How to Play Funk Guitar
Playing funk guitar is seen as an advanced and a harder style to play properly, although if you work through the basic levels of guitarist lessons this style will be possible. One problem though is that you will need to play some of the notes and chords in a different way in order to get the recognised funk sound. The difference is achieved with your fretting hand this will become apparent when you learn how to play the funk guitar.
One major difference is that the notes and chords are played and cut ,this is too make the sound follow a more rhythmic pattern then you normally play in other styles. This is the first thing that need to be mastered and is where you should start.
Another thing to remember is that the funk guitarist tends to be one who plays repeated sequences and keeps to a songs rhythm. They don’t tend to play stage stealing solos so bear this in mind when you start to learn.
To this end the person you need to follow in the band is the drummer,you will mainly be playing the same rhythm that the drummer is .Being able to follow and match the drummer will mean you have learnt the skill well. Most funk guitarists play simple chord sequences,ones that sound more like a percussion style form then a traditional guitar sound.
To get the sound you will learn and isolate the chords that you want to learn, and then you will learn how to combine these chords in order to play songs you want to learn. How you move from chord to chord is also important as you need to be quick and accurate to get the sound right and to tie into the songs rhythm. It is possible by using only a few chords to get a decent tune by combining them correctly, in fact the standard 7th,9th.11th and 13th chords are staples that cover most of the ones needed.