How to make a funky bassline

Pete C · #1 02-25-2007, 11:45 PM

I've been trying to make a funky bassline without slapping and I just can't seem to do it. Are there any general notational choices that funk players make? I noticed Bootsy plays a lot of his chords only on the E string. Is that part of it?

dragon5363 · #2 02-25-2007, 11:51 PM

No... i like skipping around string to string. Everyone has their own methods and preferences. Just star t jamming- its all in your head! Get a feeling or emotion and latch on to it. Then let your fingers become that feeling.
If you mess around long enough, something good will come out. The key is patience.

markjazzbassist · #3 02-25-2007, 11:53 PM

funk is all about the rhythm. so get a bunch of different funk albums and listen to them a lot, and try and learn all the basslines and incorporate it into your playing. after doing this enough, the next time you go to write a "funky" line, it'll come real easy.

Linkert · #4 02-26-2007, 01:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by markjazzbassist

funk is all about the rhythm. so get a bunch of different funk albums and listen to them a lot, and try and learn all the basslines and incorporate it into your playing. after doing this enough, the next time you go to write a "funky" line, it'll come real easy.

That worked great ! Thank you

trasser · #5 02-26-2007, 10:27 AM

Buying a lot of albums and transcribing the basslines will definately help, but it is a long and difficult process. I'd say start jammin' to some funk. What I do, is that I go to this website www.pandora.com and create a radiostation with my favorite funk bands /bassists - say, Victor Wooten, Bootsy, Marcus Miller. Then a lot of funk-style music will come up, and I just start jamming.

Liten · #6 02-27-2007, 09:06 AM

Define "Funky bassline" ??

Are we talking Wooten/Miller/any other modern style bassline??
Or are we talking Ol'shool stuff??
There are quite a few ways to describe "Funky bassline".. All wich require different tecniques..

Id start of with the notes you dont play.. dead / x / muted notes... get into any rhythm that rocks your boat..
Start of with 8ths.. then 16ths.. then when you get into it.. start applying any random note... still muting some in between..... then.. swich the note around.. pretty soon youl be on your way over to the studying of scales .. cus those pentatonics get pretty old after just a little bit..

www.studybass.com - Great site!

EDIT: This is just one way of doing one version on fingerstyle of funk.. this is by no means a this is the way to go post.. just one of the things I try to get my students to do..

Listen to Prestia of the Tower Of Power group.. GREAT GREAT stuff.. just about all of it..

Pete C · #7 02-27-2007, 09:38 AM

Quote:

Are we talking Wooten/Miller/any other modern style bassline??
Or are we talking Ol'shool stuff??

I'm thinking like Funky Nassau or Superstition type basslines.

tocoadog · #8 02-27-2007, 01:23 PM

Add lots of space and dominant chord structures. Try G7. Listen to James Brown, his stuff is usually on the one. My first bass instructor told me the less notes you play, the funkier it sounds. Internalize the beats...1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and OR 1 e and a, 2 e and a...and play off-beat. Work with your metronome or drum machine. First funk song I learned what "Papa was a rolling stone" by the Temptations. Bassline is funky and easy to play and internalize. Try the Big Payback by James Brown. Extremely funky and lots of space. Hope this helps.

beggar98 · #9 02-27-2007, 01:27 PM

A cool way to come up with an interesting funk line is to write a riff of sixteenth notes around your arpeggio. Once you have the riff down, start leaving out some of the notes. It might help to play daed notes in the gaps until you get more comfortable.

Chasarms · #10 02-27-2007, 01:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by markjazzbassist

funk is all about the rhythm. . .

Exactly. Some of the funkiest stuff you hear is just a guy working the box. It's not typically that complicated compositionally.

Funky is about how you work the down beat. Push it. Pull it. Ghost it. Pickup to it. Maybe leave it out altogether and play on the up beat.

You also have to leave some air in the line. Busy is not funky.

chaosMK · #11 02-27-2007, 03:46 PM

I've never understood how to write funky basslines that were any good. I've been playing for 9-10 years at that.

I've gotten pretty good at the prog metal thing though.

**Freddels** · #12 02-28-2007, 06:26 AM

If you want to play funky basslines you have to listen to funky music. I'd suggest starting with a lot of James Brown.

Liten · #13 02-28-2007, 06:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chasarms

You also have to leave some air in the line. Busy is not funky.

I agree to all you said.. exept the above statement.. Busy CAN be funky.. ass H*ll... IF your "in time"..

Check out "You Got To Funkifize" on the TOP album Bump City from 73. or was it 74?.. hold that line and then tell me Busy ain't funky..

I beleve there is no typically or generally when it comes to funk.. just "in time".. wich by the way is an EXELENT song by sly'n the family stone.. (Rusty Allen puts that line down.. not Larry Graham.. You didn't whant slap right? Cus then Larry's someone you don't whant to miss...)
talk about funky basslines.. that song will set you off REAL good!!!

Vandelay · #14 02-28-2007, 06:45 AM

You can make almost any bass line a little funkier by playing a sixteenth-note or two that leads into the "one" beat. Basically just do a quick walkup to the "one", then leave a bit of space right afterwards, then repeat.

Kenny Allyn · #15 02-28-2007, 06:46 AM

If it's old skool finger style your after a lot of that is how you fall in and out of being on the beat or being behind it and coming back to it ... as an example on the old Aretha Franklin tune "Think" about every 3rd pass on the pattern I'll drop so far behind the beat with a pickup run that walks back up and then nails the one that it's like watching a guy on a tightrope that you think is gonna fall off and then recovers ... creates a lot of tension in the music.

... Also Sooo much has to do with right hand technique ... muting and starting and stopping notes

Bobbo 77" · #16 02-28-2007, 07:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tocoadog

Add lots of space and dominant chord structures. Try G7. Listen to James Brown, his stuff is usually on the one. My first bass instructor told me the less notes you play, the funkier it sounds. Internalize the beats...1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and OR 1 e and a, 2 e and a...and play off-beat. Work with your metronome or drum machine. First funk song I learned what "Papa was a rolling stone" by the Temptations. Bassline is funky and easy to play and internalize. Try the Big Payback by James Brown. Extremely funky and lots of space. Hope this helps.

Nuff' said! Jaaaaaaamzz Brown. tocoadog took the word's out of my mouth. If your new to Funk/Soul, then go to the man who wrote the book!
Bobbo 77"

fcleff · #17 03-02-2007, 04:59 PM

Listen to James Jamerson.

bikeplate · #18 03-02-2007, 05:00 PM

Hi

Lots of space. Also, learn to play ghost notes. Take some lessons

Rob