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4 Crucial Practice Methods to Be Able to Play Funky Piano Styles
Funky piano styles is one of those things that when we hear someone doing it well we think wow! I really wish I could do that. Often however it seems fast and complex, making it hard to understand specifically what the pianist is doing and it can seem quite intimidating to attempt. The truth is the key to sounding funky is not dependent on you playing fast and complex stuff. In fact if you haven't developed a good sense of rhythm and applied it to more minimal playing, not matter how fast or complex you play, your not going to sound funky. Developing a good sense of rhythm can take a little time but the good news is, if you find your self digging those funky styles, you definitely have it in you to play funky yourself.
In my mind there are three main areas that people can address if they want to start sounding funky. The first and most important is your sense of rhythm. Early on it can almost seem intangible. It is so common to hear people say I have no sense of rhythm. (almost as common as I'm not musical which is also completely untrue). People who respond to rhythmic music and enjoy it, definitely have the potential to play with great rhythm themselves. However this does need practice. so what can we do....
1- Your probably already doing this but an essential thing to do is to listen to the music that you want to play. This is actually incredibly important for all styles of music. Even music that is less obviously rhythmic has a unique feel that you must get to be able to sound like it. When listening to funky music though, try and participate in someway. By this I mean click your fingers, dance, get a shaker and play along to it. Play along on the piano, however simple the part (in fact at first keeping a simple but solid part can be better).
2- Practice with a metronome/drum track. Now this one can be a little controversial. Playing with a metronome with 4 clicks to a bar can leave everything sounding rigid and soulless. What jazz players do however is to the metronome to half time and then play against it so the clicks land on beat 2 and 4. This really helps playing with a swing feel but even if your playing straight it allows your a little more freedom to develop a feel whilst still keeping you in time. Something to note though, allot of people find playing to a metronome very hard at first. If this is so for you, you will need to play simple patterns or even just tap along with it playing a regular 4 beats per bar. If you can't do this first you won't be able to play against 2 and 4 nor will you be able to play correctly against a drum track. The good news is that once you get over the initial hurdle of playing simple against a metronome, things get easier very quickly and the benefits are so worth it.
3- Listen to your self and/or record your self. Yes, it is surprising how few people really listen to themselves whilst there playing. This also can be quite tricky at first, try doing it whilst playing something that your already pretty solid on, even just the awareness that you should be trying to listen to what's being played (by you) should help you get more in touch with your sound. You can also record your self and listen to it back. I would really recommend doing both to be honest. Every musician should always be listening to what he's playing but recording oneself is also a great if excruciating test. Yes it can be painful at first but please don't let that discourage you. You need to hear yourself play but the very moment that your hearing all the little imperfections, you'll already be well on the way to fixing them and as a result start sounding allot better.
4- Play with other musicians. If you can this is a fantastic thing to do. Playing with musicians better than your self obviously can do wonders, if you have the opportunity to do so. One way is to find jam sessions and go along and participate in some small way. If you don't feel ready to sit in on the piano, go along and play the tambourine or a shaker. Playing with other musicians your level is equally important however. Even if your a fairly amateur player, whilst plying with other beginners isn't going to sort out your rhythm on it's own, it is going to add a whole new dimension to your playing and musician ship. Fell and such other elusive things and musical communication and spontaneity a really benefited in a way that no amount of solo practice can address.
Developing feel is by far the most important and in a subtle way challenging aspect of sounding funky however I did I'd mention a couple other things to focus on. Working on your left hand baselines and gaining some understanding of the patterns and chord shapes that funky players use. These are both really just logistical things and are a bit simpler to deal with. There are loads of innovations in what to use when getting a funky sound. However pianists are often trying to find something a bit punchy so they can be percussive with it. I often thing of these things as the power-chords of the piano. Power-chord on the guitar are just 5th intervals played in parallel. Funky piano often place fourths and fifths strategically in there patterns in places where they want to add accents. Also commonly used are 7#9 chords (e.g. C7#9 voicing, left hand is already playing the C, right hand can play E, Bb, Eb, spread out like this it sounds very punchy). Another classic is the fourth chord. This is essentially just two fourth intervals stacked upon one and other (e.g. C,F,Bb). The use of such chords warrants a tutorial in it's own right but these have a great punchy sound and are commonly moved around in parallel quite freely, even non diatonically. There are of course plenty more shapes that can be used but this tutorial will have to suffice with this for now.
I mention left hand practice because people tend to shy away form it and yet it's such an important element in many funky piano styles. Some technical practice playing scales and arpeggios is important although I won't go into the finer details of such things here today. However also learning to play baselines in the left hand. Track down a book of funk or jazz or blues bass lines and just spend some time playing through them with the left hand (always whilst practicing your feel). You will soon see the benefit and start seeing how to incorporate them. A couple of starter tips on how to construct your own left hand bass parts is to find your self some chord progressions (4 bars, 8 bars long) and use them for practice. Lean to play the bass notes only, learn to to walk in octaves (playing notes on beats 1 and 3), learn to add in the 5th as another options. Another common move is to approach the new chord by a semitone above or below.
Hopeful you have found some of this useful. Above all, make sure your having fun with it and stay reassured when stuff seems hard. These things can take time but it's definitely worth it when you get there.
About the Author
Sharma Yelverton is a professional musician, composer and private piano tutor in north London. To find out more about Sharma's work or if your interested in private music lessons you can visit him at Piano Lessons in North London
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