Funk Lines

Funk single-note lines sit low and tight, like a second bass part, and they groove as much through the notes you mute as through the ones you play. This chapter teaches you funk guitar riffs and licks built on that idea, with your picking hand moving in sixteenths the whole time, just like rhythm scratching.

You'll start with single-note riffs in E minor pentatonic, then move to 7th position and add the F# and C# of E Dorian, the funkiest minor mode, with ghost notes keeping the groove ticking between real notes. Next come octave lines: two notes two strings apart with the string in between muted, so you can strum freely and only the octave sounds. Then you'll play short pentatonic funk licks at the 12th fret with hammer-ons, slides and double-stops, phrased like drum fills. The chapter closes with original funk riffs: a low E riff, an A Dorian groove and a call and response between a riff and double-stops.

Keep every note short and staccato. Hear each tab in your browser first, then lock it to the click.