Funk Drum Backing Track for Practice

The funk groove

Funk was born in the late 1960s with James Brown and his drummers, Clyde Stubblefield and Jabo Starks, and with The Meters in New Orleans. It takes the soul backbeat and fills it with sixteenth notes: everything revolves around beat 1, the kick pushes and pulls, and the snare murmurs between the hits. It is in 4/4 and mostly played between 85 and 115 BPM.

Here you hear a two-bar groove. Counting sixteenths, 1 e & a 2 e & a…:

• Hi-hat: closed, in sixteenths. Every beat is accented, the “&” is medium and the “e” and “a” are soft. It opens on the “&” of 4 in the second bar, and the closed hi-hat on the next 1 cuts it.
• Snare: the backbeat, a strong rimshot on 2 and 4. Around it sit the ghost notes, very soft strokes on the “a” of 1, 2 and 4 and the “e” of 3 in the first bar, and on the “&” of 2, the “e” of 3 and the “a” of 3 in the second.
• Kick: syncopated. In the first bar on 1, the “&” of 1, the “&” of 3 and the “e” of 4; in the second on 1, the “a” of 1, the “&” of 2 and the “&” of 3.
• Crash and toms: they only play in the fill.
• Tambourine and congas: off by default. The tambourine doubles the snare on 2 and 4, Motown style, and the congas add a heel, tip and open-tone pattern with open tones on the “&” of 2 and 4.

Ghost notes

A ghost note is a snare stroke so soft that you barely hear it as a note: you feel it as part of the motion. Ghost notes give funk its bounce. Here they are not the normal hit turned down, but recordings of the snare played very softly, with less snare wire and a softer attack, the way a drummer plays them.

By default you can hear them without them covering the backbeat. To hear them better, lower the hi-hat a little; for a cleaner groove, lower the snare.

Swing: from straight to laid back

James Brown’s funk is almost straight, but a lot of funk, soul and neo-soul lays the sixteenths back a little. The Swing control delays the off-beat sixteenths (the “e” and the “a”):

• 50%: straight, every sixteenth exactly in place. This is where it starts.
• 54–56%: a light lean that you feel more than hear.
• 58–62%: a lazy groove, close to neo-soul and live-drum hip-hop.

Swing changes while the groove plays, is kept in the link you share and also applies to the downloads.

Fills every 4 or 8 bars

With Fill set to every 8 bars (the usual) or every 4, the last bar of the phrase ends with a short fill on beat 4: the hi-hat stops, the snare plays the backbeat and a soft note, and the toms move from the high tom down to the floor tom. The next bar starts with crash and kick. Choose No fills for a completely steady groove.

Exercises with the funk groove

1. Guitar: lock in with the hi-hat. Strum muted sixteenths with your strumming hand always moving, following the hi-hat, and let only some strokes ring. When your hand and the hi-hat move together, the groove comes by itself.
2. Bass: lock in with the kick. Play the root only where the kick plays, above all on 1. Then add notes on the free sixteenths.
3. Drums: play the ghost notes. Turn the snare off and play it yourself: first only 2 and 4, then with the ghost notes, as softly as you can.
4. Everyone: feel the one. In funk everything points to the first beat. Count out loud and mark only beat 1 with a hit or a chord.
5. Try the swing. Play your part with swing at 50%, then at 56%. Listen to how the feel changes while the tempo stays the same.
6. Speed up gradually. Start around 80 BPM and go up 5 at a time.

Frequently asked questions