FUNK FUNDAMENTALS
Before tackling this course, you should be comfortable with all the material from Lesson 2 - 16th Note Strumming

Summary: Bringing Major Chords Back To Life!

In the third lesson of this course, Simone shows us how to use 3 note triad chords to their fullest in funk music. Think major chords are boring and too easy, think again! You'll fall back in love with major chords after this lesson!

Chords: 3 string triad shapes

The basic idea behind triad chords is that you take the major chords and refine them to just the three notes you need - the 1st, 3rd and 5th. In a lot of barre chords or open chord, or even CAGED chord shapes, you are playing these notes more than once. In funk, we just need the three notes. It’s clean, it’s crisp, and it’s funky! We will focus on three really cool 3 string shapes in this lesson.

    Each chord is based on a CAGED chord shape. The first based on the E shape, the second on the C shape and the third on the A shape. So, to move these around you simply need to find the original CAGED chord and remove all the notes but the 3 strings needed. We’ll use the song below to demo how it works! If you want to get to grips with the CAGED system a little better, check out this course: Electric Intermediate Course.


Tab: Funky Triads

Below is the tab for the example track. You just repeat this round and round for the whole track, allowing you to really master these chord shapes.



Audio: Full Track

If you would prefer to just dive straight in and play along with the audio tracks, they are here below. If you're really feeling confident, try with the backing track!

Ready to move on? Remember to check out every lesson in this unit first – then try the next unit...

Lesson 4 - Ghost Notes

In this lesson we build on our 16th note strumming skills by starting to add in some ghost notes! These are subtle rhythmical slaps, pops and crunches that bring the groove to life!