How to Make ANYTHING Funky (feat. @NikWestBass )

0:00 Before we get started, I wanna let you know today's episode is

0:03 brought to you by the Independent Lens documentary,

0:05 "WE WANT THE FUNK!" available now on the PBS app.

0:08 Links below.

0:09 It don't take much to sound dope.

0:12 My tone is trash, but you get it though.

0:14 I mean, who doesn't want the funk?

0:16 But what is it exactly?

0:18 We all know funk when we hear it.

0:20 (funky music playing) Oh yeah.

0:25 Funk.

0:25 (funky music playing) Oh, that's funky.

0:30 (funky music playing) Funk.

0:36 (soft bass music) Today I'm gonna look at the backbone of funk, the bass line.

0:43 How do funk bass players transform a few simple

0:46 notes into something that makes you want to move?

0:48 Now, I'm not a bass player, but with the help of a great teacher,

0:52 I'm gonna try to sprinkle a little bit

0:54 of funk- It's like that special little seasoning into this.

0:58 (bass guitar sounds)- I feel like that's

1:06 the first song everybody learns in their music class,

1:08 the "Hot Cross Buns."- What is a hot cross bun?

1:10 I don't know.

1:11 Here's the thing, funk seems so simple.

1:14 There's not a lot of complicated harmonies, not a ton of notes, just groove.

1:19 Just listen to the first couple bars of "Give It To Me Baby" by Rick James.

1:23 (funky bass guitar) Simple, right?

1:30 But funk isn't just what you play, but it's how you play it.

1:34 So to help me break this all down, I called Nik West.

1:38 She's an amazing bass player.

1:40 She's worked with Prince, the legendary slap-bass pioneer Larry Graham,

1:43 and she's gonna try to turn me into a bass player.

1:46 I'm trash on the bass, but I'm gonna give it a try.

1:49 Now, air bass.

1:49 Yeah, I'm the truth.

1:50 I'm the truth at air bass though.

1:52 Do, do, do actually playing the instrument.

1:55 Do you prefer four strings, five strings, or...

1:59 I grew up in the church where the guys would bring basses

2:02 to the pulpit and they were just fat necked, six string bases.

2:06 Yeah, I was like, "I gotta do that." That's all

2:09 I was doing was playing the six string, playing chords.

2:12 But then I met Prince, and he's just like, "You got way too many strings.

2:17 Larry Graham only needed four." That's what he said.

2:21 [Dr.

2:21 Vincent] Most of us credit Sly Stone and Larry Graham for laying out how

2:25 to make a song where you walk away humming the bass line to the song.

2:32 Oh, that song that goes bump, bump, bump, bump, bump.

2:35 That's just what they did.

2:36 And they did it ahead of everybody else.

2:39 [Arthur] James Brown, Sly and the Family Stone, Parliament.

2:42 For most people, this is funk.

2:44 The syncopated groove of the late 1960s and 70s.

2:48 (funky music playing)- Bootsy Collins belongs on the Mount Rushmore of funk.

3:04 He took the bottom and turned it into this psychedelic wiggle.

3:09 I've accepted funk is an underground thing.

3:11 It's underground and everywhere at the same time.

3:15 Most of us know it's part of the foundation of hip hop,

3:17 but funk didn't stop there.

3:19 It has evolved, shape shifted, and embedded itself into the DNA of modern music.

3:24 Check out "Nightmare" by Knower.

3:27 It's jazzy, futuristic funk features one of today's

3:30 brightest and most quilted stars on bass, MonoNeon.

3:33 I love MonoNeon.

3:35 (funky music playing) And of course,

3:43 Thundercat is bringing his giant six string bass to the front of the stage.

3:47 (funky music playing) Funks rhythm heavy

3:54 aesthetic also shapes entire electronic subgenres.

3:58 Producers like Kaytranada, weave funk inspired bass lines into modern beats.

4:02 (modern funky music playing) And you know, funk knows no boundaries.

4:10 Anderson Paak recently teamed up with the King of K-pop, G-Dragon on the track,

4:15 "Too Bad." (modern funky music playing) But no

4:22 matter when or where the funk was made, all funk starts with James Brown.

4:27 K-Dot knows.

4:28 (funky music playing) James Brown changed music forever,

4:38 starting in 1964 with his album,

4:40 "Out of Sight." And just like funk, he did something that seemed so simple.

4:44 He moved the emphasis of the beat from the two and four to the one.

4:49 The one.

4:49 The one?

4:50 Keep hitting that one.

4:52 James Brown found out that if you hit the one strong,

4:55 that what comes after that is funky.

4:58 So instead of songs sounding like 1, TWO, 3, FOUR,

5:02 James Brown made it sound like ONE, 2, 3, 4 ONE.

5:07 (rhythmic humming) Why is bass your thing?

5:11 Or like what excites you about the bass?

5:14 I heard Michael Jackson's,

5:15 "You Wanna be Startin' Somethin'" (imitating bass sounds)

5:20 I didn't even know what instrument it was.

5:22 I said, "Dad, what is that?

5:23 What is that instrument doing that low sound?" He's like,

5:26 "Baby, that's a bass." And I'm like,

5:28 "I wanna play that." It's the way that the bass

5:31 lines and the bass just makes you move,

5:33 makes you feel inside that drew me to it.

5:35 Okay, so what about the bass line makes it funky?

5:39 Simplicity, like "We Want the Funk." (imitating bass sounds) "Head" from Prince.

5:47 (imitating bass sounds) See how simple those bass lines are?

5:51 And it just makes you like, ah, you know, just wanna like groove.

5:54 A lot of bass players get into, and a lot of just musicians in general,

5:57 since we're talking about funk, get into, well,

6:00 let me add extra things in here because there's all of this space that nobody's

6:04 playing in, but space is a note and space is the key to creating funk music.

6:11 That's a bar right there.

6:12 [Nik] Yeah.

6:12 [Arthur] Space is a note.

6:13 Absolutely.

6:14 Quote me on that.

6:15 Okay, I'm gonna break this bass out.

6:17 Nervous.

6:19 So, okay, the idea behind this lesson is

6:21 we're gonna try to take the simplest song,

6:24 "Hot Cross Buns" and try to sprinkle some funk into it.

6:26 (Nik laughing) So how would you go about putting some funk on a hot cross bun?

6:32 Hot cross buns.

6:33 Hot cross buns.

6:34 Oh yeah.

6:35 (vocalizing)- We're gonna hot cross bun it.

6:39 So the one has to be loud and proud.

6:42 The one is super important because that is what

6:46 establishes the fierceness of what's getting ready to come next.

6:49 You can start sliding in before we play the song 1, 2, 3, 4, 1.

6:58 That's tough.

6:59 If I take everything out of the song and leave the one.

7:00 So if I go- (vocalizing)- Ah, that's the breakdown right there.

7:07 Like people are still dancing.

7:09 You just got that one.

7:10 Ow.

7:11 And I'm taking something and I'm funking it up.

7:13 I'm thinking like a drummer.

7:15 Some of the best bass players in the world, we are drummers.

7:19 We just happen to play the drums on four, five, or six strings.

7:23 I think every instrument should be thinking like a drummer at some point.

7:26 I agree- But I'm a drummer so I can't even say that.

7:29 (bass guitar sounds) So do you hear how long we're holding the notes?

7:34 Yeah.

7:35 (imitating bass sounds)- Snore, snore, snore.

7:40 Right?

7:42 So the first thing I would do is I would make them staccato.

7:44 So I would take these notes and I would shorten them up.

7:47 So...

7:48 (bass guitar sounds) Just play the...

7:52 (bass guitar sounds) Right.

8:01 So as you are playing these things staccato,

8:03 we're gonna throw something in there called, ghost notes.

8:07 Ghost notes are notes that are felt but not necessarily heard.

8:13 (ghost note sounds) That's a ghost note.

8:17 Okay.

8:18 It's more of just like a rhythmic, whatever y'all call it on that in the drums.

8:21 That's what it is.

8:23 A rhythmic, a thing.

8:24 A thing.

8:25 So let's do this, let's do this, let's go, let's go.

8:28 (bass guitar sounds) We can add an octave.

8:35 (bass guitar sounds)- Aye.

8:47 You are feeling something, and you don't know what it is that's making you say,

8:50 "Oh, that is so funky, and she's only playing three notes."- Yeah.

8:55 It's the ghost notes.

8:56 It's the ghost notes.

8:56 It's coming back up.

8:57 (bass guitar sounds) That make sense?

9:05 [Arthur] That makes perfect sense.

9:07 Nik, I appreciate you working with me today teaching me.

9:10 Of course.

9:11 [Arthur] We'll figure it out.

9:12 Okay, come on.

9:15 Keep it simple.

9:17 (funky music playing) Hit the one.

9:25 Leave space.

9:26 Think like a drummer, and keep it simple.

9:30 The simplicity of funk is what makes it so special, so versatile.

9:35 And it's why funk didn't just influence modern music.

9:38 It is modern music.

9:44 If you really want to get into the funk,

9:46 check out the Independent Lens documentary,

9:48 "WE WANT THE FUNK!"- I don't know what you're talking about.

9:51 We want the funk.

9:51 Gotta have the funk.

9:52 Okay.

9:52 That's good enough for me.

9:55 How do you resist such a heavy groove?

9:58 You can't.

9:59 [Arthur] "WE WANT THE FUNK!" it tells the story

10:01 of the music and the movement available now on the PBS app.

10:04 Links below.