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Essentials: Funk Bass Grooves

Essential funk bass grooves you must know

Marty FriedmanTommy EmmanuelSteve VaiEric GalesEric Johnson

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Essentials: Funk Bass Grooves
Stu Hamm

Stu Hamm

Educator

funk

Genres

About this course

The role of the bass player in a funk setting is critical, perhaps more so with funk than any other style of music. You’ve got to lock up with the drummer rhythmically to establish the groove, and at the same time, provide a harmonic foundation for the vocalist and other instruments to play off of.

In this Funk Bass Grooves edition of Essentials, Stu Hamm will guide you through 10 Funk Groove performance studies ranging across a variety of tempos, keys and funk styles.

"I'll show you how to play ten different funk grooves, each one exploring different styles of funk. I'll break down each one, including the techniques and fingerings you'll need to know and then talk about how to make it groove with the rhythm section. Then, it's up to you to play along with my favorite Bay Area Rhythm Section - John Mader on drums and Lorn Leber on guitar. You will indeed, learn how to ‘Bring da FUNK’!”

Stu demonstrates all of the bass grooves over rhythm tracks and then breaks them down by stepping you through the key concepts, techniques and creative approaches that he used in each performance study.

Everyday Funk - ”This groove is about as simple and as challenging as it gets. From the outside, it looks as if you'll just be playing quarter notes on a few strings, but the key is to make those notes sit in the pocket with the band.”

Funk Light - ”This groove recalls one of the all-time greatest funk bass line, ‘Flashlight’. Bernie Worrell played that track on a keyboard bass, so here our task is to convert it to a figure played on a four stringed electric bass and make it FUNKY!”

Funk Stew - ”This groove is a take on one of my all-time favorite bass lines, ‘Memphis Soul Stew'. We're going to be adding 16th notes here, so we're ramping up the difficulty a little bit but also setting the stage for the more intricate grooves to follow.”

Super Funk - ”This groove is called ‘Super Funk’ and is a homage to Rick James. Here I'll introduce using the thumb style to get that funky sound and tone that we need to make this kind of music work.”

Funk Me Knots - ”This groove recalls the great Patrice Rushin song ‘Forget Me Nots’ which has been covered and sampled by many. We kick it up a notch rhythmically, so it'll take all that you've learned in the previous lessons to pull this one off!”

Good Funk Times - ”This groove is one you may have heard in it's original form, or in one of the many tracks that have used it as a sample. It's still ‘Good Times’! Listen to how the space between the notes is as important to the sound and feel as the notes you play!”

Funk It Away - ”This groove will show you how you can add the technique and attitude of what we love about funk bass playing to a rock song and feel. This bass line really needs to played with an attitude to make it work.”

Funk Over - ”This groove honors the great Jaco Pastorius by combining elements from a few of his compositions, but mainly giving a nod to ‘Come On, Come Over’. This is such a challenging bass line to perform because for it to work, it has to be played with complete control and precision.”

Reptile Funk - ”This groove is a tip of the hat to the great Herbie Hancock and The Headhunters, who helped pioneer funky jazz-rock fusion. This groove calls to mind the classic ‘Chameleon’.”

Square Funk - ”This groove puts it all together in a challenging bass line that combines grooves, techniques, and unison lines that will give you a workout. Yeah....it's a tough one!”

All of the performances are tabbed and notated for your practice, reference and study purposes. You’ll also get Guitar Pro files so that you can play, loop and/or slow down the tab and notation as you work through the lessons. Plus, Stu generously includes all of the rhythm tracks for you to work with on your own.

Grab your bass guitar and let’s ‘Bring da FUNK’ with Stu Hamm!

What you'll learn

  • Execute precise funk bass thumb technique
  • Create authentic funk bass lines
  • Use ghost notes for rhythmic variation
  • Control bass tone and articulation
  • Understand pickup tone blending
Release date: 02/08/2016 • 1h 27m runtime
intermediatelate intermediatebasstechniquebass groovesbass lines
Start Course
Sample lessons
Everyday Funk
Everyday Funk
Overview
Everyday Funk
Everyday Funk
Performance
Everyday Funk
Everyday Funk
Breakdown
Funk Me Knots
Funk Me Knots
Performance

What's included

32 lessons • 10 charts • 10 Jam Tracks

Essentials: Funk Bass Grooves
Hi, I'm Stu Hamm and welcome to my latest addition to the Stu U Universe, Essentials: Funk Bass Grooves! In this course, I'll teach you how to play ten different funk grooves, each one exploring different styles of funk. I'll break down each one, including the techniques and fingerings you'll need to know and then talk about how to make it groove with the rhythm section. Then, it's up to you to play along with my favorite Bay Area Rhythm Section - John Mader on drums and Lorn Leber on guitar. You will indeed, learn how to "bring da FUNK"!
Everyday Funk
Groove #1 is about as simple and as challenging as it gets. From the outside, it looks as if you'll just be playing quarter notes on a few strings, but the key is to make those notes sit in the pocket with the band.
Everyday Funk
Let's check it out. I'm in no hurry to finish these notes, I let them ring as long as possible and am patient as I wait for the groove to come.
Everyday Funk
Feel free to experiment on your own, using what I show here as a guide. For instance, I show you how the tone is changed depending on where you play it with your fingers. I choose to play it up by the neck pickup, but for YOU the way to go might be to play it in a different position. Take you time to get the "ghost notes" to sound properly, we'll be using that techinque quite a bit as we continue.
Funk Light
Groove #2 recalls on of the all-time greatest funk bassline, "Flashlight". Bernie Worrell played that track on a keyboard bass, so here our task is to convert it to a figure played on a four stringed electric bass and make it FUNKY!
Funk Light
Listen to how deep in the pocket the drums are...meaning that he's not playing behind the beat, but he's placing the beat on the back end of the time. Because of this, you have to play your part in a very relaxed manner, so the songs doesn't sound like it's rushing or speeding up.
Funk Light
Once you get a handle on the chromatic approach notes as written, feel free to alter the line as long as you keep the same basic shape of the lines and of course, play the root of the chord on the downbeat of the bar in which it changes. You should be up to speed with the muting or "ghost noting", so we'll expand on the technique here.

+ 25 more lessons

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Reviews

8 results

olito

03/08/22

The wide range of funk bass collection

This is what bassplayers needed if they want to know all the popular funkstyles on bass from the great players and their way into modern music. Very well played and teached from one of the greats.

PaulJT

08/18/20

This is a well-rounded funk video.

For those who like Stu Hamm's bass tutorials then this video can also be enjoyed, applied and getting those having those funk meters permeating in your brain such as the Reptile Funk tutorial which is part of the course. Though this course is not a "The end all of funk bass lessons" but it goes just a bit beyond funk bass primer video. Stu Hamm's course is not stuck in old-school funk but reaches out to more modern beats like Funk it Away. Of course there is a couple slap lessons in the mix such as Funk Me Not and ending with the more complex funk slap groove Square Funk. So yeah, this is a well-rounded funk video. Note: this video doesn't concentrate with lessons soley on the slap and pop techniques, that would have to be a totally seperate cours. I'll give it five stars.

Israa

Verified buyer

08/10/20

Essentials: Funk Bass Grooves

iT'S AMAZING course . the instructor is good teacher, the grooves that he show to us , works perfectly, Essencials funk bass grooves has a lot ideas to use in our way to play , thanks u so much and best price in the world. thanks to TRUE FIRE GOd bless u

Jguitar70

Verified buyer

08/02/20

Amazing instructor, amazing grooves

I love the different kind of styles inside Funk music covered in the video. Stu Hamm is a world class musician, the perfect combination to learn this awesome grooves!

Revman2015

08/01/20

Funk in hell...So Hot!

Stu Hamms instruction is clear right from the get go! This course in particular is fantastic if you are interested in learning the techniques of how to play around in the funky groove scene, and who doesn’t . Snapping sliding and more. Stu breaks down all of the licks in a method that is quick and easy to understand. First class all the way.

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