Funk Course Missing?

I’m new to pianogroove, and I’m not finding any funk lessons. Am I missing something? I’ve looked through the Blues and Bossa Nova areas and don’t find anything. I would love a course or a few lessons dedicated to this type of music.

Thanks,

Laura

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Hi Laura :wave:

Welcome to the community area!

We certainly plan to offer Funk lessons in the near future, as well as other styles of improvised music.

I have been searching for a Funk teacher for some time but I’m yet to find the right person.

Funk is a little challenging to teach in a solo piano context, and we will likely need to utilise backing tracks to free up the left hand.

Just like yourself I would love to have courses on Funk piano styles and it is something I am committed to delivering.

It’s not a style I personally play but I will find a suitable teacher and keep everyone posted on progress of this.

If you have any suggestions or ideas be sure to let us know.

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Welcome Laura !
+1 for funk lesson … we are some here waiting for it … :wink:

Hi. I have been looking for a good funk piano course as well; but besides groovewinfow there’s not much out there. You have also Willie Myette’s funk course…but not what i am looking 4. Looking 4ward to it!!!

Thanks for sharing your interest here Andy.

I also did some research and I agree there isn’t much out there for funk tutorials.

I think it’s a somewhat challenging area to teach from a solo piano context, but it’s certainly something we should offer on PianoGroove.

I will keep searching for a suitable teacher for this style. Cheers!

There are kind of (at least) two things meant by funk.

Herbie Hancock and Lee Morgan and Hank Mobley in the 1960s were doing a thing called funk.

Herbie Hancock and Bootsy Collins and Earth, Wind, and Fire in the 1970s were doing a related, but quite different, thing also called funk.

If we can get Herbie, it will not matter which kind of funk we are interested in.

If we cannot get Herbie, it might help to add a layer of specificity about which kind of funk we want.

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Thanks for sharing Andy. Very nice groove! I also love the funky stuff.

As far as specific classes go, it seems to me that if you’ve got the jazz and blues foundations already on offer here under control, the only thing missing is listening for that groove, that pulse, that syncopation. Everything else is already there.

Jonathon Wilson has such as great sense of groove.

I studied some of his performances a few years ago and he uses a lot of ‘jazzy’ chords in his arrangements.

Lots of altered dominant chords which we cover in our course on Altered Harmony & USTs.

I think the hardest part of this style is the rhythmic element and locking into that solid, steady groove. Some of his blues licks are rather acrobatic too! :grin:

It would be great to get some material like this on PianoGroove. I am currently on the hunt for new teachers and hope to be able to announce more soon. Cheers.

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Cool groovy funk blues ! thks Andy
heres the tutorial
http://www.groovewindow.com/tutorials/bosslevel.html

Jonathan Wilson so cool and generous to share all his work :sunglasses:

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Brilliant, thanks for the recommendation Charles. I will certainly look into that, he’s an awesome player!

We have the first of our funk lessons in the editing stage. Jon’s course on “New Orleans Blues, Funk, & RnB” has 3 lessons on funk; 1 theory lesson, and 2 applications to songs.

Jon mentions that “funk” is a somewhat loose term in music and that the genre itself has many different branches. His course gives a nice introduction to the style and it will be great to get some feedback on the material presented and where to go next.

I agree it would be great to have a full dedicated course on funk.

Cheers!

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