What is Funk

Funk music is a music genre that is influenced by blues, R&B, gospel, and jazz. Funk music is defined by syncopated bass lines, funky, and steady, infectious drum grooves.

A Brief History of Funk Music
Funk originated in the 1960s by African American musicians through a mixture of soul, jazz, and blues music.

The genre grew with the development of James Brown’s signature groove with emphases on rhythms. Usually, funk music provokes the audience to dance.

Funk employs several elements from different musical genres,such as blues horn, rhythm, jazz- guitar timbres, oriented solos, and vocal styling related to soul music.

4 Characteristics of Funk Music
Syncopation: This aspect of funk music is found in its guitar and bass lines helping to make it easy to dance.
Strong downbeats: This is usually followed by 16th note grooves. James Brown, a funk pioneer was known for directing his band to play this.
Seventh chord variants: Funk music depends on the voice chords, specifically the 7th, 9th, and 13th chords.
Grooves moved by bass guitar: The most popular funk musicians are mostly bassists, such as Parliament-Funkadelic, Bootsy Collins, the Family Stone, and Larry Graham of Sly.