Funk Guitar 101

That Funky Rhythm: Strum #1

This is the king daddy of all funk rhythms, so it is a good one to start with. Even though this is written as four groups of four 16th notes, where you are strumming the chord and not clicking follows a different pattern (123 123 123 123 12 12). Even though this is not how you "officially" count this rhythm, it is the easiest way to understand how to play it. There are 4 groups of 3, and 2 groups of 2.

The X in the examples indicates a muted "click". This is achieved by lifting your left-hand fingers up so that you are not pressing down against the fret bar, but are still touching the strings. This gives you a percussive click. You will be playing something on every 16th note, whether it is a chord or a click. The whole idea of this and other strums is to keep you right hand moving down and up at all times. After you have gotten the feel of the strum, practice it with the metronome at different tempos.

Page 3, Funky Octaves

Page 5, That Funky Rhythm: Strum #2