Six Strings
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Course

Advanced · step 6 · Not started

Ghost notes and groove

What makes a funk riff groove isn’t its notes, it’s the ones you can barely hear in between. Ghost notes give it momentum, like a drummer’s little taps. Goal: a sixteenth-note riff with ghost notes, steady, with a metronome.

Time
15 minutes a day, for a week
Before you start
5/4 and 7/8 time; Muting and funk
You’ll be able to
Place ghost notes in a riff

The ghost note

It’s a dead note: your fretting hand touches the string without pressing it down, the pick strikes, and you hear a pitchless “tick”. You know it from the muted strokes in funk, but here it’s on a single string, and much softer.

A ghost note is played quieter than the real notes: it’s a whisper, not a hit. That difference in volume is the whole groove.

The riff

A sixteenth-note riff on the low E and A strings. The “x”s in the tab are the ghost notes.

e|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
B|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
G|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
D|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
A|-----------------2-x-5-x-------------------------2-x-5-x---------|
E|-0-x-x-3-x-5-x-x---------x-3-x-x-0-x-x-3-x-5-x-x---------x-3-x-x-|

Your picking hand makes sixteen down-and-up strokes per bar, never stopping, just like funk strumming. Your fretting hand decides: pressed, the note rings; resting, it’s a ghost note.

Method

  1. Every sixteenth as a ghost note, at 60: sixteen even “ticks” per bar.
  2. Add the real notes one at a time, pressing at the right moment, louder.
  3. Exaggerate the volume difference: the notes loud, the ghost notes almost inaudible.

Common mistakes

  • Ghost notes too loud: the riff turns muddy. Less pick, a lighter touch.
  • Your picking hand stopping on the rests: it’s the one keeping time.
  • The note ringing instead of staying dead: relax your fretting hand more.

You’ve got it when…