Jazz Funk Guitar Soloing Concepts

 

Jazz funk guitar is often thought of as a rhythmic-heavy genre, where guitarists spend most of their time playing chords and funky grooves. But this isn’t always the case, as jazz funk guitarists are also masters of creating groovy single-note lines as riffs, fills, and improvised solos. 

In this lesson, you’ll look at single note jazz-funk lines and common applications.

The single note jazz-funk guitar part has two main occurrences:

 

• Providing a secondary rhythm part that cuts through a mix and doesn’t disturb the main rhythm part.
• The central hook or theme of a piece of music.

 

Throughout this lesson, you’ll learn how to create interesting single-note jazz-funk patterns, and develop a smooth jazz theme over a common chord progression.

As well as using a metronome when practicing the ideas shown, use the backing track I created, and feel free to adapt any of the ideas shown to suit your style of playing.

Before you start playing through the examples, watch this fantastic short video by Paul Jackson Jr. about finding your place in the mix.

 

The Chord Progression

When I’m writing and creating rhythm guitar parts, I like to play over a backing track.

This gives me the feel of playing in a live situation and focuses my playing in the style and genre of the song.

The chord progression I’ve used for all of today’s examples is Em7, Am7, B7#5b9 (B7alt).

In this example, I’ve shown a common funk way of approaching these chords, but you can use any chord voicings that you wish over the backing track.

Just make sure that they are some version of Em7, Am7, and B7alt.

Lastly, these chords will be used for every single-note example throughout this lesson.

 

Backing Track

Listen & Play

 

Single Note Theme

This musical phrase demonstrates the power of simplicity by only using two notes.

Playing these notes creates the following intervals over the chord progression.

 

• E over Em7 = Root
• E over Am7 = 5^th
• D# over B7alt = 3rd

 

By combining a single note for each chord with a syncopated 16^th-note picking pattern, you create this seriously funky riff only using two different notes.
Backing Track

Listen & Play

 

Single Note Theme Multiple Octaves

It’s always good practice to be able to play a riff or lick in multiple positions on the guitar fretboard.

Although there are six options that you could choose to play these notes on the guitar, I’ve picked three of the most common and notated them below.

 

Backing Track

Listen & Play

 

Jazz Funk Single Note Fill 1

The tendency when starting to play jazz-funk guitar is to add fills everywhere.

Think of fills as the sprinkles on the top of a cake; they’re there to add the final touch.

That said, having some exciting fills in your guitar playing arsenal can turn an ordinary boring rhythm guitar part into something incredibly exciting.

In this example, I’ve created a similar groove to the pattern in the previous phrase, but I’ve added the extra note D for a bit of variety.

I then play the fill over the B7alt chord to add in a jazzy flavor to the lick.

The hammer-ons and pull-offs I included in this lick make it much easier to play the line at this speed.

 

Backing Track

Listen & Play

 

Jazz Funk Fill 2

This next phrase is one of my favorite fills of all time. This fill uses the top four strings of a B7#5#9 to a B7#5b9, and adds a slide on the D string.

Although simple in construction, this lick can be tricky to play at the required speed of 105 beats per minute.

Start off very slowly with a metronome around 60 beats per minute and gradually increase the tempo only when you can play it five times correctly in a row.

 

Backing Track

Listen & Play

 

Jazz Funk Fill 3

This phrase demonstrates a fill that uses the E minor pentatonic scale (E G A B D).

When playing on a session or in a live situation, I aim not to add a fill in more than every four bars.

I’ll commonly add a fill in at the end of an eight-bar section, or when the song changes between sections for example between a verse and a pre-chorus.

 

Backing Track

Listen & Play

 

Jazz Funk Fill 4

Here, I introduce the final fill for today’s lesson, which uses three-note minor chord shapes on the high strings.

The C minor chord shape outlines the top notes of the B7alt chord, and the E minor chord shape prepares the ear for the resolution that comes in the next bar.

Once again, although relatively simple on paper, the movement between the two chord shapes can take practice, so start off slowly in the practice room.

 

Backing Track

Listen & Play

 

Jazz Funk Theme Part 1

Now that you’ve covered ways to write an effective single note jazz-funk guitar part, it’s time to look at creating a theme or motif over the backing track.

When writing instrumental tracks, my approach is very structured.

Start with an appropriate scale choice for the track you’re working on; today you’re going to choose the E Blues scale (E G A Bb B D).

Then create a simple melody that uses just the notes of that scale without any articulations and phrasing.

This example demonstrates this technique over the backing track.

 

Backing Track

Listen & Play

 

Jazz Funk Theme with Articulations

Now that you’ve created the basic formula for your theme, you add articulations such as slides, hammer-ons, and pull-offs.

You also add rhythmic phrasing to make your motif sound more musical.

To see if your new phrase is going to be a winner is to play your motif to a friend or family member and see if they can sing or hum back the melody instantly.

Of course, if you’re aiming for something more dissonant or ‘out there’ this may not work so well.

 

Backing Track

Listen & Play

 

Jazz Funk Extended Theme

Once you’ve created a central theme to your jazz-funk song, you can add a responding lick or line to create a longer phrase.

Example ten carries on the smooth jazz theme using slides and articulations within the E Blues scale (E G A Bb B D).

 

Backing Track

Listen & Play

 

Jazz Funk Theme with Licks

For the final example today, I wanted to blend the theme with some fun B altered scale (B C D Eb(D#) F G A) licks.

In example 11, I use the theme as a call and the B altered licks as a response.

By alternating between a theme and a lick, you can build longer solos that sound well constructed due to the melodic theme throughout.

 

Backing Track

Listen & Play

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Conclusion and Further Listening

Just like in more traditional forms of jazz there is no better way to improve than transcribing.

I’m always ‘stealing’ other player’s licks, chords, and phrasing.

Also, it’s worth pointing out not to limit yourself to ‘stealing’ only from guitarists, try emulating a saxophone part or a vocal ad-lib.

Ronny Jordan is a personal hero of mine in this genre. I thoroughly recommend the album After 8 for further jazz-funk listening.

Here’s the YouTube video for the title track to get you started.

 

About the Author

Simon Pratt heads up the Fundamental-Changes YouTube channel providing a wide range of video lessons for the site. He has written three number one bestselling books, the latest of which is the Finger Guitar Gym. As well as writing books and producing videos, Simon spends his time devoted to teaching the guitar and has students from all around the world via Skype.

A big thank you to Andrew Koshcheyev for the transcriptions featured in this article.

 

 

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