Funk bass in the pocket

On the one

Funk puts a heavy accent on the first beat of the bar: the "one". Whatever happens in between, the bass lands hard on it, usually on the root. Rubber Floor hits low E on the one, then fills the bar with sixteenths and rests.

Octaves

The octave shape, root on the E string and the same note two strings higher and two frets up, is the favourite move of funk and disco bass. Played low-high in sixteenths it pops, especially in slap style, thumb on the low note, finger pulling the high one. Slap Shop and the disco line Mirror Ball are built on it.

Rests and ghost notes

The silences make the groove. A ghost note is a muted, percussive hit with no pitch, filling the space between real notes; the rests in the riffs mark where funk players would ghost. Then try the melodic side of soul bass with Velvet Line, which walks up the chord tones of C and F.

Lock in with the guitar: the funk guitar lesson has stabs and lines at the same tempo.

Finger technique

Most funk bass is played with two fingers alternating, index and middle, on the strings over the pickups for a punchy tone. Mute the strings you are not playing with the side of the plucking hand and with the fretting fingers lying lightly across the neck: silence is part of the groove. For the octave shape, use the first finger for the root and the third or fourth for the octave. Practise every groove with a metronome on all four beats first, then only on beats 2 and 4, like a drummer's snare. When the groove still feels right with the clicks only on the backbeat, it is in the pocket.

Listen for the interplay between bass and drums on funk records: the bass often answers the kick drum, playing in the gaps it leaves, while always coming back to the one. Loop a groove from this page with a simple drum beat in GOONS Studio and try leaving out a note or two: space is a funk musician's best tool.