Guitar skills: With dissonant chords and aggressive rhythm playing, the harder side of blues-rock overlaps into funk. The ‘7#9’ shape (shown here in F#) below is known as the Hendrix chord thanks to ...

Early funk is often associated with the Godfather Of Soul James Brown, who helped pioneer this style of dance music in the late '60s and early '70s. The ubiquitous use of syncopation (playing on the ...

Syncopation is a musical term directly associated with rhythm. In short, syncopation is where rhythms tend to fall on and utilise the off-beat, rather than landing on the stronger on-beats. This ...

Often in funk, the guitarist’s role is strictly rhythmic. It’s less about shredding or melodies and more about adding a syncopated rhythm or some texture, and that means most of the work lies with the ...

The profound shift from soul and R&B into funk during the ’70s saw many bands take up the mantle of James Brown’s innovations of the late ’60s. In the early part of the decade, African-American bands ...