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Lesson 5 - Strumming patterns



Course material

We learned now a lot of chords that are used in Funk often. It is now time to play these chords in a nice & funky matter on our guitar. This lesson is about how to strum the chords correctly. It should be noted that when playing funk, the right hand will move up and down in the same tempo all the time and the left hand is muting or pressing in the chords at a certain interval. This will cause a nice groove as can be heard in the video. Underneath are some rhytms you can try out for yourselves. The legenda of the symbols is also given.
Riff 1

This is exactly what I played by the beginning when I was only strumming on count 1. X in the tab means mute.

 

 E|----5-----X-------X-------X--------------------------------
B|----6-----X-------X-------X--------------------------------
G|----5-----X-------X-------X--------------------------------
D|----7-----X-------X-------X--------------------------------
A|----5-----X-------X-------X--------------------------------
E|----5-----X-------X-------X--------------------------------
Riff 2

This was the second part we practiced. Striking the chord on count 1 and 4 remember?

 

 E|----5-------X-------X-------5------------------------------
B|----6-------X-------X-------6------------------------------
G|----5-------X-------X-------5------------------------------
D|----7-------X-------X-------7------------------------------
A|----5-------X-------X-------5------------------------------
E|----5-------X-------X-------5------------------------------
Riff 3

This is what was played during the introduction. You can practice it now by tab.

 

 E|--5---X---X----5---X---X---5---X---X---5---X--X--5--X--5
B|--6---X---X----6---X---X---6---X---X---6---X--X--6--X--6
G|--5---X---X----5---X---X---5---X---X---5---X--X--5--X--5
D|--7---X---X----7---X---X---7---X---X---7---X--X--7--X--7
A|--5---X---X----5---X---X---5---X---X---5---X--X--5--X--5-
E|--5---X---X----5---X---X---5---X---X---5---X--X--5--X--5
Riff 4

This is just another riff you can use that sound funky. Remember that you should always hit up and down!

 

 E|-5--5--5--5--5---X-X---5---X-X---5---X-X---5--------
B|-5--6--6--6--6---X-X---6---X-X---6---X-X---5--------
G|-5--5--5--5--5---X-X---5---X-X---5---X-X---5--------
D|-5--7--7--7--7---X-X---7---X-X---7---X-X---5--------
A|-5--5--5--5--5---X-X---5---X-X---5---X-X---5---------
E|-5--5--5--5--5---X-X---5---X-X---5---X-X---5---------

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