pickguard).

Example 8. Catfish Collins pull-off line

This is based on one of Collins’ trademark pull-off lines. We’re normally taught to avoid pull-offs from the Major to Minor 3rd in blues, but it works here as the predominant sound we hear is still the D7 chord. Use downstrokes, with the pull-off happening as the picking hand returns in mid-air as an upstroke.

Example 9. Catfish Collins riffing and chromatic

This demonstrates Collins’ jazz roots with a D Dorian based riff with some chromatic notes thrown in. Check out his extended solo on the 1971 Paris Olympia Live rendition of Sex Machine where you’ll hear his amazing Wes Montgomery-meets-funk style in all its glory.

Example 10. Cheese Martin syncopations

This ‘Cheese’ Martin-style idea has lots of cross-rhythms and syncopation as the picking hand mainly follows groups of three 16th notes. Beat 4 is used as a pivot to get back to the downbeat on beat 1. There are two backing tracks for this example to help you experiment playing both straight and swung rhythms.

Example 11. Syncopation using tritones

This final groove is a slight variation of the previous example, but focuses on the economical tritone (b5) shape. Depending on how you look at these two intervals, they could be viewed as the 3rd and b7 (G and Db) of Eb7, or the b7 and 3rd (G and C#) of A7 . Bottom line, it’s a very useful shape in funk!

In this video masterclass, Shane Theriot demonstrates his phenomenal New Orleans style funk chops in a series of five exercises.

Hailing from Louisiana, not far from new Orleans itself, Theriot is a master guitarist, instructor and producer. A graduate of GIT in Los Angeles, he has worked with many A-list artists, including The Neville Brothers, Hall & Oates, Boz Scaggs, Willie Nelson and many more, and is Musical Director of the hit TV show, Live From Daryl’s House, with Daryl Hall.

Theriot has also produced several instructional books, such as New Orleans Funk Guitar Styles, written for Guitar Techniques’ sister magazine Guitar Player, and recorded original albums under his own name, including Still Motion (2017), Dirty Power (2009), and The Grease Factor (2003).

The classic New Orleans style funk sound can be heard from bands like The Meters, Chocolate Milk and Dr John, and its distinctive drum groove. This groove is probably an expanded and built-upon derivative of earlier musical rhythmic traditions of the area, such as those heard in ‘second line’ funeral parades from which jazz itself was born, and provides an infectious groove over which other instruments can overlay rhythmic and melodic phrases to create the swampy funk feel.

Shane demonstrates how to achieve this is in a variety of ways, first of which is in the form of a 3-2 clavé rhythm played with a popular C7 voicing for an E7 chord. This is a two-bar syncopated groove which has three distinct accents in the first bar, and two accents in the second bar. This sits perfectly with the drum pattern, and sounds amazing.

Expanding upon this, Shane next incorporates an upper structure E7 on the third, second and first strings, but building in a single-note line on the fourth, fifth and sixth strings which adds interest and movement to this one-chord groove, again resulting in a fantastic sounding ‘skanky’ funk vibe.

Moving into the key of G Minor, Shane demonstrates how to turn funky triads on the first, second and third strings into a groove by playing a G Minor triad (G-Bb-D) and using an F Major triad (F-A-C) as a passing chord. He also plays a funky blues-style line after the triad part of the groove in a ‘question and answer’ approach.

A groove in the key of A Minor  follows this, and here Shane employs a double-stop pull-off technique as the main element and adds a cool phaser effect to infuse the sound with an even swampier flavour.

Finally, Shane shows us his epic sounding approach to a I-IV-V 12-bar blues progression over a Zydeco style groove (Zydeco being a traditional Creole music born from jazz, blues, and indigenous native American music). This is in the key of G, using G7, C9 and D7 as a basic chordal framework, but adding some interesting harmonic extensions with a syncopated, ‘scratchy’ approach to mimic the percussive ‘washboard’ instrument often found in traditional Zydeco music.

Throughout all of these exercises, be sure to study the video carefully, paying particular attention to Shane’s technique in both his hands, but especially his picking-hand approach.

Keep your hand moving, as it’s essential to play the down and upstrokes in the right place to get the flow, groove and timing accurate (I’ve tried to indicate this as much as possible in the music). Note how relaxed Shane’s hand remains, and how he separates the lower and upper strings in the ‘scratches’ or dead notes.

Feel and timing are crucial here, so aim to stay ‘in the pocket’. Enjoy!

Get the tone

Amp settings: Gain 3, Bass 4, Middle 5, Treble 5, Reverb 3

A clean tone is best for this style, preferably a three-pickup single-coil electric guitar which enables the classic ‘in-between’ sounds on positions 2 and 4. A humbucking guitar would also sound great with both pickups on, but with the guitar volume turned down enough to thin out the sound somewhat. A phaser pedal or Univibe effect would be the icing on the 70s funk cake!

Example 1. E7 with 3-2 Clave

Ensure you use your fretting-hand fingers to mute out the sixth and first strings when fretting the E7 chord, and lift off quickly for the staccato effect. Although it’s not essential to only play the sixth and fifth strings on the scratches on beats 3 and 1 of the various bars, aim to separate the lower strings from the upper ones.

Example 2. E7 with 3-2 Clave v2

Bars 1, 3, 5 & 7: Check Shane’s fingering here, as you need to leave your fretting-hand fourth finger down on the third string on beat ‘3 and’. Lightly touch the heel of your picking hand on the lower strings to get the palm muting where indicated, but don’t anchor it down as you need to maintain the flow.

Example 3.Gm-F Groove

Use a combination of your fretting-hand thumb and fingers to mute unwanted strings throughout this exercise as the picking hand maintains a free flow. This can be especially tricky when trying to only play single strings, so listen carefully to yourself when playing.

Example 4. A minor Groove

This exercise uses the same kind of picking-hand free flow approach as Ex 3, with the double-stop pull-off on the second and third strings as the main feature. Make sure this is pulled off and hammered back on accurately and in time. 

Be particularly careful with your strumming accuracy by missing the lower strings when playing the upper strings, even when executing the percussive scratches between notes.

Example 5. Zydeco Groove in G

An alternate picking approach is used throughout this detailed and vibrant groove with the heel of the picking hand mainly resting lightly on the strings around the bridge area to target appropriate strings.  

Keep the fretting hand ‘choppy’, lifting off quickly between notes and scratches. Practise slowly to get the coordination right between the two hands. Above all with this style of playing, it’s vital to stay loose and not rush ahead - as the saying goes ‘keep in the pocket!’

70 years old in 2021 and almost six decades into his career, William Collins – as nobody calls him – is in a unique position. The coolest cat in pretty much all of bass guitar history, Bootsy is showing no signs of slowing down, resting up, or diminishing his message that music will unite us all, if we’ll only let it. 

His new album, The Power of the One – on which he namechecks his endorsing companies Warwick, DR Strings, Pigtronix, EHX, Eden  Audio, Mesa Boogie, Boss, and others – features a whole list of world-class musicians, including Larry Graham, Branford Marsalis, Christian McBride, George Benson, Bernard Purdie, Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram, Béla Fleck, Victor Wooten, MonoNeon and many more. 

That’s quite a band. Still, The Power of the One is no mere gathering of famous names. It’s a call to arms, although that’s a slightly incongruous analogy given its message of peace and tolerance: In the songs, Bootsy suggests that adherence to the one – whether the first beat of the bar, or some ineffable uniting presence – is nothing less than a way of life. 

There’s food for thought there, as you’d expect from a musician who honed his act under the merciless James Brown before expanding the contours of the musical universe with George Clinton, Parliament-Funkadelic and his extensive solo career. It’s a privilege to meet the master.

Enjoy his thoughtful interview, which he punctuates with constant laughter, as if to illustrate the absurdity of it all. Go with the cosmic flow, friends...

How are you managing through the pandemic, Bootsy? 

“Thankfully, we have music to hold on to, and to help us. I think it got people back to thinking about their next moves and about what we really take for granted. It has made us go back to being creative and try to do different things, with new mixtures, and become like a cook. When I got a hold of this new album, it just started flowing out.“  

You have a wide range of music on The Power Of The One.  

“Yeah, and I had to take all of that into consideration when I was doing all different music. I had to mix and blend stuff with other genres of music, that ain’t supposed to go with what I do, ha ha! It’s about seeing the world in a different look – like, this is what we should be doing. 

“We got to come together, no matter what our disagreements are – we still can create together. It’s so traditional to say, ‘This don’t go with that’, or ‘That don’t go with this’, but it’s all music, man.“  

What is the message of the new album? 

“That we’re all people, regardless of our different loves or different colors or different religions. We’re all people on one planet. This is our mothership. This planet is our mothership and it’s spinning out of control. That’s what the power of the one is about, no matter what they call it. 

“We got to quit getting upset with each other, just because my father might be different than yours. What’s the difference? They’re both fathers. And who cares about our different names? I mean, come on – we got to stop taking things so personal. 

“We gotta start learning how to have fun again, you know. And that’s what I wanted to imply in this record, which is about unity and bringing people together. We can still have fun, regardless of any challenges. They actually make us more creative. 

Do you think the message of the album is all the more important because of the events of 2020 – the pandemic, the death of George Floyd, and the US presidential election? 

“Yeah, yeah – it’s not just a musical thing. It’s a lot of things. It’s a collage of things all melded together, that makes us one. We’re human beings. I think that’s where people get a lot of confusion. We’re so separated, whether we know it or not, but we don’t have to be – we really don’t have to be. 

“And so this album is my best effort to bring people’s awareness into one of us as one people. Us as one music. Us as one color. One nation under this groove. We gotta learn how to groove together. I know we can do it – and so that’s the message. “

It’s delivered by such a cast of musicians – Victor Wooten, Snoop Dogg, and Christian McBride among them.  

“Well, the really good thing about it for me was that these were people that I can look up to as well. I told them to play what they felt and to just be themselves. And that’s pretty much the message. A lot of times, a musician will try to please you and try to play what they think you play like. 

“I said no, do what you do – that’s why I asked you to play. I want you to be yourself. And once they realized, ‘Oh, you want me to just be myself?’ – because this is about being yourself and expressing yourself on top of the groove – it was a piece of cake and everybody was happy. It was like we were all together, recording this as one. Everybody joined in. Everybody was down with it.

You also give some space to bass players like MonoNeon, who is known to us in the bass community, but who is still making a name in the wider world. 

“Well, to me, I got an opportunity to be a platform now. Not just a player, like on a football team. Once you’ve been a player for years, you start to maybe want to coach on the sideline. I’d rather see the ones like Mono and Kingfish out front, man, because people need to know who they are. 

“All these talented people are getting missed, because they’re not getting any exposure. Anything I could do to help, and help folks to be in touch with who and what is playing nowadays, that’s where I’ll be, because James Brown did that for me.“

Do you think that talent levels are higher now among young people than they were back in the '60s? 

“Heck yes! They would play circles around anybody, because that’s what it is nowadays. It’s like, how fast can you play that? To me, that’s a beautiful thing, too, because it’s something new and it’s something fresh. It takes the bass players from being at the bottom of the totem pole. They can really stick out front now, because they can play all of these different things. 

“I think it’s great, man. I’d rather see the kids playing live like they’re doing now, than going through that void where the kids were just throwing their instruments away. We were going through that for a while. Kids did the rap thing on computers and that was it, but over the last four or five years, they’ve really gone at these instruments. 

“That gives me hope, a lot of hope – thank God that music ain’t gone away. Yeah, it makes you feel good, and it also makes me want to do anything I can do to try to push any of them ahead. Anything I can do, I’m there.“ 

Do you find yourself inspired to play better when you see these young bass players? 

“Oh yeah. It’s like me getting on the track and someone saying ‘Go!’ I could try all I want to try, but the good thing about it for me is, I got a signature vibe. That’s my saving grace. Because if we all start on that start line, and somebody say go, ain’t no way I will keep up with you, haha!“ 

The Fender Precision was launched in the year of your birth, 1951. In other words, like you, it’s going to be 70 this year. So today’s kids who are picking up the bass for the first time have got 70 years of techniques to learn, whereas when you started, there was much less bass history behind you. 

“Exactly, and it was coming off of upright bass, and that’s a whole other animal right there. For us, the determination had to be made whether to can the upright, and let’s just pick up these Fenders, let’s see what happens. 

“That’s really what James Jamerson did at Motown, because all those songs he did before, he was playing upright bass, until he got that Fender and decided himself that ‘I’m gonna play this.’ Everybody else wasn’t down with it. 

“They were like, ‘We’re selling records with you playing upright bass.’ Know what I’m saying? He had to make that decision, and people don’t give him that credit, maybe because they don’t know. But that needs to be known. He made that decision.“ 

Did you know Jamerson? 

“I went to meet him one time in Detroit in 1972. That was a hell of a time, trying to get to meet him. They wouldn’t even let us into Motown, because we were dressed too weird, and we just weren’t looking right. We laughed about getting thrown out, but they were serious. So no, I didn’t get to meet him and I didn’t get to shake his hand. That was my dream. I didn’t have to play with him. I just wanted to meet him.“ 

Was ‘the one’ the focus of your bass playing from the moment you started playing, or did that come later on? 

“It probably came later, because I didn’t know what the one was, haha! I learned that from James Brown. It was predominant in his music, so I can’t take the credit for it. When I talk about it, it’s funny, because who would ever have thought that we would still be talking about it years and years later?

“It’s crazy, because even in today’s computer systems, you get that click on one. No matter where a musician’s one is at, you always come back to it, you know? Whether it be funk, jazz, 6/8, 7/8, whatever it is, you always know where that one is at. And so it goes for all kinds of categories.“  

Is part of the funk approach being strict about serving the groove, rather than showing off? 

“Yeah. That’s the part of it that’s so easy, but yet so hard. I learned that, starting over at [James Brown’s Cincinnati, Ohio label] King Records, those producers wanted you to groove in a certain amount of space. It wasn’t about you, or how much you could play. It was about ‘We’re doing a record, and we need you to accompany the music’. If you don’t learn like that, you don’t have to stick to that, but I learned like that.“ 

When did you begin to expand your style? 

“When I got with George Clinton, I was able to explore some freedom in the music. By that time, I was like ‘I didn’t think I was ever gonna be able to show that I could do this’, but one thing just led into another, and that led up until now. Musicians don’t have to think about that now. 

“All they have to think about now is being great. They can show off, but we didn’t have that kind of freedom. It was good for us, and it’s good for the musicians now because they have that opportunity. One door opens up for another one.“

So we need to let go of our egos, and serve the art? 

“Yeah. To me, that’s what it’s really all about. It’s not about, ‘I’m the greatest bassist in the world!’ You want to do great, but learn some kind of discipline as well. I’m not saying that people aren’t doing that, it’s just it was a big part of our growing up. We had to be like that, because we played with everybody, and you played whatever they felt they wanted. 

“James was telling me I was playing too much, like, ‘Give me the one and then play all that other stuff, but make sure you give me the one.’ James wouldn’t try to make nothing out of it. He just wanted to make sure the band was playing right, and I had to understand what the heck he was talking about, because I had never been told that. I had to quickly find out what this man was talking about. 

“Playing on the one with the drums became our signature, and that’s what made him happy, so it made me happy to see where he was at. When I went on over to George, now, I took that with me, because that’s what I had been taught. George saw it and felt it, and made a whole concept of everything being on the one. We just went crazy with the one, and it became our whole thing.“

I can’t think of a band that looked like more fun to be in than Parliament-Funkadelic. 

“Haha! That was so incredible. It was one of those things that you thought was going on forever. You never thought about the day after the next day. You was always into what you’re doing right now.“ 

It’s the privilege of youth – you don’t need to think about the future. 

“Yeah. It was just a beautiful thing. It was beautiful being with James too, but it was another kind of lesson, because you really wasn’t free to learn on your own. You were taught certain things to do, like how to dress and comb your hair and shine your shoes, but I needed that, because I didn’t have a father at home. James was great for all of that, but I didn’t realize until I got away how great that was for me.“ 

Quite a few bassists tell us that cannabis and LSD help them focus on the groove. Do you have a view on that?

“Well you know what, I think it’s another point of view. As far as locking in on a groove, I couldn’t do that. I was taking LSD to get out of the confines of what was going on around me. The groove was already there. LSD took me to other places while I was in the groove. 

“If I had took it to groove, I probably would never have made it, because it took me away from watching James so close. We had to watch his every move, because every move meant something, for the band. And if you missed it, it was a fine, or you’d get yelled at, or you got insulted. That was no fun, and when you did get insulted like that, if you’re on LSD, it’s okay, because all we did was crack up about it. So I think there’s different reasons for taking it.“  

Was acid a creative tool for you?

“It expanded my whole thinking, as far as being creative in writing, and making me realize that I was more a part of the groove than I thought. I understand what you’re saying: To get into that groove, I definitely understand that, because if you don’t have nothing else to worry about than the groove, then LSD would be a beautiful thing, haha! 

“But we had other things to worry about. I knew better than to take it, but James kind of pushed me to that point, and when I did, I don’t even remember what happened. So I know that that wouldn’t work for me, taking it to groove with James. That definitely wouldn’t work. 

Are you focused on good mental health? 

“Yes. That’s all a part of being creative. Everything we got is on loan, and we have to start treating it like that. If you lend me a car, I’ll get you that car back in the same shape or better, and bring it back to you washed and cleaned, because you went out of your way to do something for me. These bodies and these minds are all on loan, and we’ve got to start taking better care of them.“  

Is your best work ahead of you or behind you? 

“I think it’s ahead of me. I’m looking forward to what’s ahead, rather than living off my past. I look forward to the future, and I think that is critical for a musician. If you asked me if I want to go back and play with James again, the answer would be no. I’ve done that. 

“I want to play with George Benson, I want to play with Kingfish, I want to play with Béla Fleck. I want to see what we can come up with. That, to me, is the excitement. That’s the inspiration. To look back, for me, is kind of sad. I know people love that past, and I love it, too – but I don’t want to live in it!“  

• The Power Of The One is out now on Bootzilla Records.

Despite taking on the role of host of a new YouTube variety show, Cory Wong made space in his busy schedule to perform new single Bluebird, featuring Eddie Barbash, live on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, ahead of the release of his new album Cory and the Wongnotes.

Backed by a mammoth 11-piece house band, funk electric guitarist extraordinaire Wong stands front and center with Stay Human and The Late Show resident sax man Eddie Barbash to deliver a high-octane, funk-fueled performance on Colbert's #playathome series.

Supported by percussion virtuoso Negah Santos, regular Wong drummer Peter Janjic, and legendary session bass player Sonny T., Cory kicks off proceedings with a comical collapse through the ceiling, before picking up his Fender Strat to trade lines with Barbash.

After doing the rounds on an energetic hook embellished by Wong's typically tasty runs, listeners are treated to a solo from keys king Kevin Gastonguay.

Wong's performance of Bluebird comes in anticipation of the release of his first album of 2021, Cory and the Wongnotes – an 11-track tour-de-funk that has already been teased with the release of previous singles Coming Back Around and United.

As well as featuring guest performances from Eddie Barbash and The Hornheads, the album also boasts appearances from singer/guitarist Cody Fry and R&B powerhouse Antwaun Stanley.

You can preorder Cory and the Wongnotes now ahead of its release on February 5.

As we tentatively dip our toes in and test the metaphorical waters of 2021, Cory Wong has come along to drag us moving and grooving into the New Year with the announcement of his upcoming variety show, Cory and The Wongnotes.

Hot on the heels from a whirlwind 2020, which saw Wong release a blistering eight new albums, the master of funk shows no sign of slowing down with the announcement of a new online show, in which he plays talk show host, sketch show comedian and, of course, electric guitar groove extraordinaire.

Supported by a whole host of guest collaborators, including former Prince session player Sonny T. on bass, Wong regular Petar Janjic on drums and Kevin Gastonguay on keys, the 2:30 trailer gives us a glimpse of what the show has in store for fans of funky music and funny sketches.

Not only does Wong use his ridiculous right-hand technique and effortless grooves to tease us with snippets of new music, we also get a brief look at Wong's natural talents as a talk show host.

"Who is your favorite collaborator and why is it Cory Wong?" Wong jokingly asks his regular recording buddy Cody Fry, who can only laugh in reply.

Also lined up to take the hot seat are Negah Santos and Antwuan Stanley, both of whom take the stage alongside Cory Wong in what promises to be a dizzying display of musical talent and comedic brilliance.

The show arrives in weekly installments, with new episodes being released on YouTube every Thursday for the next eight weeks.

And if you thought everything above was already too good to be true, Wong further teased by asking, "Did I mention there's a new album of material from it as well?"

The trailer revealed a 14 January premiere date, so we thankfully don't have Wong to wait before the first episode drops.

Perhaps there is hope for 2021. Well, at least for the next eight weeks.

In case you’re wondering, it’s pronounced ‘krung-bin’. It’s a Thai word, meaning ‘aeroplane’, that increasing numbers of listeners have become familiar with solely because of the hypnotically danceable sound this Texan three-piece makes. 

By turns mellow and psychedelic then assertively funky, the band’s sound is embellished with intricate guitar lines that take their inspiration from the music of… everywhere, from Congolese pop to the jazz-fusion of Roy Ayers. That could be a recipe for a worthy but pretentious fare, but the band wears its influences lightly and unselfconsciously.

The engine room of the music is the combination of superb bassist Laura Lee and the slick but understated beats of drummer Donald ‘DJ’ Johnson. This perfect fit is then richly decorated by the vivid threads of guitarist Mark Speer’s guitar lines, which range from trippy washes of sound to intricate, evolving melodies. 

With the band’s third album hitting the streets, we joined the trio to talk about how they forge their unique sound.

Your first two albums were primarily instrumental, but Mordechai is full of soulful vocals. Why the switch?

Laura Lee: “We are very free-flowing in terms of what goes on our records. We don’t know what is going to happen until we are there. We threw vocals at the wall and they stuck and we liked them, so we went down that path for this record. That doesn’t mean anything for the next record.”

Playing bass while singing is notoriously difficult. Any tips?

Laura: “I didn’t have to play and sing at the same time in recording, but I will have to live [laughs]. The only tip is to practise over and over and over again, slow the song down and practise slowly and then build it up over time, which is what you do when you are learning any instrument. Your piano teacher will tell you to play along to a metronome until you get it right at the slow tempo – and then you move on.”

Mark Speer: “It’s not just Laura Lee singing, in fact. We are all going to be singing it live, so we have to find little landmarks. I’m like, ‘Okay, I know this word happens when I play this note.’ So you find your landmarks and then you fill in the gaps. That is usually how I do it.”

Mark, your guitar parts are often free-flowing and sometimes intricate extended melodies. How do you go about writing them?

Mark: “I generally just improvise and record what I’m improvising. Then I’ll go back and cut it up and move things around. You create an arrangement or a refined melody, then learn that melody, and then play that over and over until it feels very, very natural. Then that is pretty much how I compose parts. Then we play them together and record it. That is kind of it.”

Laura’s basslines are a beautiful balance of melody and economy. Do they tend to get written before Mark’s more ornate guitar lines go on?

Mark: “Yes, bass and drums first. And then I just come in and do my thing.”

Laura: “I mean, I think it works because we do put a stress on the bass and drums in all of our music – so I think it is good to have them come first. Otherwise, sometimes [bass and drums] can become supportive, but, also, Mark is super-expert [laughs], so I feel like it is good to give him a challenge to work around.

“You were talking before about the way Mark writes. We get to watch it in action, and it can take hours for him to figure out what his part is going to be on the song, but his guitar brain is infinite. He’ll play all kinds of different things on top of the same bassline. You’re talking, he could have 50 songs for every song, and then he takes parts from each of the takes and makes this beautiful thing out of it.”

Was the lilting guitar on the track So We Don’t Forget inspired by Malian guitarists such Ali Farka Touré?

Mark: “I do love Malian guitarists, but that specific one is inspired by Congolese music, specifically Franco. The Malian guitar style… I feel like it is pretty different. We did have a chance to hang out and play with Vieux Farka Touré [son of Ali Farka Touré] last year. So I learned a lot by being around him, but, yes, that specific song is quintessentially my interpretation of Franco.”

Mark, you’ve built up a huge collection of guitar music from all corners of the world. Have you noticed any unexpected similarities between playing styles from widely separate cultures?

Mark: “The most recent one that kind of blew my mind was I was listening to a lot of Ethiopian music. There is this specific scale in Ethiopian music where it is a pentatonic. It is like a minor scale but you get rid of the 4th and you get rid of the 7th. So it is basically one, two, minor three, five, minor six, and then eight again. When you hear it you are like, ‘Oh, okay, that is the Ethiopian scale.’ 

“But, also, the other place that I hear it a ton is in Japan. Almost the exact same scale, just the phrasing is slightly different, the inflections are a little bit different, and it is in Japanese. But that was really interesting – I don’t know if it is a coincidence or what, couldn’t tell you, because that is a bigger question, but I found that fascinating to hear those two scales that are the same in these two different cultures. Yes, that’s a neat one.”

Who is your favourite guitarist from outside of mainstream Western music?

Mark: “Oh, that is a good one. I love Takeshi Terauchi. He is a Japanese guitarist. I just love how he would take traditional Japanese folk songs and then play them on his electric guitar and his rock band. So it has that scale that I’m actually trying to look up right now, to figure out what it is called. But just his whole vibe, it rocks.

“I mean, he is kind of fuzzy, he does a ton of whammy work through the 60s and 70s so it sounds really, really wild. He does a really good job of approximating the sound of traditional Japanese string instruments inside of what he is doing. There are just some killer cuts by him.

“I also really love [Skatalites guitarist] Ernest Ranglin, and I guess, I don’t know, maybe you would consider reggae music to be mainstream music these days. But at a certain point it was certainly not.”

Do we also detect a bit of a Roy Ayers influence on this album?

Mark: “Without question, man. Roy Ayers is one of my favourites. That’s the guy. I always listen to Roy Ayers. Pretty much every day I listen to a Roy Ayers tune. That is the shit because I guess it’s part of the Khruangbin DNA. You got your funky, worldbeat kind of vibe with really melodic guitars, but on the other side you have the jazz chords and the Roy Ayers chords.

“What I really love about Roy is I’m going to take this really beautiful big Cminor7add9, with maybe a 4th in there, too. Just like this big chord, right? I’m just going to move it up to 4th, move it down to 3rd, move it down, you know, to 2nd. It is almost like you sample this wicked chord and just move it around like house music. I love that. So, yes, big time.”

Laura: “His music is also the definition of cool. It just oozes cool – and then I feel like the music is reflective of what you would imagine hanging out with Roy Ayers to be.”

Your recorded sound is always really punchy but also warm and natural sounding. How do you achieve that in the studio?

DJ: “I wish Steve [Christensen] were here, our engineer. He is the genius behind putting up all the mics and capturing this the way that he does. One of my favourite pieces of kit that he uses is the Coles 4038 ribbon microphone, which is fantastic. 

“I mean, pretty much wherever you place it – usually he places it right around the tom area – it just captures the entire kit. It sounds good and you could just use that one mic always if you wanted to. So it’s probably my favourite piece of gear.”

Laura: “I’m not a big gear person, but I think what he does is probably more simple than people imagine, or maybe it is exactly what they imagine. He always says with Khruangbin he just puts a few mics up and we just sound like us. 

“I think it is also he intuitively knows us better now as players because this is our, what, fifth recording session, sixth recording session with him. So he knows what he is going to get. We have pretty much stuck to our original formula from the beginning to now.”

Mark, you generally stick to a Strat and Deluxe Reverb. But the effects seem a bit more diverse on this record…

Mark: “I have been using the same pedalboard setup for pretty much every KB record. So the integral parts are the Dunlop Cry Baby, the Boss [PH-3] Phase Shifter, the Boss DS-1, the MXR Dyna Comp, an Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail. That’s for all the reverb – I don’t use the amp reverb. That is what usually happens on the record.

“On this album I also added an MXR Micro Chorus and a DigiTech Whammy. The Micro Chorus was just for things like So We Won’t Forget, and also Pelota, just to emulate a double-course instrument. That is why I’m using chorus, to get that two-string sound. 

“The Whammy is there on the very first track, First Class, to emulate those Roy Ayers chords, man. It just adds a 5th to everything I’m playing. It is not like I’m doing divebombs. That is not really my move [laughs].”

Where does the album’s title come from? It’s kind of unusual…

Laura: “I went through a lot last year, personally, just because I don’t think I realised how swept away I had got with touring and with just the world and lifestyle that I was living. I love it, I can’t wait to get back in it when the world allows for it again, but, yes, I hadn’t realised how taken away with it I got. 

“Reality becomes strange, especially because we turn into these alter egos when we are on stage. That persona holds up when we are in character for any stretch, backstage or with fans, and so when you are on tour I was ‘Laura Leezy’ [Laura’s flamboyant stage persona] more often than I was Laura Lee.

“So I was yearning to get in touch with myself off tour. I went camping with friends, which is a sort of bare-bones thing you can do. It is primal as it gets and while I was there I met a family that reminded me of my grandfather’s side of my family, including this guy named Mordechai, and he was great and we just hung out. 

“He heard that I had just come off this 10-week tour and my head was spinning. So he reached out and was like, ‘Hey, if you have time next week, come and hang out with me and my family.’ So I did and we went on this beautiful walk and it was really nurturing and really special to me. I thanked him the week after for taking me on it because I was like, ‘You’ll never know how much that walk meant to me. I needed it.’

“He was like, ‘Laura, everything is two ways and my twin sons will be able to say, for the rest of their lives, that they went on a hike with a rock star. So it is all good.’ Then it hit me in that moment, when he said that. I was like, ‘You know what? What if I named the album, Mordechai? Then his kids would really have something there, you know?

“There is a lot of darkness in the world around us and it is important to always see the light and spread the light. Not just be immersed in the dark. I think that experience was that for me. It was a light in the darkness, and I hope that our music can be that.”

• Khruangbin’s new album, Mordechai, is out now on Dead Oceans

Most of you are probably familiar with the two-beat “boom-chick” style of rhythm playing so prevalent in classic country music. You may be surprised to learn that the groove that drives, say, Hank Williams’s “Your Cheatin’ Heart” is not that far removed from the one that drives a funk song like the James Brown instrumental “Night Train.”

The basic two-beat pattern shown in Figure 1, with accents falling squarely on the beat, is typical of classic country and its European antecedents, styles where melody predominates over rhythm.

The first step on the road to funk is to inject more rhythmic energy into the pattern by doubling up on the bass notes and shortening the chord accents (Figure 2) while also replacing the major triad with a saltier dominant seventh chord.

This twist on the two-beat is typical of pre-funk New Orleans R&B, exemplified by recordings like Earl King’s original version of the Hendrix rave-up, “Come On (Part 1),” and Fats Domino’s swampy take on “When the Saints Go Marching In.”

Next, let’s add some 16th-note syncopation to the first chord accent. Sixteenth notes are the basic rhythmic currency of funk (Figure 3).

We’ll put more emphasis on the bass (Figure 4) with a line that would fit comfortably in a soul classic like Sam & Dave’s “Hold On, I’m Comin’.”

Finally, as illustrated in Figure 5, we can beef up the bass pattern further by harmonizing it in third intervals and adding percussive, 16th note ghost notes. (Playing tip: fret the chord but don’t press your fingers down.)

Hear these examples here:

Apply this same idea to a 12-bar blues progression (Figure 6) and you have a dance groove and form that have been familiar since the early Sixties, when the older, shuffle-dominated blues/R&B sound was branching into soul (epitomized by Booker T, et al.), Motown (check out Barrett Strong’s “Money [That’s What I Want]”) and modern blues (Freddy King’s instrumental “San-Ho-Zay” is built on the same pattern).

Meanwhile, the Godfather himself was setting the stage for the birth of funk with variations on the same groove, the king that can be heard in “Night Train.”