Funk Études
Three full funk pieces that put scratches, ninth chords and lines together.
3 lessons
This chapter puts the funk part together in three full, original pieces. Each one is a 12-bar tune with an intro, a verse and an ending, so you practice keeping a groove alive from the first bar to the last, not just looping a two-beat pattern.
Porch Light Strut is your first full funk song, in E: relaxed and bouncy, built from E9 hits with space around them, A and D triad stabs, and a single-note break from E minor pentatonic. Velvet Switchboard is smooth and steady, in A minor with a Dorian color: an octave-line intro, an Am7 and D9 verse with sixteenth scratches between the hits, and an A Dorian solo with a hammer-on, a slide and double-stops. Neon Undertow is the tight, driving workout: E9 and E7#9 grooves, chromatic ninth-chord climbs, octave slides and a 12th-position pentatonic solo with ghost notes and a bend.
Through all three, your strumming hand never stops its down-up sixteenth motion, not even in the solos. Learn each section with the click, then play the étude straight through.