Beginner Funk Bass Made Simple (Bootsy’s Funk Formula)

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Hail Jazzbass!

thanks to @joergkutter for the in depth post.

My quick response is this:

The major scale acts as the ruler or standard-measuring-system for all intervals.

Minor scales, when described using integers, are described in relationship to the major scale.

A natural minor scale would be described as: 1,2,b3,4,5,b6,b7

It is normal for minor scales to have a b7, but the nomenclature remains: you say/write b7 when describing any scale or chord that has the seventh tone a whole step below the root.

Hope that helps?

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This is how I remembered it when I learned theory. The major scale was the standard and everything else could be described as differences from it. It’s a simplification, but a really really useful one.

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This is all quite interesting. I actually find I like music theory a lot, but realize not everyone does. :nerd_face:

Is there a good book anyone could recommend - maybe something not super beginner level, but not too advanced either, something that’s engaging rather than dry would be a plus as well? It seems like a book is going to be better here rather than a YT video.

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Thank you, @joergkutter . . . I’ll bookmark this post for further study. I was not thinking about “flat sevenths” the same way as you or @Gio describe it here. I’m confusing the fret positions with the notes with the intervals, with the octaves, etc. etc.

I completed Josh’s course, and can play the tunes, and know a number of songs, and practice every day. I’m studying John Entwistle and can actually play some of his stuff, BUT music theory really leaves me totally confused.

I suppose you could say that I’m trying to do calculus without knowing the multiplication tables, or algebra . . . :frowning:

At any rate, thank you and also @Gio for your replies. I’ll just have to keep at it.

All best, Joe

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It can indeed be a little confusing, @Jazzbass19 and especially if one is not super clear and consistent in how certain terms are being used. You can certainly make great music without much knowledge about musical theory (and there are many examples of musicians out there who have a great natural sense for music without being able to explain what they are doing in terms of harmonic theory etc), but learning more about this stuff is going to be so beneficial as a bass player in the long term, i.e., when you are faced with new music that someone just composed and you have to come with a bass line. Or, you want to compose yourself…

Just take it as an intellectual challenge! Good luck!

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@Vik: I was/am collecting bits and pieces of musical wisdom from all over the internet and trying to process and arrange it so that it makes sense for me. I have not done a more in-depth research into what books you can get, because of my earlier experience with this subject (and we are talking 20+ years ago), where most books I tried to read on harmonic theory left me dumbfounded after two or three pages.

A ultimate contemporary source on all this is probably Rick Beato’s book (https://rickbeato.com/products/the-beato-book), but I have not dared yet to dive down that particular rabbit hole…

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OK, @Gio . . . between your and @joergkutter’s explanation, I think I understand:

In @JoshFossgreen’s funk box video, he says to use “D, fifth, flat seventh, and octave”. D is the root or “the one”. I need to keep going back to “the one” on a 4/4 beat and use the other three notes any way I want, in any order . . . right so far?

The seventh note of the D major scale is a C#. So I need to “flat” that to a C. Thus the notes to be played are D, A, C, D.

The seventh note of a D minor scale is just a natural C. The fifth of a D minor scale is also a natural A (like the D major scale), and an octave is an octave in any scale . . . so either way, I’m still playing the same four notes: D, A, C, D, right?

What helped me in figuring this out was to make a little chart of D major and D minor notes with numbers 1-8 in between, and saw that it matched up with what you both said:

D–E–F#–G–A–B–C#–D
1-- 2—3—4—5—6—7— 8

D–E—F—G—A–Bb-C—D
1—2—b3–4—5–b6–b7–8

Further digging around shows that a flat seventh can be played “below” or “above” the root, but if it were played “below” here (i.e. 2 frets down from D), then it would be outside the “funk box”.

Somebody please tell me if I got all this correct . . . :confounded:

My very last question (I promise): why is the key signature D minor? Any reason for that?

Thanks very much and all best, Joe

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First: awesome process, @Jazzbass19!

The two quotes you used (from @Gio and myself) say exactly the same, albeit using different nomenclature.

Your charts are spot-on and you got almost all the music theory right (as far as I can tell). However, when you say “you need to flat the C# to a C”, you sort of say that you adjust the scale to conform with the funk box. That is not “allowed”. What I mean is you can’t just flat the seventh in a major scale, because then we no longer call it the major scale, but it is now a different scale (it is, in fact, the myxolydian scale).

BUT, as long as the chord (played by the piano or guitar) you are dealing with is a simple D major chord, it only consists of the triad (root-major third-fifth, i.e., D-F#-A). In that case, you can add the flat seventh from the funk box without any problem! If, however, there was a D major 7 chord, which is composed of the triad + the major seventh (i.e., D-F#-A-C#), then, of course, you can’t use the C.

So, as you have concluded, the note selection of the “funk box” is kind of like a “one size fits (almost) all”, as they can be played along (in your example) a D major chord, a D minor chord, a D minor 7 chord, and a D dominant 7 chord (which is D-F#-A-C), but NOT with a D major 7 chord!

The reason why the key is given as D minor is that while you can “get away” with playing the notes of the funk box here, sometimes you might want to use other notes as well, and then you need to know the key more specifically, in order to specifically avoid the major third or the major sixth (here: F# and B) and only use notes from the minor scale.

Finally, the “box” metaphor has nothing really to do with the underlying harmonic theory, but is a visual aid and stems from the fact how the bass works (mainly, the A string is a fourth up from the E string, the D string is a fourth up from the A string etc). It is easiest to memorize this as a box starting with the root, and the notes in the box can be conveniently fretted without much hand movement, but the notes you identified (D, A, C, D) can be found again and again all over your fretboard, and they are all equally valid.

I hope this is not more confusing that it is helpful! In any case, please keep asking :smile:

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Well done @Jazzbass19! I saw that @joergkutter went into the details, so I’ll just chime in with general stuff.
I would, actually, not worry overmuch about the details beyond what you discovered and explained in your post above.

Yes, you did flat the 7 of the major scale, and that’s exactly how I would describe it as well.

You have all the notes correct, as well as their interval relationship. You also have Josh’s funk formula dialed in. Alllll good.

You got the idea, and yes, the flat 7 can be played an octave below.
yes, it does take you out of the literal box, buuuuhhhht -

The funk box is a very-much simplified structure for teaching and learning purposes. As soon as you see a way to expand the vocabulary of the box (by - for example - playing notes in the box in different octaves, as you described) - kudos to you. Do it, and blessings on you and your family.

For your last question - I would slightly vary my answer from joergkutter. Key signatures have been an imperfect device since forever. There will always be variation and deviancy from the key signature - BUT!
It is helpful for telling the players where home is, and what the basic tonality is. If the key is D minor, you have a real good idea that you’re dealing with D as home, and the basic vibe will be in the minor sound world.
There are a million variations that will then come into play, but for the time being - treat key signature as a basic guide to home and tonality.

Hope it helps.
Lots of firehose drinking happening in this thread. Hope some of it quenches the thirst, and it doesn’t all just blast you around the neighborhood!

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@Gio as always cutting right to the main important stuff with scalpel precision! It shows that you are teaching music, while I am teaching science :grin:

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That’s my short answer too @Jazzbass19 - musicians tend to say “flat 7” colloquially to refer to a minor seventh, whether it’s actually altering the 7th to say that or not. Somebody saying “flat 7” would never mean lowering an already-minor 7th into a diminished 7th - you’d just call that a diminished 7th.

Also, “flat 7” is always in reference to scale degrees / chord tones, whereas the term “minor 7th” could be scale degree / chord tone terminology, or the name of an interval (i.e. the distance from B up to A).

And also echo this sentiment:

@Vik this book is pretty good, much less dry than the theory textbooks I suffered through in college:
https://www.amazon.com/All-About-Music-Theory-Understanding/dp/1423452089

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Important funkiverse update! Bootsy just put out this sick new track with some snippets from that same old instructional video I referred to in this lesson:

Too cool!

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Bootsy watched your video and was like… “yabba dabba doo, baby. I’m pretty damn cool. Time to make some funky riffs on the ONE!”

And then, this.

You should get co-writer on this.

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Haha, nice! It was this lesson on the YT Bassbuzz channel that caused me to find Bassbuzz in the first place. Gotta love Bootsy for that, but yeah, you should get co-writer credits :slight_smile:

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Sweet! Superfunkay.

Computer graphics geekout moment - I absolutely loved the cell shading on the horn players. Even when in frame with others, they were always flat cell shaded. Looked killer.

Some great tone on that Warwick. So many pickups.

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Bootsy speaking the interplanetary truth of space funkitude on the one.

“Oh, You give me power baby.”

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There was a series called tales from the tour bus and one of the shows was Bootsy. It chronicled him and his brother before and during his stint with James Brown whom he credits with teaching him the religion of “One”. When he was fired and went back home and through a friend connected with George Clinton and taught him the One. Its a great series, if you get he chance to see it this episode was season 2 which was focused on funk. Through the interviews one thing that came up was that when parliament changed from their stage clothes they looked like everyone else but Bootsy was Bootsy on stage and off. The power of One

mike-judge-presents--tales-from-the-tour-bus-s2-mike-judge-presents--tales-from-the-tour-bus-s2-ep1-box-cover-hbob0190126145031005-20190126062054
mike-judge-presents--tales-from-the-tour-bus-s2-mike-judge-presents--tales-from-the-tour-bus-s2-ep1-box-cover-hbob0190126145031005-20190126062054947×533 82.8 KB

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The Story of the Space Bass:

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I watched the whole second season last night. So good.
10/10 - Would watch again.

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@JoshFossgreen What module should this go with?

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