"BLUE" JIMMY: GUY WHAT PLAYS FUNKY
BLIND DOG OZZY: NEUROTIC CHIHUAHUA
"BLUE" JIMMY: These riffs took me a lifetime to learn properly and the only reason I'm sharing them with you is 'cause I don't hear them much anymore in today's music!
BLIND DOG OZZY: And when you do hear them they've been sampled (stolen) by some DJ trying to make people think they came up with that s**t on their own!
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| JIMMY NOLEN |
"BLUE" JIMMY: Long before CREAM, HENDRIX, ZEPPELIN, AEROSMITH AND ZZ TOP started playing funky blues riffs, there was JAMES BROWN. JB is a legend in his own right but he also had a guitar man in his band named Jimmy Nolen who practically invented the Funk riff in the mid-60's as part of Brown's band. I ain't no music theory expert but people have told me this "chicken scratchin'" sound was created by using partial 9th and 7th chords and doing inhuman play and mute sequences against the fretboard which nobody can teach you ... you just have to Feel The Funk! Other funky, soulful cats what played this kind of guitar included, Cornell Dupree, Curtis Mayfield and Steve Cropper. Also, when not using crushing distortion, fuzztone and wah pedal, Jimi Hendrix was a total master of this style and you can hear it all through his legendary recordings. In the 70's, there was a slew of bands that used this technique to great effect: TOWER OF POWER; EARTH WIND AND FIRE; THE COMMODORES; THE AVERAGE WHITE BAND; THE OHIO PLAYERS; KOOL & THE GANG; THE ISLEY BROTHERS; PARLIAMENT/ FUNKADELIC and a whole lot of booty shakin' others!
BLIND DOG OZZY: Get The Funk Out Ma Face!!! ( BROTHERS JOHNSON).
"BLUE" JIMMY: Modern Bluesmen have incorporated this technique with great success into their music and you can hear it in the recordings of guys like Robert Cray, Bernard Allison and the great Stevie Ray Vaughan. I started using this technique when I started messing around with chord chart books (there was no Internet or online lessons back then) and found that you could make things sound all sorts of funky by throwing in these chord shapes instead of using simple barre chords.
BLIND DOG OZZY: Don't try to get all technical ... you only know three chords!!!
"BLUE" JIMMY: Three chords will get you there and back! Here's one funky chord:
BLIND DOG OZZY: Dude! Don't pretend you know that theory s**t!
"BLUE" JIMMY: The guitar is an '89 Fender American Standard Strat with the pickup switch set to neck/middle position although at a certain point you hear me bump the switch to middle position and the Strat starts quacking like a duck. The amp is a 100 watt Marshall MG Series combo amp on full gain but with the volume just barely cranked so you hear all kinds of pick and string noise and was recorded on my Dell tablet so I don't want to hear all kinds of audiophile a**hole comments about EQ. The idea was to demonstrate the technique and I think I did that ... in yo' face!
BLIND DOG OZZY: Dude! Why don't you clean that Strat?
"BLUE" JIMMY: If I got time, I can either clean it or play it ... I choose to play it!
BLIND DOG OZZY: If you got a studio we can record in, contact us and let's get it on!
"BLUE" JIMMY: Sake's Alive!
BLIND DOG OZZY: Get The Funk Out Ma Face!!! ( BROTHERS JOHNSON).
"BLUE" JIMMY: Modern Bluesmen have incorporated this technique with great success into their music and you can hear it in the recordings of guys like Robert Cray, Bernard Allison and the great Stevie Ray Vaughan. I started using this technique when I started messing around with chord chart books (there was no Internet or online lessons back then) and found that you could make things sound all sorts of funky by throwing in these chord shapes instead of using simple barre chords.
BLIND DOG OZZY: Don't try to get all technical ... you only know three chords!!!
"BLUE" JIMMY: Three chords will get you there and back! Here's one funky chord:
Here's a 'nother chord:
Here's an octave run where you play the same note an octave apart on adjacent strings (used a lot in Funk music):
BLIND DOG OZZY: Oh, S**T!!! Trying to get all Wes Montgomery on us!!!
"BLUE" JIMMY: Since video examples never play right for me on Blogger, I will put a link here to my facebook page where you can see me go head-on and play two funky riffs first in normal song mode and then in hyperspeed, James Brown nuclear breakdown mode. https://www.facebook.com/jim.cota.92/videos/1762651204003171/The first example is played in the key of C but could easily be played up and down the neck in any key. The second example is played in the key of E and is best played in that key to take advantage of the whole neck and some open strings.
BLIND DOG OZZY: Dude! Don't pretend you know that theory s**t!
"BLUE" JIMMY: The guitar is an '89 Fender American Standard Strat with the pickup switch set to neck/middle position although at a certain point you hear me bump the switch to middle position and the Strat starts quacking like a duck. The amp is a 100 watt Marshall MG Series combo amp on full gain but with the volume just barely cranked so you hear all kinds of pick and string noise and was recorded on my Dell tablet so I don't want to hear all kinds of audiophile a**hole comments about EQ. The idea was to demonstrate the technique and I think I did that ... in yo' face!
BLIND DOG OZZY: Dude! Why don't you clean that Strat?
"BLUE" JIMMY: If I got time, I can either clean it or play it ... I choose to play it!
BLIND DOG OZZY: If you got a studio we can record in, contact us and let's get it on!
"BLUE" JIMMY: Sake's Alive!
BLIND DOG OZZY: Wow! Wow!
bluejames61@hotmail.com
