The 4 Best Funk Chords For The Rhythm Guitarist * Bread And Butter Funk Guitar Chords
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Funk rhythm guitar, the kind you hear in Earth, Wind & Fire and Tower of Power, comes down to a handful of go-to voicings. These are the bread-and-butter dominant 7th chords Adam reaches for about 80% of the time.
What you'll learn
- Funk lives in dominant 7th voicings on the top three or four strings
- Learn each voicing by which chord tone is on top: root, 3rd, 5th, or ♭7
- Leaving out the 3rd gives an open, hollow, funky sound
- Connect keys by sliding a shape until the new chord's tone is on top
Why dominant 7ths, and where to play them
For groove-type funk, Adam concentrates on dominant 7th chords, mostly using the top three or four strings, the ones closest to the floor. Working in C7, the chord tones are C, E, G and B♭ (root, 3rd, 5th, ♭7), and the trick is to learn a voicing built on each one.
A good way to organize it: visualize the chord theory on the first string. Find C at the 8th fret, E at the 12th, G at the 3rd, B♭ at the 6th. Then build a small voicing under each of those notes so you always know whether the root, 3rd, 5th, or ♭7 is on top.
The four bread-and-butter voicings
The first has the root on top, solid and right in the pocket. From the D string down it stacks the ♭7, the 9th (D, for a jazzy color), the 5th, and the root. Notice there's no 3rd, which opens it up and gives it a hollow but still funky sound.
Then there's a voicing with the 5th on top (B♭, C, G: ♭7, root, 5th), a ♭7 voicing across four strings that also has the 9th in it, and a 3rd-on-top voicing that looks like a D7 shape slid up the G, B and E strings (12th, 11th, 12th). On that last one, Adam likes to suspend the third. Push the note on the high E up to F and bring it back.
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Connecting from one key to the next
Once you know the voicings by their top note, changing keys is easy. Say you're going from C7 to F7: the 3rd of F7 is A, so take your 3rd-on-top C7 shape and move it until the A is on top. Now it's an F7 funk chord that connects smoothly. There's always something close by to move into.
From there you embellish. For example, instead of jumping straight up to the B♭-on-top voicing, walk from the G up to A and then to the B♭. It's all still C7, just with movement.
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