How many sponges do you have crammed into your bridge? More sponge = more funk.
Solid advice, here (aside from mine, haha) – Just remember, you might not think it’s super impressive right now, but starting out with those “hit it on the one” exercises will pay off in the long run as you come into your own as a bassist and will start needing to keep track of the beat with all kinds of notes flying around it. And I think Josh said it in one of his videos or somewhere on this forum that every bassline, no matter how simple, is worth taking seriously as you practice.
Hey, this is another actionable advice, I am currently at a meager value of zero sponges in my bridge so I can have a relative improvement of +infinity by adding one!
Sponges accomplish muting of strings. Many, if not most, players learn to mute with either hand. That is a more valuable, actionable thing to master as you will be able to mute/not mute as the line requires.
One very actionable course of action is studying Dan Hawkins’ Funk course. He teaches everything the aspiring a-funk-cionado needs to know to be able to get down with one’s bad self.
I agree. For the classic, and persistent, Motown sound, a sponge is a good set-it-and-forget-it solution. For other styles, including funk, a player’s ultimately better off learning how to selectively mute strings on the fly.
Of course, that takes work, practice, and time. But what about learning proper bass technique doesn’t require that holy trinity of technique building?
Funk is feel. But to express that feel well requires technique mastery.
Yes, I know, I was joking (as you can infer by the +infinity ratio of improvement )
I do enjoy silly jokes, or - as my kids tell me - “dad jokes”.
On the other hand, I am focusing a lot on learning how to mute (without sponges). This is a field where I have registered some concrete improvement, if I may say so!
It’s all good. The key to learning a musical genre is first really wanting to. Desire is the most powerful motivator. You clearly have that, so you’re already in the hunt.
Feeling the music comes from listening to it and having it move you.
To be able to play it, you need to learn how players create the sounds and rhythms you feel = technique.
There are some great examples of players breaking down the bare essentials, and more, in this thread. Also great advice by BassBuzzers. And, finally, a link to a full-on course of study for those interested in really learning funk from the one.
I can’t remember who said it but when asked about his funky bass lines he commented, “I play the same notes as everybody else. I just play them shorter.”
Nope.
I took a lesson with Bobby Vega (Sly and the Family Stone (post Larry Graham), Etta James, Tower Of Power (when Rocco was out), he’s a funk legend…).
I wanted to know the thing that you’re asking.
The lesson was long and meandering, and we played little and talked lots.
His main musical point was - funk is the sound of everything - it’s the groove the whole band is making.
It’s the interplay of all the parts and instruments.
He sent me home with a selection of over 20 of his CDs, including a box set of Richard Pryor stand up (‘that’s everything right there’).
Funk is vibe and the sound of all of it.
So I just listened to and tried to learn as much of the music on that soundtrack as I could.
It started with the James Brown box set.
That’s a great place to start.
But another way to think about answering that questions would be - what’s a type of music you feel really comfortable and confident in? Maybe just listening - not even playing.
How would you define that music for someone? A listener, or a player?
What level of listening and experience and time do you need with a genre before you can really understand it and get it and know it?
To, as they say, grok it?
I walked away from that lesson with Bobby Vega scratching my head and wondering “what the hell was that all about?”
And then, 2 years later, when I finally gave him back his CDs, I felt like I was starting to actually get it.
You have to treat every genre like a language.
What makes Italian Italian?
What makes English English?
It’s easier to explain when you can speak it well and you’ve spent the time… otherwise the answers are all just this:
So, to avoid making playing funk the equivalent of “bippity boppity boopity…” I go with the Bobby Vega lesson.
Do everything you can to cop the entire groove of the band, and get to know those grooves through constant, deep listening.
And Richard Pryor.
Thanks for your insight, this is the kind of wonder that I am facing. I think that you made this reference not by chance, since I happen to speak both Italian, as a mother-tongue speaker, and English (you judge how good an english speaker I am, but I am more or less able to express myself).
Do I grok them? When I am using english, I don’t “think” in Italian and translate: rather my “inner wirings” switch to a different state.
I have not made this jump with music, yet.
To me, it’s a bit like when one learns to drive a car: at first you think about the driving wheels, the gears, the brake. And you decompose each choice in a series of required movements: but in that way you are not driving yet. When you drive, you don’t think in terms of “now I will push such and such, turn such and such, …” you think “I want to go to Chicago and I need to fix the cigarette lighter”…
I am still very far from this stage… Right now I am still looking for a “dictionary” from “English” (or Italian) to “Bass” and the specific dialect of “funk” . Grooveful is helping me a bit!
Another thing to consider when trying to figure out funk is history. Genres of music don’t exist in vacuums; they evolve from other places and people. Ask yourself:
Who created this type of music?
Who plays this music best?
What was their musical journey?
What are their cultural influences?
What happened to them historically that contributed to how they experience music?
I feel like this may have been what Bobby Vega was getting at, @Gio , especially by including Richard Pryor. I could be wrong, but I got a feeling…
I really like funk music too, and love either listening to it, or playing it as funky as I can. The problem I have is in my band, well, we’re not a funk band. So when the drummer starts, I can do the One no problem, but I find it difficult to get a really solid funk going (if I try), because the drums aren’t in a funky pattern, and neither is the synth player or the guitarist.
So I have to just make my own stuff up at home most of the time.
And absolutely, +1 to this.
The real answer is always time consuming and complicated and not amenable to a one hour lesson. That’s why I went away with a portable Funk History lesson… and the homework of listening and transcribing forever. Yes yes yes to this.
This is one of the most accurate sentences ever, with endless opportunity for application. Music is art, and art, at its fundamental core, is a human response to their experience of world around them. When we come across art we don’t get, it’s usually because we are missing information about how it came to exist.
Learning can be messy, but is worth every second invested. Thanks for sharing your experience with Bobby Vega!
