Play That Funky Music | TAB
The cliche with funk music is that we just jam over one chord. This myth is probably descended from the rumour that James Brown used to ask auditioning guitar players: “Can you play an E9 all night long”.
Even though Play That Funky Music‘s chords are more than one, they are almost static, we play E9 for a long time, then just move it up to G9 for the chorus, and the Bb7sus2 takes us to the riff, then back to E9 again.
Let’s look at what the guitars are playing, and more importantly, what you could play when asked to perform this classic tune, here’s the first intro/main riff.
You have to play this riff as this is what starts the tune off. Experiment with sliding in and hammering on as I show above, then try hammer-on for both, as well as sliding up to both, also just pick.
After playing this twice, the second guitar comes in, if you’re the only guitarist, perhaps you should switch and then stick with the chord riff as that’s probably the main part of the verse.
In the original recording, both parts are played simultaneously. Here’s the verse riff.
There are two ways to play this chord riff above, you could find more variations, add more muted strums, or even take some of these hits out.
Here’s the bridge, it too has two parts, you should try both, then pick one as it sounds weird to switch between them.
Next, the chorus. Notice how the rhythm part is different from the verse, there’s a rhythmic displacement going on here, similar to that of a clave. These are the hits 1 e + a, 2 e + a, 3 e + a, 4 e + a. Ignore the 1 e, and there’s a dotted 8th note pattern for three beats.
After the Bb chord, the riff is an E minor pentatonic.
There’s a second guitar for the chorus, you could play this instead if you prefer.
Lastly, there is a key change at the end to fade but I’ve never heard a band actually play this, instead, they tend to play the chorus, including the Bb7sus2 and riff, just using a ritardando to end over the descending riff.
So the question is, what will you do?
Will you make sure you know how to play the end section using the verse part but in the key of A as the singer sings the chorus in a new key?
Or will you play the main riff in the new key?
Will be prepared to do all this even though no band you play with most likely never will?
Play That Funky Music TAB | Related Pages
Play That Funky Music | Chords + Lyrics
You can learn how to play Play That Funky Music by Wild Cherry using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, and the original recording.
||: E9 (Eb9 E6) | E9 (Eb9 Eb6 E6) :||
Hey, once I was a boogie singer, playin’ in a rock n roll band…
Five similar tunes | Chords + Lyrics
Wild Cherry tunes
It took Rob Parissi two versions of his band Wild Cherry before he came up with a tune that would make them world-famous.
Wild Cherry is best known for their tune Play That Funky Music which they came up with after having the audience demand dance music from their rock band.
Wild Cherry on the web
About me | Dan Lundholm
This guitar lesson by Dan Lundholm features TAB and covers Play That Funky Music. Discover more about him and how you can learn guitar with Spytunes.
Most importantly, find out why you should learn guitar through playing tunes, not practising scales, and studying theory in isolation.