Funk and pop
Muted sixteenths, ninth chords and funk's "one"; diatonic progressions, hooks and clean arrangements in pop.
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Content under musical review. It may contain inaccuracies.
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Muted sixteenths, ninth chords and funk's "one"; diatonic progressions, hooks and clean arrangements in pop.
Applied
Funk appeared in the United States in the mid-sixties, out of soul and rhythm and blues. Its heart is the groove: each instrument plays a rhythmic part that locks with the others, with strong emphasis on the first beat of the bar, "the one". Pop is a broader term for commercial popular music; on guitar it's associated with clear diatonic progressions, parts that support the voice and short melodic hooks.
A typical funk chord, the dominant ninth:
And a very common pop diatonic progression, I – V – vi – IV:
In funk, chords sit on the top strings, in small shapes that move quickly:
Pop leans on open chords, the capo, and add9 and sus colours:
Set the metronome to sixteenth-note subdivision. Keep your strumming hand moving down and up through all four sixteenths of each beat, and choose which ones hit the strings and which only brush muted strings:
Metronome in sixteenths I – V – vi – IV progression Rhythm & accompanimentStrumming patternsKeep your arm moving steadily while following a pattern and changing chords.Funk:
Pop:
Keep your hand moving and accent only the second sixteenth of each beat. Then the fourth. Accents on the weak sixteenths are what give funk its push. Combine them with muted strokes everywhere else.
Rhythm & accompanimentAccent displacementAccent groups of notes that don't line up with the bar without losing the pulse.Vincent stresses that funk is ensemble work: each part leaves gaps for the others. With two guitars, one can take the eighths and the other only the sixteenth offbeats. In pop, Moore analyses how texture changes between sections: adding or dropping a guitar at the chorus makes it sound bigger without changing the chords.