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Modern Funk Bass

Concepts and Approaches for Modern Funk Bass Guitar

Marty FriedmanTommy EmmanuelSteve VaiEric GalesEric Johnson

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Modern Funk Bass
Steve Jenkins

Steve Jenkins

Educator

funk

Genres

About this course

Today’s modern funk grooves encompass rhythms from the past, present, and future. Bass players now need to be able to incorporate beats, textures, and the time and feels of hip-hop, electronic music, and indie rock with the classic grooves of the ’60s, ‘70s, and ’80s.

"Even though I play a wide variety of music ranging from jazz fusion to progressive metal, underneath it all, my approach to bass and my rhythmic concept is heavily rooted within the realm of funk. I’m excited to share many of my go-to approaches with you here in this course.

In this course, we’ll play through 10 modern funk bass studies to help you develop modern approaches and techniques including fingerstyle grooves, utilizing space and syncopation, groove placement, extended muted thumb technique, and even some slapping technique.

I’ve organized the course into three sections. In the first section, we’ll focus on fingerstyle funk approaches with four modern funk bass studies. In the second section, we’ll take a look at how to use more space in your grooves as we explore three more studies. And finally, in the third section, we’ll dig in to thumb oriented funk approaches and play our final three grooves."

Steve will explain and demonstrate all of the key concepts and approaches along the way. You’ll get standard notation and tabs for all of the performance studies. Plus, you’ll be able to use TrueFire’s learning tools to sync the tab and notation to the video lesson. You can also loop or slow down the videos so that you can work with the lessons at your own pace. All of the backing tracks are included to work with on your own as well.

Grab your bass guitar and let's get funky with Steve Jenkins!

What you'll learn

  • Apply a two-bar groove pattern and transpose it to different chord positions
  • Execute syncopated eighth note rhythms through a chord progression
  • Execute a hybrid thumb technique that combines slap and muted thumb playing
  • Play a 12-bar blues in B flat using advanced right-hand techniques
  • Coordinate thumb, index, and middle fingers independently
Release date: 03/02/2020 • 2h 34m runtime
intermediatelate intermediateadvancedbasstechniquebass groovesbass lines
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Sample lessons
Boogie On
Boogie On
Overview
Boogie On
Boogie On
Performance
Boogie On
Boogie On
Breakdown
Clockwork
Clockwork
Overview

What's included

45 lessons • 16 charts • 15 Jam Tracks

Modern Funk Bass
Hi, I'm Steve Jenkins. Welcome to Modern Funk Bass.

Today's modern funk grooves encompass rhythms from the past/present/and future. Today, bass players need to be able to incorporate beats, textures, and the time feels of hip-hop, electronic music, and indie rock with the classic grooves of the '60s, ‘70s, and '80s.

Even though I play a wide variety of music ranging from jazz/fusion to prog-metal, underneath it all, my approach to bass and my rhythmic concept is heavily rooted within the realm of funk and I'm excited to share many of my go-to approaches with you here in this course.

In this course, we'll play through 10 modern funk bass studies to help you develop modern approaches and techniques including fingerstyle grooves, utilizing space and syncopation, groove placement, extended muted thumb technique, and we'll even cover some slapping technique.

I've organized the course into three sections. The first section will focus on fingerstyle funk approaches with four modern funk bass studies. In the second section, we'll take a look at how to use more space in your grooves as we explore three more studies. And finally in the third section we'll dig in to thumb oriented funk approaches and play our final three grooves.

All of the performances are transcribed and you'll be able to sync the tab and notation to the video using TrueFire's learning tools. All of the backing tracks are included, and you can also loop or slow down the videos so you can work with the lessons at your own pace.

Ready to get started? Grab your bass, and let's go!
SECTION 1: Finger Funk
In this first section of the course, we're going to look at one of the quintessential styles of modern funk bass playing - Finger Funk. Besides the four playing examples, we're also going to explore some different techniques that accompany this style of playing which include: raking with the plucking hand, using ghost notes as well as fretting hand ornamentations. Let's get to it!
Ghost Notes & Raking
Besides the notes, finger funk bass lines have percussive elements that help propel and enhance the groove. Let's take a look at using raking and how to play ghost notes with the plucking hand.
Shake Everything
"Shake" is homage to a great Maceo Parker tune. This track features 2 different grooves and there's some good use of syncopation.
Shake Everything
This tune has an A section and a B section and then it concludes with a different groove at the end.
Shake Everything
Here's where I explain everything that's going on in "Shake". I break down the bass line from the A section and the B section. Then I also talk about the groove that happens at the end of the track.
Left Hand Ornamentation
The use of left-hand ornamentations adds a way to make your bass playing more expressive and can give your ideas more flavor. These ornamentations involve the use of hammer-ons, slides, pull-offs and the ever popular glissando. Here, I also demonstrate how to combine them.

+ 38 more lessons

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Reviews

8 results

sixfix79

Verified buyer

04/29/23

That's always something new to learn

There is some really great stuff on this and you can extend your learning curve. There is always something new to learn and it is always better when the teacher is able to explain and execute the explanation so well. Really enjoyed this and I highly recommend it to anybody who wants to get out of any kind of rut they may be in

Osokin

Verified buyer

10/27/22

Become A Funk Bass Monster!

Steve Jenkins is a phenomenally good bass player, whose style is rooted in classic funk. Fortunately, he is also an excellent teacher which makes this course a 'must have' for any aspiring bass funkster. Very inspiring!

alex40205

02/23/22

Buy this course!

This is a fantastic course. Steve is such a special player, and his examples are usable and help one get a real grasp of how to fold this into live playing. I have had a blast with these modules and have refined some more advanced techniques that I always wanted to polish. As a lifetime SBL member, I must give Steve and TrueFire props, the desktop application and all it's functions (loop, playback, playalong with or without bass etc) are very helpful. I have looped portions of this to REALLY get them burnt into my hands and am better for it. If you all offered another course with Steve I would snap it up in a hot minute.

giansiro

Verified buyer

01/24/22

Very nice course

I found this course very useful, with rich contents that goes beyond the usual songs learning and cover different topic like sound and suggestions to play live. The modern funk style is fully covered but I think the learnings can be extended to any style of music. Finger style is covered nicely and it is not just slapping, which I found very positive. Steve has very direct style of teaching, straight to the point which a like very much. I would not recommend this course for beginners as some technics and songs required at least an intermediate level. Overall a very nice course, I hope Steve will come up with new ones in the future.

Mark Y.

12/30/21

Just what I have been looking for,

In a world where there is just so much information available, it’s very easy to get overloaded and make no progress. I have decided to prioritize some enjoyment and study with one of my favourite players, the prodigious Steve Jenkins. It helps that I love the approach, the style, the music and that there is plenty of information to keep me going for a considerable period of time, All this combined with a ridiculous bargain price, what’s not to like? Thanks to both TrueFire and Steve for making this superb content available, I hope more people take up the opportunity to study with this immensely talented player.

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