Basic funk ideas: four iterations - 01

A companion to our Basic funk with mixed stickings page from the other day. Here we take that same set of patterns, run them through some standard funk/fusion orchestrations, and learn to transition smoothly between them. I think you'll see the logic of each orchestration as you work through them— it's easier to get it that way than by me long-windedly explaining what's going on.

You can see that underneath all of the other stuff, the cymbal part in column A is just 8th notes; feel free to substitute any other standard ride rhythm you want. With column B you can accent the 2, or accent the cymbal notes and play the snare drum notes as filler. Column C is an inversion of the other rhythms;

Here's how I work on this page. I play through each line:
- Each measure 8 times.
- Each measure 4 times, 2 times, and 1 time in the following combinations: AB, AC, AD, BC, BD, CD. For example, the AB combination would be played:

||: A 4x | B 4x :||
||: A 2x | B 2x :||
||: A 1x | B 1x :||

You could also try something like:

||: A 2x | B 1x | C 1x :|| 

or 

||: A 2x | C 1x | D 1x :||

The patterns should flow easily into each other, except there are a few places where you have to do three BD notes in a row, or you have to play a double stop on the SD/FT on the 'a' of 2, followed by a cymbal or hihat on the downbeat. At faster tempos you have the option of smoothing those transitions by omitting the circled note— or anything else that's slowing you up.

Get the pdf