How to Practice Funk Riffs

Lots of students tend to play what they know best and avoid getting out of their comfortable zone! I always bug my students to learn something new every week and I don't mean working on new songs that tend to use the same chords - but really working on a drill, applying variations and then creating riffs with those drills.

For example, let’s pick a B minor scale and create a funk riff: (B C# D E F# G A)

E---------------------------------7-9-10--------
B--------------------------7-8-10---------------
G--------------------6-7-9----------------------
D----------------7-9----------------------------
A---------7-9-10--------------------------------
E--7-9-10---------------------------------------

1- Play four times in each fret
2- Play four times in each fret but mute the last three times
3- Play four times in each fret but mute the first three times
4- Play four times in each fret but mute the last two times

After you mastered those ideas, feel free to create your own variations!

Now let's apply those drills into a little riff:

E---------------------------
B---------------------------
G------------7--------------
D--7-9--9-9----9--9-9-------
A---------------------------
E---------------------------
​

​Then we can mute some notes:

E---------------------------
B---------------------------
G------------7--------------
D--7-9--x-x----9--x-x-------
A---------------------------
E---------------------------

​We can even add a chord into the mix: Bm (B D F#)

E----7-------7-------------------
B----7-------7-------------------
G----7-------7-------------------
D------------9-------------------
A------------9-------------------
E------------7-------------------

​If you have a wah wah pedal at home, USE IT!! It will sound great!

Hope you guys have enjoyed this lesson and don't forget to book a lesson to boost your guitar skills.

Rod Ferreira has been a guitar teacher for over ten years. Rod specializes in acousitc, electric, blues, and rock guitar. Sign up for a one-on-one lesson today!