How to Play a Funk Groove on the Piano
I’ve edited this post to provide a concise set of links to the music, backing drum loops and videos, in order. Hope this helps.
- PDF of music
- Much Better PDF of Music (7/10/2010)
- Loop-it-yourself drum backing
- 5-minutes of drum loop
- Video 1 – Intro
- Video 2 – Lead-In Line
- Video 3 – Bass Line
- Video 4 – Right Hand Comping 1
- Video 5 – Right Hand Comping 2
- Video 6 – Stab Breaks
- Video 7 – Hangs
- Video 8 – Bass Techniques
- Video 9 – Riff Variation
- Video 10 – Stops & Glissandos
- Video 11 – Tremolo
- Video 12 – Double Stops
- Video 13 – Left Hand “Helpers”
- Video 14 – Rolling Blues Chords
- Video 15 – Accent Notes
- Video 16 – Aggressive Riff Variation 1
- Video 17 – Aggressive Riff Variation 2
- Video 18 – Full Song
The final video in the series, demonstrating all of the techniques from the series is after the break:
6. December 2007 at 12:39
Hi Jonathon, thanks a lot for that great tutorial! I’m having a lot of fun with it ! What would be great if continue this in future times is the riffs written down on sheet to donwload.
I’m looking forward to more!
Greetings from Germany, Sebastian
9. March 2008 at 23:27
[...] in November, 2007 I posted my video series on How to Play a Funk Groove on the Piano. A number of people have contacted me hoping for written music for the techniques shown in the [...]
18. March 2008 at 15:32
Hi Jonathon, thanks for great tutorial!
My friend and I try to follow it (and we are very motivated to learn the groove because it sounds, well… groovy :o) ). The problem is with the lesson 4 so far. I think that what’s missing is the part where you’re plaing both left and right hand’s part together but slowly, just like you do when you introduce new part. We have problem synchronizing left and right hand in this lesson :o)
Anyway – we keep practice. I hope the music sheet will help a bit.
Greetings from Poland, Slawek
18. March 2008 at 18:04
Yeah, definitely download the music. It shows both hands together. I would try to break the measures down into a sixteenth-note grid, so you can see which notes line up between the hands. In other words, if you break the beats down into the old “One ee and a, Two ee and a, Three ee and a, Four ee and a” — where each syllable is a sixteenth note. See if you can figure out where you push the keys down to line up. Do it very very slowly, until you get the feel of it. Good luck, and thanks for commenting! -Jonathon
18. March 2008 at 23:26
[...] those of you who have followed my Series on How to Play a Funk Groove on the Piano, I’ve got another free video series for you. This time — it’s over to the blues [...]
25. March 2008 at 04:18
Hi Jonathan
Thanks for the great series on funk piano.
I have one reservation about presenting the bass and comping individually (as in your first lessons) – because I’m really learning them together – or do you advocate learning them separate this way?
I myself have some videos on playing Bach at http://www.dirkbertels.net/music/favourite_Bach_performances.php and some funk grooves at
http://www.dirkbertels.net/music/Piano_diary_2000_03.html
Maybe some is of interest to you.
Once again thanks for the excellent presentations …
Dirk Bertels
dirk@dirkbertels.net
25. March 2008 at 06:05
Excellent Stuff, Dirk! Although it’s always hard to pick just one, Bach is definitely very near the top of my list of favorite composers. I think its the programmer in me coming out. If you haven’t heard Glenn Gould perform Bach, then I’d recommend it.
Your funk grooves look cool, too — I like the way you set the bass to not always hit the downbeats, and to interplay with the comping. Regarding your reservation — I chose to present them separately, so that students would have the simpler option of learning them one at a time, and also allows an understanding of what’s going on in each part. The music download shows them together. And you’re absolutely correct — to master them *together*, you’ll have to practice them that way!
30. March 2008 at 18:58
I have an (i think ) more exact rendition of your funk groove 13 score. If you’re interested send me a quick email and I will send it to you. Love that lick by the way.
And your ‘rolling lick’ (14) is something I’ve been hearing so much and never been able to figure out before – so that was an eye-opener.
It’s interesting how few websites offer free instructions on funk piano (are people crazy or what ?) … So yours is really the only one that ‘googles’ up in this category.
I’m also interested in what SW you used for editing the videos (and what camera).
Lastly, do you know of any interesting (free) repositories of funk grooves (either midi or score).
30. March 2008 at 19:24
Cool! Just send it to me, and I’ll update my notation. I did the scores pretty quickly, so I wouldn’t be surprised if there isn’t some mistakes in there… Glad you like the rolling lick. It plays well in many genres (I have the same thing over in the blues licks series). Haven’t found much in the way of funk grooves for piano, I’m afraid — you and I will have to continue to help out here!
As far as software, I edited these on Adobe Premiere, but I often use the more powerful, but less user-friendly, and *free* Avisynth. This is my old camera — a Canon ZR-200 cheap Mini DV camcorder. I’ve since upgraded to an HD Canon, which I’ll use on the next series. Hopefully it will be a bit sharper!
14. August 2008 at 07:37
You play lick 16 differently each time in your example where you play all your funk licks. I liked every one of those iterations – so managed to score the 4 variations. Interested in the midi/score files for them?
How about a deal, you release your 2nd lot of Funk licks and you get the files …
14. August 2008 at 11:22
Ha! Nice, Dirk! I’m definitely interested! I’ll trade you the music for funk groove #2 and an audio file (before the vid is out… early access!). Somehow, I feel like you’re going to give the best review of my scoring that I’d find anywhere… ;)
22. August 2008 at 23:59
Alrighty — I added downloaded audio from the original video, along with sneak preview audio and the full downloadable notation for the upcoming sequel, “How to Play a Funk Groove, II”. Downloads are here: http://www.groovewindow.com/2008/08/22/early-beta-release-of-how-to-play-a-funk-groove-ii/
1. February 2009 at 23:44
Reworked this post a bit, to include links to all of the backing stuff and all of the videos in order (while they last) on youtube. Hope this helps!
24. November 2009 at 15:34
Hi Jonathon, you are really a great pianist, i really enjoy all your funky stuff.
I’ve already learned this groove and now i’d like to improvise on this stuff but I’m not able to make good things with the bass line you gave, it’s so difficult. Can you suggest a good sounding & easy bass line for improvisation on this groove?
I’m also waiting forward your new lessons :D
Greetings from France
15. February 2010 at 13:09
Links for backing track doesn’t work. Could you repair those.
15. February 2010 at 16:52
Should be fixed now – please give it another try.
4. March 2010 at 08:00
This stuff is great. I’m studying this very closely and found something that bothers me. If you could comment on this I would appriciate it.
On lesson 6 (Stab breaks) you play an example really slowly so it gave me opportunity to compare it to notation and I have some doubts. It doesn’t concern stab breaks infact. In a first measure second note (A) in a bass clef has a dot on notation so it should be short and in your example it sounds untill left hand goes to C and when you hit C you still keep A pressed. Then you play F and A with your right hand which is a quarter note in notation and it should still sound when right hand plays Bb but you play it differently.
I’m beginner so there is huge possiblity that my comment is quite stupid. Please correct me If you have a moment
14. March 2010 at 15:17
705181…
А вы откуда? Знакомая манера написания :)…
18. March 2010 at 14:40
Sorry. Unfortunately not a Russian.
You made me curious though. What in my post suggested it ?
18. March 2010 at 16:02
Hey @bajtucha — that was another visitor. Google translate tells me that his post effectively says: “Where are you from? Familiar style of writing” Not sure whether he’s talking to you or me – :)
In answer to your question: The music for this sheet is only loosely connected with what I actually played in the video. Don’t take it too literally. When I did the videos, I more or less improvised, then went back later and quickly wrote down something similar to what I played. There are many differences.
9. July 2010 at 13:11
Hey Jonathon,
Big fan of your work! Have been going through all your posts and listening to everything you have here!
You don’t happen to have an updated score of this do you? I’m sure all of us would want to have a copy of it. Really want to get our playing as close to your video as possible=) Really cool stuff!
Bert
9. July 2010 at 13:54
It just so happens that I do have a completely updated PDF for the first funk groove — all written out the way I played it (or very close, at least). Let me go back and take a look/final review and I’ll put the updated version up somewhere.
10. July 2010 at 03:42
Thanks a lot Jonathon!
10. July 2010 at 05:58
Hey Bert — New music is uploaded. Second bullet at the top. I hope it helps you out! Let me know if you see mistakes :)
10. July 2010 at 06:37
Thank you so much! I will definitely be practicing it! Just want to say, fantastic site you have here. Your work has reached us all the way in Hong Kong! Looking forward to more of your series!
22. September 2010 at 15:06
Hey Jonathon ~ i just signed on after finding you on youtube yesterday – searched for your site to find these sessions in order and i’m thoroughly psyched. thank you so much for providing these great sesssons for free. i’ve spent the last three hours working the How to play a funk groove and now have most it down – just need to practice. … there goes my afternoon. sooo much better than an office…
couple quests:
do/will you provide advanced online lessons for a fee?
who/what do you recommend i listen to for good piano funk and also piano blues?
22. September 2010 at 16:49
Hey bron! Glad you found your way over here.
Lessons — Unfortunately, this is all just a side project for me. My regular day job and family take up most of my remaining time, so I haven’t found that I have the availability in my schedule to do lessons. At the moment, anyways.
There’s tons of people to listen to, of course, and people often ask. I tend to throw out some people I really like which are slightly more out of the way along with some more obvious choices: Jeff Lorber (favor his earlier stuff from the late 70′s and early 80′s) is a good jazz/funk player. I absolutely love Gene Harris — more jazz but very bluesy – and that dude has some serious groove in him — monster chops. Listen to the way Jimmy Smith and Jack McDuff play hammond organ for some good funky general keyboard inspiration. Of course the big jazz players such as Bill Evans aren’t to be missed. This list doesn’t really have an ending, you know :)
23. September 2010 at 23:05
Hey Thanks, Johathon! How do you find the time?? I love Bill Evans. Yeah for Jack McDuff playing Bill Wither’s Ain’t No Sunshine. Yeah for Youtube :). I need to shop for some of this stuff – just looove it. I’m a white chick who grew up in Idaho so it’s not in my background… but I just gravitate to funk, blues, the real stuff. One of my all-time fave movies is Jackie Brown and the score is awesome. Also the whole documentary on STAX records is something i’m going to own someday. Anyway, thanks so much for making these videos. You’re really good.
24. September 2010 at 10:00
Ha! I grew up in Montana, and took many nice trips over to Idaho. I believe Gene Harris is actually from Boise — definitely check him out — MONSTER blues/jazz player. I’m *definitely* into that old Stax sound as well as a bunch of the 70′s and 80′s classic funk bands — although the keyboards generally take a back seat in most of the arrangements. I’m actually hoping to do a video or two (just for fun) which are in that style.
13. December 2010 at 00:03
Hi Jonathon Thankyou so much for your insight and to making these lessons available to us. I started playing piano when I was 7 but then become a multi instrumentalist. Unfortunatly, I had a brain haemorrage when i was 28 and lost a lot of my reading ability, and also a little co ordination in my left hand. I thenk you for inspiring me again and i was wondering if you had any tricks to get both hands playing together but seperatly again. any help would be muchly appreciated. Kind regards to you and your family. Cheers Peter
12. February 2011 at 20:36
Hello there Jonathon!
I’m a big fan and I just want to say how glad I am that you took the time out to make all of these videos. I’ve always been a major fan of the funk genre and thanks to your instruction, I’ve learned a few songs. I’m really looking forward to posting them on youtube and you could stop by and see how it turned out. I love feeling that you convey when you play. I can tell that you’re someone that has a lot of fun on the keys! I look forward to working on my next funk tune! You > awesome.
-Steven
13. March 2011 at 21:39
Hi Jonathon
You are fantastic!
RE: “Funk Groove” I’m stuck on measure 30 (Left Hand “Helpers” Vid 13). That one measure is packed with so many notes and it requires such precise timing and technique. I’m stuck!!!
It would be very helpful if you could make a new video of lesson 13, using the revised sheet music… please!
Thank you so much for your great music, teaching site & materials.
Dan D.
10. October 2011 at 04:32
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