What Makes Funk so Funky?

Part 1: Rhythm & Feel

In a word, it is the “flam.”  The Hal Leonard Pocket Music Dictionary defines a “flam” as:

A drum rudiment; a small grace note played softly before the written note with alternate sticking.

The flam rudiment in drumming

In composition a flam occurs when one or multiple instruments have a rhythm in conflict with another instrument or instruments. When they don’t line up and occur together in time. This is how I am using the term flam here.   Flams can be intentional or unintentional.  In the past I have told composition students to “avoid flams” but over time I have revised this dictum to state instead “control flams.”   In a style like funk, flams are at the very heart of the feel so you can’t and shouldn’t avoid them.  However, it takes time and experience to develop an idea for what is a good flam an what is not.  Consider the basic groove of a modern funky tune “Uptown Funk” – a flam is baked into the groove and further accented by various aspects of the melody.

Uptown Funk groove with flams against the melody

In fact, the rhythmic flam becomes part of the groove when the guitar comes in with its 8th note-16th rest 16th note accompaniment pattern.  These are “good” flams – they are stylistically a part of what makes the sound we call funk so funky. 

          There are some notable, intentional flams in the BOOMF! repertoire.  Let’s look at the groove of the title track to our first album “Intergalactic Rainbow Ice-Cream Sandwich.”  This flam is 8th-note based in contrast to the 16th-note based one in the previous example (the importance of 8th and 16th rhythms in funk will be discussed further in a bit) but it still involves the snare backbeat.  In other words, the flam is baked into the groove.  

Intergalactic groove flams

Earlier in the intro there are more examples of intentional flams, these 16th-note based:

Intergalactic intro, lots of flams.

I could go on to list many more flam examples.  But it is important to note that a clean, tight, and together hit – which you could consider the opposite of the flam - is ALSO a salient feature of funk.  Maybe a better way to state the dictum would be: strive for a balance of clean hits and flams.

The importance of flams may have been a little overstated, so let’s regroup and finish up a list of some stylistic norms in funk music.  We’ll separate this list into 3 areas, which will each have a separate blog posting.

1.       Rhythm

- Flams

- Groove

- Slower tempi and 16th subdivision of the beat.

- Intricacy

2.       Bluesy Harmony

- Gospel influenced

- R & B

3.       Weird

- Lyrically

- Quirks in general 

This list is not meant to be exhaustive, but merely to offer a glimpse into why funk is funky.  We could add, for example, a bullet point for “instrumentation” or even “timbre” and include lists of beloved sounds associated with funk like the wah-pedal electric guitar, or fuzzy sounding clavinets, or phat horn sections, screaming vocalists, etc.  Suffice it to say, all of that is true, and can be heard on our tunes.  Let’s deal Groove and Tempo, which have to do with feel.

Groove, Tempo, 16th Subdivision

Every style of music has a groove – repeating rhythms that fall into a pattern that feels good.   In funk, it is important to distinguish between straight-16th feel and swing or shuffle-type 16th feel.  For example, from our rep we have the straight 16th feels of “Phishy,” “Digeredon’t” and “Intergalactic;” also the straight 16th funky-latin feel of “Use Me” ala Wayne Wallace; and the swing 16th shuffle feel of “Corinna” ala New Orleans street band.  Our version of “Little Wing” isn’t funk perse, but has funky moments.  Interestingly, most of this one is swingy (3/4 with a triplet subdivision), with some intentionally straight-eighth rhythms that mix it up.  What all of these tunes have in common is a slow tempo.  Its gotta be slow in order to expose the intricate rhythms and the flams.   Last note on groove: drummers are always trying to create a pocket that everyone else can sink their rhythms into.  If everyone is feeling the groove the same way, and laying back the same way, finding that pocket, it can be magical. 

16th vs 8th hits & Syncopation

I covered a bit on 16ths in the last paragraph.  To rephrase, 16th notes and a slow tempo provide the appropriate landscape for funk music.  But this also gives a composer the opportunity introduce the occasional 8th note rhythm for surprise and variation.  In the second section of the head of “Phishy” there is a nod to Tower of Power’s “What is Hip,” but you will note that the drummer is instructed to “keep groovin” instead of setting up the hits as in the T.O.P. tune:

Phishy, B section 16th and 8th hits.

Intricacy

In a typical funk band, say one backing James Brown, you can hear a great deal of complexity in the dialogue between the groove and the horns.  Most of this complexity lies in the many variations of rhythm possible with all 16 of those 16th notes that are in a bar of 4/4 time.   In BOOMF! we have a unique combination of instruments which includes Tuba and bass trombone, and excludes bass.  Of course, Tuba is our “bass” proxy and we use bass trombone to add a bit of edge to that sound when power is desired.  Bass bone in our group also functions as a bari sax does in a rock or funk horn section – as an occasional partner to the bass (tuba) part and low voice counterpoint to the horns.  But with regards to intricacy, bass trombone also assists in creating funky ostinato figures with the tuba – consider all of the delightful intricacy in the low brass on “Digeredon’t”:

Didgeredon’t, low brass intricate ostinato.

As you can see, there are flams all over the place when you compare the composite ostinato and the melody.  But the tuba and bass trombone support and complete each other. Both of these low brass parts, tuba and bass trombone, and the way they fit together are essential for the intricate sounding groove.

In the next post, we’ll get into some harmonic territory covered in the BOOMF! repertoire and where it comes from.