I cannot bring the funk :(

[Depth_Charge]

My band play "Hot Stuff" by Donna Summer, and usually I play a disco octave jumping "straight style", emphasising and breaking up the outro with stacatto notes. It sounds OK and grooves along quite nicely.

Recently I found this video of Hot Stuff:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8ikt0NGlqc

and thought I would try that bass players approach to the bassline.

I failed miserably. Timing was all over the place and I was missing notes and strings.

More practice and listening to funkier upbeat music is obviously in order, but any suggestions are also welcome!

[Rickett Customs]

I've found that if you utilize the "3 finger gallop style" ..ie ala Steve Harris, It may help you, give it a shot.

[hunta]

I'd be surprised if you could do the muting properly with 3 fingers but give it a shot. I guarantee the bassist in that clip is using 2. I would use 2.

[jro]

Man, I don't think I could manage that without practicing it a lot. Slow it way down and get the feel right first, then slowly ramp up the speed. My fingers are just to slow to do this line so I would either not do the triplets or do this version -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwsSZ...eature=related

[hunta]

Yea, no mistaking it. It's not an easy line. It may not be a ton of notes or machine gun speed metal playing, but it's tough. Practicing with a metronome at a slowed down tempo and slowly ramping up the bpm is all I can recommend really. It's all about the woodshed.

If you want to learn this style of playing I'd check out Anthony Vitti's Finger Funk Workbooks volume 1 and 2. Very good books with playalong CD's. They aren't easy either but if you can get through those books you will end up being a lot funkier.

[onlyclave]

Originally Posted by hunta

I'd be surprised if you could do the muting properly with 3 fingers but give it a shot. I guarantee the bassist in that clip is using 2. I would use 2.

He's using 3 fingers. You can see over her right shoulder at around 1:50 and again around 2:30. His first finger is on the low notes and his 2nd and 3rd are the 16th notes on the octave.

[hunta]

Mmm.. I don't think he's actually plucking with 3 fingers. It may kind of look like it from the video but he is most likely muting with his other fingers. If it was a better shot on higher quality video maybe you could say for sure. It definitely sounds like 2 fingers to me. If I have some time tonight I'll try it and see.

[relayer66]

The bass player really does bring the "Hot Stuff"...I think it is definitely a Larry Graham inspired bass line.
I must listen to more Larry Graham...I'll start with "Dynamite"!

[tomvelsor]

funk is a non-exact science..nobody can teach you how to become funky, its something you have to aqure yourself, in your own way..sounds to me like you just need more time getting comftorble with your instrument.

[Bruce Lindfield]

I can remember being intrigued by funky octave-y bass lines in the 1970s and I noticed that a lot of the best players I saw, would use a technique where their right-hand thumb plucked the lower notes and the first two fingers played the higher notes - so you had like a fixed octave position for your right hand, which didn't move that much - leading to economy of motion.

I can remember trying it and finding it very comfortable for fast disco bass lines..? It's not slap - but just a way of playing fast lines that cover octaves.

[bwv1013]

Originally Posted by Bruce Lindfield

I can remember being intrigued by funky octave-y bass lines in the 1970s and I noticed that a lot of the best players I saw, would use a technique where their right-hand thumb plucked the lower notes and the first two fingers played the higher notes - so you had like a fixed octave position for your right hand, which didn't move that much - leading to economy of motion.

I can remember trying it and finding it very comfortable for fast disco bass lines..? It's not slap - but just a way of playing fast lines that cover octaves.

i use that very technique quite often. carry over from classical guitar but works great for bass as well.

[Depth_Charge]

Thanks for all the useful advice! I know my first mistake was trying to play it cold without woodshedding it, but at the time I wanted to see how much I could "feel the funk". Not much apparently

I'll take a few of the suggestions on board, grab those books if I can ever afford non-essentials again and have a play with the techniques suggested to see which fit my playing style.

Bruce, just out of curiosity did using the thumb in that manner improve your slap playing at all? Or have a detrimental effect to it? The reason I ask is I have a very heavy thumb and when I try to slap or use my thumb (Vic Wooten double thumb style etc) I practically assault my poor bass and it sounds awful! As a result, I don't slap at all, which I believe might be rather anti-funk in itself

[tradernick]

Originally Posted by Depth_Charge

I failed miserably. Timing was all over the place and I was missing notes and strings.

More practice is obviously in order, but any suggestions are also welcome!

The comment above about needing to develop your own 'funk' is pretty accurate; it's a hard thing to teach. For that, we should all listen to the Meters once a day

However, if a part is presenting purely technical challenges, you can take a technical approach. I use the program called Transcribe to do lifts all the time. You can slow the music down while retaining pitch information. If you're trying to lift a complex part (i.e. Jeff Berlin's part on "Joe Frazier" or something like that) it sure helps to hear it at 50% speed in the same key as the full speed version.

Maybe you can try getting Transcribe and then playing along at a slower speed and gradually speeding up. This is a great way to practice parts that are presenting strictly technical challenges. Feel... that's a different story.

Good luck with it

Nik

(Disclaimer: I have absolutely nothing to do with Transcribe except that I use it)

[Bruce Lindfield]

Originally Posted by Depth_Charge

Thanks for all the useful advice! I know my first mistake was trying to play it cold without woodshedding it, but at the time I wanted to see how much I could "feel the funk". Not much apparently

I'll take a few of the suggestions on board, grab those books if I can ever afford non-essentials again and have a play with the techniques suggested to see which fit my playing style.

Bruce, just out of curiosity did using the thumb in that manner improve your slap playing at all? Or have a detrimental effect to it? The reason I ask is I have a very heavy thumb and when I try to slap or use my thumb (Vic Wooten double thumb style etc) I practically assault my poor bass and it sounds awful! As a result, I don't slap at all, which I believe might be rather anti-funk in itself

Well - I think it is a case of getting comfortable with integrating your thumb into your right hand playing style - I found this useful for all sort of things - muting lower strings, playing harmonics as part of chords, artficial harmonics etc. etc.

I'm comfortable with slap - although I have never been interested in using this as something to impress others with how fast you can do it. I think the thing is not to think that you are going to hit the bass as hard as you can - the lighter the touch, the better, in this case. How lightly can you slap and still get a nice-sounding note..?

So - using your thumb for octave disco bass lines can help on this.

[namraj]

its just a simple triplet feel line, try using alternate thumb finger picking on the note, or rolling it with 2 fingers and a thumb, shouldn't be too hard x

[blackmail man]

the funk originates from the pelvis..

once you get those thrusts goin, you dont have to worry about right hand technique at all!

sleazey funk is played from the hips..

[Bruce Lindfield]

Originally Posted by namraj

try using alternate thumb finger picking on the note, or rolling it with 2 fingers and a thumb, shouldn't be too hard

Well - I've just spend the last 2 or 3 posts talking about this!!

Are you actually reading the thread..?

[51m0n]

You CAN do octave skips with three fingers like this.

I do it (actually the opposite, two 16ths on the low octave one on the high octave, which I find the harder variation) in the chorus of a cover of Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick. It makes it possible to play this stuff in a single right hand motion. Never thought of the thumb M I to do this, I would have just modified the technique I use on HMWYRS. In either case left handing muting takes care of muting the ringing perfectly alongside right hand muting (never understood how anyone can truly claim to only mute with the left or right hand rather than a combination, thats just me)

You cant expect to just do this stuff without some serious time finding a technique that suits you and working on it to make it fluid enough to be funky. Once you get a technique for something like this you then have to be careful not to over use it of course, otherwise you'll find yourself employing it for root five country basslines and asking us why you got fired

[namraj]

Originally Posted by Bruce Lindfield

Well - I've just spend the last 2 or 3 posts talking about this!!

Are you actually reading the thread..?

There isnt that much octive play going on, and no i don't even like donna summers, just wanted to make the point that it was a technique that I use and have perfected and could see how it was done, there was no need 4 the aggression, I don't have the time 2 read the thread. but i can bring the funk x

[Bruce Lindfield]

Originally Posted by namraj

there was no need 4 the aggression, I don't have the time 2 read the thread. but i can bring the funk x

There was no aggression - I just think if you are going to take part in a thread, then you need to read all the posts and take part in the "conversation" - I see it as rude to ignore other posts = not listening.

If you haven't got time - then don't take part - simple!