Funk Improvisation Based On A Groove

Before starting this lesson I advise you read our Introduction To Improvisation and Your First Improvisation lessons first. You will also need a copy of This Free MP3 that is used as a backing track for this lesson.

Note: The backing track starts with a four beat count in.


In this second improvisation exercise you will be presented with a four bar pattern similar to that given in our improvisation introduction and I will be discussing how to approach creating a part for it. There are two major differences between this exercise and the first improvisation exercise. First of all in this case you are given a groove as a starting point. Secondly you are asked to play in a Funk style rathe than rock. Here is the notation for this exercise:

The sheet music for the exercise

This kind of improvisation exercise is a little easier than those that give you a rhythm as a starting point as you don't need to spend time working out a groove. I will talk through some ideas for constructing a part for this piece on this page and most ideas presented will be very similar to those discussed in the First Improvisation Lesson. First of all scan the four bar sheet music and make sure you understand everything. The piece is in 4/4, as indicated by the time signature. It is at a tempo of 110bpm and is in a funk style. Bar 1 is the groove for the piece, bars 2 and 3 that have the 'cont. sim.' mark are telling you to play a similar part to bar 1 and bar 4 is a fill.

First of all make sure you can play the groove. In this case it is the same as This Groove from our Introduction To Grooves series. In most grade 1 and 2 improvisation exercises you will be given a groove that will be very similar to those covered in the introductory lesson.

As discussed in the previous lesson, I recommend following an 'A B A C' structure for these four bar improvisations. Have a read through the linked lesson if you are unsure what this means, a recap is also given in the First Improvisation Lesson. With this structure the given groove will be the 'A' part and that will be played in bars 1 and 3. So you need a 'B' part next.


For the 'B' section you should play a slight variation on the 'A' part. A list of ideas for this were given in the previous improvisation lesson so on this page I am going to focus on ideas that are a bit more specific to funk. We discussed that to give a groove a rock feel you could accent the quarter notes in the right hand and emphasize the back beat with the left. In funk the back beat is still present but there tends to be a lot of offbeat accents. At grades 1 and 2 we will try and achieve this by emphasizing some '+' counts with the right hand. A few ways to do this are listed below:

  • Add accented notes on specific '+' counts.
  • Add accented notes on all '+' counts.
  • Open the hi hat on one or more '+' counts.
  • Add a crash and bass drum on one or more '+' counts.

Listed below are some options for the 'B' section that use the ideas given above:

Four options for the B section

Another idea you can use was discussed in the previous lesson. That was to listen to the backing track and see if the other instruments are doing anything different in the second bar. In this case they are. Notice that the bass and guitar don't come in till the '+' after beat 1 in bar 2? Perhaps you could work that into your 'B' section.


Finally we need a 'C' section, which will be the bar marked 'fill' in the sheet music. There are a variety of options here but something that would be quite appropriate to the funk style would be to use some 16 Note Groupings to make your fill a bit more rhythmic. Starting The Fill On An '+' Count also works really nicely in funk. The fill could be any length so go with a pattern you are comfortable with. As I said in the previous lesson, a simple idea played really well is always far better than a great idea played badly. Below are four possible options for a 'C' section.

Four options for the 'C' section


Hopefully you can now improvise a four bar piece in the funk style when a groove is given as a starting point. As before, I'll finish this lesson by giving you two examples of full parts that could work with this exercise.

Full Phrase 1

A full four bar phrase for this improvisation


Full Phrase 2

A full four bar phrase for this improvisation


TASK:

  1. Create your own part for the improvisation exercise presented at the start of this lesson.
  2. Play your part to the backing track and see if you think it fits well.
  3. Think about different ways you could approach this exercise.

Lessons

Buy Me A Coffee

I hope you are enjoying this free content. If you feel like buying me a coffee to say thank you you can do so here.

Buy Me A Coffee