11

The grooves
Basic instrumentation:
• Drumset.
• Electric bass (played with the fingers rather than a pick).
• Electric guitars (usually two).
• Keyboards, including synthesizer, in later versions.
• Lead and background vocals.
• Horns.

Harmony: In early funk, chord progressions are usually limited to blues progressions or one-
chord vamps with a bridge and release. In later versions, the harmony can be more varied and
jazz-influenced, including diatonic triads and 7th chords, chromatic chords like secondary
dominants, blues chords, and borrowed chords (modal interchange).

Melody: Funk melodies are often rhythmic in nature with a call-and-response approach
between lead vocal and band. Vocal scats and screams are common.

Meter: 4/4 is most common.

Key rhythms: Usually a sixteenth-note groove with multi-layered parts connecting in various
ways from a tight-to-loose approach. The downbeat of the measure, called “the one,” is an
important focus. Drums play kick drum on beat 1 and snare on beat 2 with ghosted notes
in the snare displaying the New Orleans march influence. Sixteenth-notes sometimes swing
displaying the later influence of hip hop. Usually one guitar is more percussive (playing a
“scratch” figure) and the other more melodic, but this approach can vary.

track 6
Early Funk in the
James Brown style
q = 130
C� . . . . . . . .
4
& 4 .. Œ Û Œ Û Œ Û Œ Û Œ Û Œ Û Œ Û Œ Û ..
F
Guitar

C� j 2
? 44 .. œ ‰ ¿ œ œ ‰ ¿ œ œ bœ nœ ..
˙ «
F
Bass

4        
/ 4 ..  ..
       
‰ J ‰ J Œ   ‰  ‰  Œ ’ ’ ’ ’ ’ ’ ’ ’
J J
Drums

F
Simile
1 2 3 4

2 • funk