Funk Bass Lessons

In this video bass lesson I’m going to show you a fingerstyle funk bass groove in the key of A. So let’s get funky!

(Video Bass Lesson)

Fingerstyle Funk Bass Groove Tablature

So to start, here’s the bass tablature for this riff…and then I’ll break things down a little.

Funk Bass Groove Breakdown

So this funk bass groove is build mostly from the notes of an A7 chord, as well as some notes from an A minor pentatonic scale.

The first section of the riff is just the root of the A7 chord, the octave…a b7, and then a couple of chromatic approach notes leading to the 5th of the chord (4 #4 and 5).

The numbers that I’m using here are just how the notes relate to a major scale. So when I say b7 (flat 7), that’s just the 7th note of a major scale lowered by a half step (1 fret).

An A7 chord is made up of 1 3 5 and b7. So you can see the first part of this bass groove has the 1 5 and b7. The notes that are not part of the chord only serve the purpose of getting to a chord tone. That is the 4 and #4 leading to the 5 of the chord.

The next part of this funky bass riff starts out the same as the first, but then at the end has a b3 leading to the 3, and then to the b7. So again, mostly just notes of the chord, but a chromatic approach to the 3rd of the chord. So b3 which is not in the chord, leads up to the 3 which is.

The 3rd section of the bass riff is exactly the same as the first.

And finally the last section of this is just a bass fill that comes out of an A Minor Pentatonic Scale. Below is the entire scale form in the 5th position with the fingering indicated.