Jad Diab - Funky Strumming SI Lesson

Introduction

Hey GMCer's, here's my third lesson on the SI board, hope you'll enjoy it
My first lesson was a bit jazzy, the second one a bit rockin', but this time it's gonna be funky.

This lesson is based on a funky guitar strumming, with lot of variations to create melodies, this technique is used by lot of musicians, you just focus on a main idea (rythm) and add variations to create some phrasing, and it can make a song a lot less boring then repeating the same melodie all the time.
You can have fun and improvise on the backing tracks, the key is in A Dorian, (for beginners, A minor pentatonic works well )
All comments and feedbacks are welcome, I will be happy to read them and answer to all questions.
I hope you'll like my lesson, and I hope that I'll manage to be an instructor at GMC one day.

Main Video

Main Video: Main_video.wmv ( 16.59MB)

Video 1

Here's the main rythmic pattern, notice how I'm muting the unwanted strings so we can hear only the notes that we want to hear. It's creates a sort of dirty effect on sound, that is typical for funk. At the end of this pattern you'll find the D7 chord (Dominant 7), D7 is typical of A Dorian, you won't find it in the other modes (if using the key of A), it's called the Sub-Dominant. You can check out Andrew's theory lesson Modal Chord Progressions for more informations .By the way 'bout sound, if your looking for your tone, you'll better seek a crunch sound, too much distorsion will kill the groove of funk. You need a crunch sound with little bit of gain, in order to hear every note cleanly. I'm using a Pod X3, my tone name is plexy phase.

Video 1: 1.wmv ( 16.13MB )

E|---------------------------------------------------------------------|
B|-----------7-5------------------------------13-10---------7/8\7-7-5--|
G|-----------7-5--------------------------x-x-------11-12-9------------|
D|-5h7-7-------------5h7-7-----5p4-------------------------------------|
A|-------x-x-----x-x-------x-x-----5-3---------------------------------|
E|---------------------------------------------------------------------|

Video 2

In this pattern, there's lot of variations, the first one is on the 2nd bar, you'll see a chormatic sequence using the "devil's interval" the dimineshed fifth. Again, carefull on muting unwanted strings, and the the second variations is a little shred run, in the key of A dorian that ends up with a C5 chord.

Video 2: 2.wmv ( 23.22MB )

E|---------------------------------------------------------------15-14-12--------------------------
B|-----------7-5----------------10-10-9-9-8-8------------7-5-------------15-13-12-15-13-12---------
G|-----------7-5----------------9--9--8-8-7-7------------7-5------------------------------14-12-11-
D|5h7-7--------------5h7-7----------------------5h7-7----------------------------------------------
A|-------x-x-----x-x--------x-x--------------x-x------x-x----x-x-----------------------------------
E|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

E|--------------------|
B|--------------------|
G|14-12-11---------12-|
D|--------14-12-10-10-|
A|--------------------|
E|--------------------|

Video 3

This is a laid back pattern, rythmic placement is really important in this one, so careful on timing.

Video 3: 3.wmv ( 19.38MB )

E|---------------------------------------------------------------------|
B|-----------7-5------------------------------13-10---------7/8\7-7-5--|
G|-----------7-5--------------------------x-x-------11-12-9------------|
D|-5h7-7-------------5h7-7-----5p4-------------------------------------|
A|-------x-x-----x-x-------x-x-----5-3---------------------------------|
E|---------------------------------------------------------------------|