Chords for Cory Wong's Top Funk Guitar Tips

There's a lot of people that ask me like what's the main thing that I can do to sound like you on funk guitar or
Whatever and then I'll hear them play and there's two common things that I hear that I will initially
_ Try to get somebody to just tweak a little bit and again
It doesn't mean that it's better because it's the way that I do it.
It's just different.
It's the way that I do things and _
Normally, that's what people are asking.
How do you do what you do doesn't mean that it's better or worse
It's just the way that I do things
The number one thing is timing most people their time is not amazing and
_ They're not as focused on their rhythm and the the right hand is a little bit sloppy
So the number one thing I always tell people to practice is play with a metronome get your timing exactly on and
Just try to get this motor thing running
Where you just _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [F#] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [D] _ _ no matter what style you're playing?
_ Having that motor going being able to play in time is really
_ [A] _ _ _
[D] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ It's still [G#] the same technique as _
_ _ _ _ _ [D] _ _ [E] _
_ _ _ Just having a steady down up down up down up
_ _ Approach really then also makes it so you don't have to think about what is the _ strumming pattern?
It's just anytime.
It's
One e and uh anytime it's a number or an and it's a down stroke anytime
It's an e or an uh, it's an up stroke makes it super simple.
You don't have to think about it
And then the next thing is a lot of times
What I'll see people do with their left hand is they do they don't do enough muting and they hold on to the notes a
Little too long for my taste.
So for example sometime and and they'll play
really thick voicings, so sometimes I'll see somebody playing like _ _ a
Fifth a six string rooted a seven [A] chord like this and they'll play the entire voicing and they'll do something like this _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ There the right hand thing I had the motor running
But that doesn't feel good to me because the left hand nuance is not doing any favors for the fact that my right hand is still
Playing in time.
So even though my right hand is together
the next thing is to build some nuance in the left hand and
One of the biggest things is to pay a little more attention to the releases of notes
So if I were to just go it _ _ _ _ [A] doesn't sound very good
But if I go I'm _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[E] _ _ [F] _ _ still just thinking about that same a7 shape
I'm just breaking it up into
_ _ [G] Different little pods and just picking out different notes and little two three string _
sections of that voicing so I'm thinking of
[Em] _ _ _
_ [A] _ _ And even [Gm] adding
[F#m] _ _
_ _ [A] _ _ Some of those little extra notes from the scale or just I'm still thinking about the same voicing
But I changed my fingering to being more like this _ _ _ _ [D] and then adding [A] a little bit of that sort of thing in there
The less notes I play
The more it creates space for the other people in the band if I'm covering _
Low end [N] it's gonna get in the way of the bass player or the keyboard player keyboard players have ten fingers
And they have a lot of notes they can cover
They can get a huge sound the guitar doesn't always need to play that role
most of the time in funk guitar playing the role is a lot more of a
Percussive role and sometimes filling out some harmonic space so I can still get the I can still accomplish the harmonic sense of a7
but and also kind of cover the
_ The role of like what bongos or congas or a shaker would do with this thing so _ if I think of
_ Taking the role of a percussion player and a little bit of some keyboards for harmonic information and mixing them together
It kind of creates what I do so I'm always thinking about those two things bring them together, so here's that a7 chord
Right hand motors running.
I'm breaking up the [A] vote this voice
With this extra thing into just little little _
Smaller voicings within that so here's an example _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [Am] _ _ _
_ _ [A] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [G] _ _ _ [A] _ And it ends up a lot of times just sounding more like a riff
Which is which can be cool because then you come up with a specific part that makes it feel signature to the song
Rather than just like _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ I don't know what you're doing.
You're just jamming on an a7, but if you go _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [E] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [E] That feels like a phrase
It's a musical phrase that can be like the signature thing for a
Verse of a song or something and if that's the part you play it has more intentionality
And it's a phrase that makes sense that somebody can grasp on to it doesn't just sound like
Jamming on a7 so _ I guess that turned into three tips
_ right hand motor running left hand
Bring in the nuance by not not feeling like you need to play every note in every string break up your voicings
Into little different sections, and then the third thing is just play musical phrases
When you play musical phrases it helps enhance a song overall it makes it feel less like something
That's just going on