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Excellent Funk Piano Resource

By Paul | February 4, 2008

A key element to playing in an unfamiliar musical form is to get a feel for the style’s characteristic rhythm patterns. This is usually most easily done by listening to (and/or playing) a lot of music in the style you wish to incorporate into your playing. If you do this, you’ll notice that most styles have a characteristic rhythm. In the case of funk, semi-quavers (quarter notes) - particularly preceding longer notes (e.g. crotchets) - play an important role.

I’d been trying to create some funk riffs and motifs on the piano, but I hadn’t got around to creating anything overwhelming when I came across Jonathon Wilson’s “How to Play a Funk Groove: Piano Lessons” free online video tutorial.

To get a quick taste of just how good this video series is, take a look at the clip where Jonathon expertly demonstrates all the skills he teaches in the series. Even if piano isn’t your thing, I think you’ll be suitably impressed.

I hope to incorporate all these techniques into my own playing within the next month or so. Many of the ideas - both in the bass and the right hand - are very bluesy. The most substantial difference is in the rhythm and interplay between the hands - and I suspect this will be the main challenge in assimilating the funk style.

It is one thing to copy a few funk grooves and another entirely to develop a personal approach. I intend to create some funk grooves of my own, but I think I’ll need to do a serious amount of listening to funk music first!

Topics: Music, Piano |

One Response to “Excellent Funk Piano Resource”

  1. Jonathon Wilson Says:
    April 2nd, 2008 at 2:24 am

    Hi Paul!

    Thanks for the nice words!

    By the way — I have posted a PDF with the music for the techniques in the series on my website at http://www.aqua-web.com/2007/11/17/how-to-play-a-funk-groove-on-the-piano/

    There’s also a second series on 30 blues piano licks that you might find interesting. I look forward to hearing you jam sometime!

    - Jonathon

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