Whern Will it all Translate Into Funk?!?

[beaglegod]

I'm still finding things to learn, and still surprising myself with how much I don't know.

I hear ya Bill , I was just teasin ya. Actually my current bass teacher used this analogy on me when trying to show me that it shouldnt take years and years to get fairly profficient on the instrument. However I think I have to somehow include learning songs by ear in my routine to help the process along.

As far as mastery of bass.... well I dont think that ever will end.

 

[bianchijustin]

Listen to Earth, wind and fire. Nuff said.

 

[needmoney]

Dude, forget all the scales and all that. When are you ever going to use super-locrian in a funk tune?!

If you wanna play funk, then transcribe a boatload of funk and go join a funk band. You'll seriously learn a heap more by just listening, learning and analyzing everything Jamerson plays.

 

[Alaska Bass]

...and then you will know how to duplicate what others have done in the funk tradition.

Or you can continue on the path you have started on, and one day others will "transcribe a boatload of (your) funk and go join a funk band". Perhaps one day your name could even be considered a "Jamerson". BTW, I thought he was a partial foundation of Motown, not funk. If everyone had just copied his playing, funk could not have emerged; it was changing what had been previously done by others that created funk... and rock for that matter.

You're on the right track, don't let anyone derail you.

 

[MtManiac]

Jamerson created funk, IMHO... of course, Funk meant something slightly different than it did later - it was a way of approaching music, rather than a genre. Jamerson found the Way of Funk, thanks also to the invention of the P bass. Without either of those... no funk.

 

[JimK]

WoW! It doesnt take nearly that long to become a surgeon!

We're talking "art"...not "science".

 

[JimK]

Dude, forget all the scales and all that. When are you ever going to use super-locrian in a funk tune?!

Maybe not in a classic Funk cover band/tune...
There is Jazz-Funk & "chromatic/angular Funk" (e.g. Miles Davis' '80s band with Marcus Miller & Tom Barney or The Brecker Brothers Band).

If the OP wants to practice his scales in a Funk feel/vibe...I say go for it.

And, no doubt, working his way through Jamerson (get the book/cds SITSOM & the various recordings), Stax, James Brown/JB's would be a helluva intro.

 

[JimK]

Earlier in this thread, I mentioned Wooten's "2 through 10"-
In case someone didn't know, here are "1 through 10"-

1) Notes: melody, harmony, etc.
2) Articulation: the duration of each note, how it starts and ends
3) Technique: the means to reproduce what you want to play as naturally as possible
4) Feel: creating emotion or 'energy in motion'
5) Dynamics: volume, or the lack thereof
6) Rhythm: finding the pulse of Music, or Life
7) Tone: using tonality to generate emotion
8) Phrasing: working around the rhythm
9) Space: the 13th note
10) Listening: how what you play works with what everyone else is doing around you.

They are equally important...although maybe too much emphasis is placed on NOTES. I'm sure we have all heard guys that can play all the notes...but something is "missing" in their music.

Learning the 12 notes & their associated scales/modes is the easy part...it's the "2 through 10" that takes a lifetime to work through. A surgeon should have it so difficult.