Basics - Rhythm - Funk 1

Marvin Gaye

Motown legend, Marvin Gaye. This was the black pop of the early days, and funk was a direct result of such music.

Funk and Motown, and a lot of similar black music, like gospel, are very bass and drum groove heavy. This is a "swung funk" groove, where it's not completely straight, but instead more like swing with triplets involved rather than the pop/rock style where the quavers are evened out.

James Jamerson on the bass; the biggest baddest bass legend with a groove to kill. Notice his lines, these were the lines which led to a lot of development in R&B, funk and other groove-based music, and most importantly, funk that came soon after.

In case you don't know, Motown was actually a label, much like what Sony Music is nowadays, but they had their unique sound which was a blend of R&B, gospel and became a genre on its own. It influenced a great deal of music nowadays.

Also, notice that the drum groove is this steady laying back groove. The bass is placed slightly earlier than it, but still laying back, while the vocalist plays around with the rhythm around the pulse. Meanwhile the guitarist is about on the beat while still laying back slightly. Meanwhile the auxiliary percussion also lays back together with the drums. This gives you the sound called Motown which led nicely to a genre called funk.

Now to the Grandfather of Funk: James Brown



Notice the same back beats on the drums, the groove sound from the drums. The laid back groove from him. Now the bass is actually ahead of the beat during this groove (fast grooves tend to have this going), only time laying back is during the hits. The bassline is riff based and is repetitive but the lines are very similar to the groove lines played by James Jamerson (except he had a lot more flexibility and changes).

The use of organ sound was from gospel sound, and the big band sound was influence from the big bands of the early era. Plus starting with Misty shows the obvious influence from early jazz.

Funk was a lot about the dancing, it was a music for people to really dance with, as with much music even till this date. James Brown was THE dancer of the funk style and started a revolution on his own. But you can listen to the whole band do the same riff and groove a million times and not get bored because the energy is always up and the groove never gets bored when everyone gives their 100% every second. Why? Because like great orators, repetition, with conviction, do not get boring because every time it is said it still has much impact. That's what I personally feel is the power of funk.

That's for the first song before they went into the second song Maybe The Last Time. Notice the groove, the repetitions again. But every note seems to be just as important as the previous time. You can feel the musicians dancing just listening to the music. This time the whole band lays back, because it's a slower groove and laying back gives the chill feel which is so powerful in funk...

Together with James Brown's always-on-top-of-the-beat feel, the music can go on forever and just charge a person with energy to dance all night. This is why funk actually became a highly used groove throughout all of music ever since. From fusion to smooth jazz to even Maroon 5, funk has infiltrated much of music as we know it.

Will talk more about it in the next installment. =)