Follow-Up: How to Play a Funk Groove on the Piano (PDF of Techniques Available)
- March 9th, 2008
- Posted in music
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Back 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 videos. Unfortunately, its not a direct transcription of the demo/solo at the end, its simply the notation used for each of the techniques presented in the series — but it should be enough to get you going.
Techniques Used in How to Play a Funk Groove on the Piano (PDF).
I hope it helps — I’m always happy to answer questions. Just post a comment, that way the answer will be there for others who might have the same question.
UPDATE: By request, I’ve also posted two versions of the backing drum loop I used in the videos for your practicing! Unfortunately, I don’t have it at a variety of speeds. You would be able to slow it down using audio software (such as the free Audacity ). There is a single time through the loop — if you use Audacity, you can create as long of a loop as you’d like. I’ve also uploaded a 5-minute loop.
- Loopable Drum Backing (loop on your own in audio software, 35k)
- 5 minutes of the drum backing groove (4.7 mb)
Hello Jonathan, Thanks for sharing your expertise. Fantastic!
You mention that your working on a new Funk Piano Groove series ll. Any idea when you might be posting it?
Coming Soon
It’s coming along nicely, I just need some time for shooting and editing. Perhaps by early July…
Hi Jonathon,
do you have the background music of the groove session anywhere online? i saw that you uploaded the drum background to the blues lessons…
regards
johannes
You know — I don’t — but I certainly could. When I get home this evening, I’ll upload an MP3 with the drum loop I used for the funk groove… Thanks for the suggestion!
Hi,may I remind you of publishing the background drum loop please? i would really appreciate that as it makes practising much easier. regards
Drum Loops are available!
THank you very much!
I’VE BEEN WATCHING YOUR VIDEOS ON YOU TUBE FOR ABOUT A MONTH AND I HAVE JUST FOUND YOUR WEBSITE.YOU ARE A REAL INSPIRATION TO ME.I’VE BEEN PLAYING FOR NEARLY A YEAR NOW AND JUST HOPE SOME DAY I CAN FIND A PIANO TEACHER WHO IS HALF AS GOOD AS YOU JON,THANKS BRAD.
Thanks for the kind words, Brad — Keep playing! If you make it past the 2 year mark (when many new students give up), you’ll be well on your way!
The new funk series tune is completely written, and recorded — I’ve been listening to it while I figure out how to break it down into lessons…
Jonathan – thanks so much for your funk groove series. I’m really looking forward to part II. Is there any way to download the piano parts onto i tunes? In particular, I’d like to burn a CD of the final performance which puts everything together so that I can slow it down and learn the groove as you play it, which is somewhat different than the individual lessons. Also, would you be willing to rewrite the left hand techniques lesson? You’ve written the lick very differently than your full speed performance of it (eg, the lick starts on the “and” of the first beat, but you’ve written it starting on beat 2; and you have a series of 8th notes in the second measure but your full speed performance appears to be sixteenth notes – too fast me to figure out!) Lastly, could you make your part II series so that I can burn the music onto a CD as well?? Thanks so much for your instruction. It’s been a great learning tool. Jim.
Thanks for the words, Jim. Heh — I’m not surprised that my playing differs from the notation. To be honest, never did the series with notation in mind, only adding it after a number of requests for something written down. I’ve been considering for a while trying to actually write what I played in the final performance, but haven’t yet had the time. It shouldn’t be a problem to provide the audio only from the final track. I’ve not put anything on iTunes, so that’ll be new for me — but I’ll give it a whirl.
By the way, the Funk Groove, II series has started with the music (as opposed to the other way around), so it should be much closer to what you’re looking for. Similarly, I’ll be happy to provide audio only for it — but the notation should be much closer to the actual part (as I’ve learned it from the chart!)…
Jonathan – Thank you for your timely reply!! I really appreciate your providing an audio version of your final performance. If I can get it onto iTunes I can burn a CD. That would be great. Thanks alot for your excellent playing and instruction. You’ve really inspired me. Jim.
Jonathan – I have very little knowledge about how to transfer music files, but maybe the easiest thing to do would be to e-mail me an audio file of your Funk Groove I final performance, and then I may be able to get that file onto my iTunes to burn a CD. If you know of an easier way for me to get a CD version of the audio, by all means, lets do it that way. Thanks again.
I’ll just post the audio file on the site. Now that the weekend is nearly here, I’ll hopefully have the time to dig it up… Most CD burning software will allow you to locate an MP3 on your hard drive and burn it to an audio format…
Hey Jim! I’ve posted the audio from the original video to the site, as well as some rough audio and the music for the upcoming ’sequel’… See http://www.aqua-web.com/2008/08/22/early-beta-release-of-how-to-play-a-funk-groove-ii/ for the downloads…
Success!! Audio downloads worked!! You have just given me hours of fun learning this groove and all of its nuances. It’s the best explanation and performance of funk piano I’ve been able to get my hands on. Thanks so much. Btw – my chops have improved tremendously from playing this groove over the past week. I’m looking forward to alot more progress as I plow through each of your lessons. Great format.
As for groove II, I’m liking what I hear ALOT. Great complement to groove I. Lots of funkiness and soulful playing. Keep this stuff comming. Blues, jazz, and gospel grooves with cool voicings are all welcome!! Here’s some ideas for future lessons (things I would LOVE to explore):
1. The best way to learn, practice and conceptualize chord voicings.
2. The best way to learn fills, runs, and rhythmic patterns over chords – ie., how to play chords, broken chords and scales meaningfully.
3. The best way to develop right and left hand independence.
4. The best way to embellish playing popular music charts.
Hope this list gives you some feedback on what your audience may be looking for in future lessons – at least, selfishly, what I’M looking for. Thanks a bunch for saving me TONS of money on private lessons, and thanks again for the audio downloads.
Cool! Glad they’re working out for you — and thanks so much for the feedback and suggestions. In particular, I’ve had lots of requests for the chord voicing concept, so that’s already high on the list.
Thanks so much for doing spending your time doing all this and especially for posting the notation.
Most of the people who post video lessons assume it is easier for people to learn from looking at fingers, notes lighting up or having the notes written as letters.
As you, no doubt as well as many of the people who benefit from your works, would appreciate, there are a lot of people who can read music and, for them, to have something written out speeds the learning process amazingly.
Something else that would be helpful would to record you performances on a midi keyboard via cubase, logic or cakewalk (you mention Finale – can you do it with this as well?). This way you would just have to tweak the notation rather than notate a long piece from scratch.
Posting the midi would then allow people to slow it down and synchronize the sound to the music on screen (There are lots of free/cheap programs to do this).
For myself, I like learning from people like yourself with such enthusiasm – its infectious; it’s a pity your talent does not rub off so easily
Thanks, plex! I’m glad you’re getting something out of them.
I appreciate your feedback, and it echoes some of the same ideas put forth by others. I will definitely include a MIDI file with the next one.
It’s been a while since I tried the “play it into Finale” approach. In the past, that always resulted in more cleanup work than if I had simply entered directly. I’ll give it another whack and see if I have better luck…