Funk Chords: The Top 5 Chords EVERY Pianist Should Know

hey everyone John Prue here so do you ever listen to funk music and wonder how they get those hip sounding chords well in today's quick tip I'm going to show you the five Funk chords you must know as a piano player and I'm also going to show you how to use those chords over three of the most common Funk chord progressions with some really cool bass lines from some recognizable Funk Tunes you ready to get started then let's go welcome again to today's quick tip on Funk chords a complete guide so let's get right to it first of all we have What's called the chord index where we have the five Funk chords that all piano players must know to play in this funk style the first one is What's called the minor ninth so we're going to do all of this with c as the bass and so we have a C minor nine so we have the seventh the ninth the third and the fifth a really beautiful sound and what I love about Minor nine chords that you have the ninth and the minor third right next to each other creating that minor second really cool sound you hear this a lot especially passing minor nine chords like this second chord that you must know in this funk style is What's called the major ninth chord so we're going to start in the key of C and we're going to do a major ninth chord which means we have a major seven we have the ninth we have the major third and the fifth you hear this kind of thing a lot so that major nine Sound the third Funk chord we're going to go over is What's called the 13th chord and it's a dominant sound so for C13 we have the root in the left hand the right hand is going to play the seventh the ninth the third and the 13th it's kind of a spread voicing used as a dominant chord but it can also be used as a one chord as well the fourth Funk chord is very similar to the C13 but this one is what's called a C13 sus and the sus refers to a suspended note which is the fourth so what now what we have is we have the C the B flat which is the seventh we have the ninth but instead of the third like we did in the C13 we have the F which is called the sus or the suspended note which is the fourth or the 11th is another way of thinking about it and then the 13th on top another way of looking at this right hand it looks like a B flat major seven over C and sometimes you actually see it written as a slash chord as well but this is a nice open kind of sound the fifth chord which is one of my favorite chords in the funk style is What's called the C7 sharp 9 flat 13 chord also referred to as an ALT chord it's a dominant chord forward and we're going to start on C so we have C which is the root we have the major third the flat 13 th and the sharp nine it's a really cool dominant sound you hear this a lot in funk music of Stevie Wonder for example or James Brown this kind of tight kind of sound like this very rhythmic and because these are dominant chords are functioning as a five chord so C7 would be five in the key of F major so you often times see it resolve to either an F major or an F minor really beautiful sound and used a lot in funk music alright now comes the fun part where we're going to take all those chords we just learned and put them into three of the most typical chord progressions that you're going to hear in funk music based on some popular songs by some of your favorite artists alright the first progression we're calling progression number one is a very basic progression that starts in the minor one so this is a C minor nine and then it's going to the dominant 413 or an f13 chord this is just a vamp that just keeps going back and forth between the minor one and the dominant four and you probably have heard this in songs like chameleon by Herbie Hancock right or use me up by Bill Withers do you use me up yeah or Uptown funk by Bruno Mars so it's really a fun chord progression we're gonna break it down and learn it right hand first and then left hand now the cool thing with funk music is that the subdivision rhythmically are 16th notes which is one E and A two e and a three and a four E and A one E and A two e and a three and a four E and A and so when we're counting these rhythms we want to make sure that we can hear that subdivision because we're going to see a lot of 16th note rhythms in funk music now the right hand is playing a C minor nine so you have seven nine three five right that minor nine Funk chord and the cool thing about this is that we're only moving one note when we go to the f13 we're moving the B flat down to an a the other notes stay the same and so it goes like this I'll play it through two times have you join me the third and fourth time goes like this two three four but join me all right so now we're going to take the left hand we have a c C E flat F down to a g to a B flat so we have a c C E flat F G B flat C and with that rhythm again I'll play it twice you join me the third and fourth time goes like this two three four one two three one two and three and four two three four one two three and four and join me one two and three cool now when we put it together we're gonna go a little slower than that so you can hear the subdivision it goes like this and I'll play it slowly two times and have you join me the third and fourth time it goes like this two three four foreign yeah very cool so now that we've practiced this we're going to try it with the drum track and we're going to speed it up a little bit to the quarter note equals 95. so again I'm going to play it through two times and then you join me on the third and fourth time with the drum track now to keep us honest all right you ready let's do it here we go two ready and join me [Music] all right our second chord progression comes from a famous Roy Hargrove tune I'm going to play it through for you once and then we're gonna break it down go something like this [Music] thank you [Music] and what I love about the score progression is that we start with C minor 9 we go up a whole step to D Minor nine and then up a half step to E flat major seven and then go back down to D Minor nine and repeat that same progression C minor 9 D Minor 9 E flat major seven and then even though this looks like a D Minor 9 in the right hand when we put a g in the bass here it's what's called a G13 sus but the right hand looks like a D Minor nine so that's the cool thing about the right hand you don't have to change that at all it's the left hand that will change to make it that a G13 sus all right so now I'm going to play through the Rhythm and the chords in the right hand one time through and have you join me the second time all right it goes like this two three four oh one two three and four and one two three a three and four and one two three and yeah great job so now let's look at the notes in the left hand again if there's a lot of Ledger lines but I'll show you the notes here so it starts on c c g d d e flat then d g d c c g d d e flat then this is F sharp g d g g d so this is just fifths right going down to the the fifth which is a d so I'll play it through the whole four measures for you once and have you join me the second time go like this two three four one two and a three one two three one two three yeah great now we're going to try to put the hands together I'll play it through once you join me the second time all right it goes like this two three four two three two three join me now two three one two three isn't that fun all right now we're gonna try with the track a little faster coordinator equals 95. here we go two ready and [Music] all right join me here [Music] two three [Music] one two three [Music] all right we've come to our last progression progression number three based on a song called Sunny by Bobby Hebb I'm going to play it for you once so you can hear how it goes and then we're gonna break it down it goes like this [Music] all right so let's break this down hand separately first starting with the right hand so now let's look at these chords and what I love about this chord progression it's exactly what we were talking about earlier with this idea of chromatic minor 9 chords going down so we start with the C minor nine we go down to a B minor 9 to a B flat minor nine which is now acting as a two chord going to a five chord which is a 13 sus then to a tritone of E flat that's a tritone substitution right that augmented fourth and then to an A flat major nine chord which in the key of C minor is a flat six and then we go to a two chord a minor eleven chord actually of D D Minor eleven which is a two chord two of five seven altered or a g seven altered chord which takes us back to C minor nine so I'm going to play it through one time the right hand only and then have you join me the second time all right it goes like this two three four one two three four and one and two and three join me and one two three four and all right now comes the fun part I love the bass lines and this is no exception let's look at the notes I know there's some Ledger lines there so I'll tell you the notes Here it starts on a c a low C we have c c g c c b b flat d flat d e flat E flat a a flat a flat E flat a flat E flat d f f sharp g d g c c try with me one more time very cool all right so now we're gonna try to put the hands together we're gonna start slowly and then move it up a little bit faster with the track again if you're only comfortable playing one hand that's totally fine but I'm gonna play hands together you're welcome to join me let's do it two times through a little bit slower two three four foreign let's do it again yeah well done okay now we're gonna try it with the track quarter note equals 95. we're going to do it through four times so you're gonna get plenty of chances to try this groove again if you're just comfortable with playing the right hand or just the left hand that's fine if you'd like to play both hands of the track you're more than welcome let's give it a try here we go two ready and [Music] one more time [Music] one more time [Music] all right that was a lot of fun thank you all so much for being here for today's quick tip on Funk chords I hope you learned a lot about these five typical Funk voicings that you hear all the time in funk music as well as these three chord progressions that you hear in this style if you'd like to learn more about funk music please listen to some of the artists like Stevie Wonder or Bruno Mars Herbie Hancock Roy Hargrove Bill Withers the list goes on and on and on but you're going to hear these techniques in their music so thank you all so much for being here for today's quick tip hope to see you again real soon alright take care everyone bye-bye thanks for watching and if you enjoyed the lesson be sure to check out piano with johnny.com we have over 1 000 step-by-step lessons for all playing levels where you'll learn your favorite songs Styles and how to improvise at the piano thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next one

Channel: Piano With Jonny

Views: 100,290

Keywords: piano with jonny, jonny may, john proulx, funk piano, funk chords, funky chords, how to play funk, jazz chords, piano chords, how to play jazz chords, 251 progression, funk piano chords, funky piano chords, how to play funk piano, james brown, herbie hancock, how to play piano chords, piano lesson funk, easy funk piano, piano improv, piano improvisation, piano chords theory, piano progression, funk progression, rootless voicings

Id: b0Zbla4Tsfs

Length: 17min 43sec (1063 seconds)

Published: Fri May 12 2023