Six Strings
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Intermediate · step 3 · Not started

Muting and funk

Funk is mostly about what you don’t let ring: muted, percussive strokes between a few well-placed chords. Your strumming hand never stops; your fretting hand opens and closes the sound. Goal: play funk in sixteenth notes, with the muted strokes, at 80.

Time
15 minutes
Before you start
Sixteenth notes
You’ll be able to
Play funk with muted strokes

The muted stroke

Fret the chord, then release the pressure of your fretting hand without leaving the strings: your fingers still touch the strings but no longer press them against the frets. Strum: you hear a dry “chck”, with no note. That’s the muted stroke, or dead note.

  1. Press: the chord rings.
  2. Release: “chck”.
  3. Alternate, one beat each, then one stroke each.

For open chords, also lay the flat of your free fingers on the open strings, or they’ll ring.

The funk chord: the 7

Funk loves seventh chords, played as barre chords with no open strings: they mute better. Use E7 and A7 as barre chords, or their open shapes with the open strings covered.

Version 1: one chord, one “chck”

The chord rings on 1, on the last “a” of 2 and on 3; the accented muted stroke falls on 2 and 4, like a snare drum. Everything else is muted, very light.

Funk, first versionE7 · E7 · A7 · A7

✕ muted strum (fretting hand relaxed), bold when accented

Version 2: real funk

More ringing strokes, still with the accented muted strokes on 2 and 4. The Sixteenth-note funk page breaks it down step by step.

Sixteenth-note funkE7 · E7 · A7 · A7

✕ muted strum (fretting hand relaxed), bold when accented

Learn sixteenth-note funk step by step →

The secret: your strumming hand doesn’t change anything, it strums sixteen strokes a bar. Only your fretting hand decides whether a stroke rings or not.

On acoustic guitar

The other kind of muting: the palm. On an acoustic guitar, funk sounds tighter if you add muting from your strumming hand: the edge of your palm resting on the strings, just in front of the bridge. The notes keep their pitch but die away quickly, with a dull sound. It’s called palm muting; the Palm muting page covers the technique.

Try version 1 with your palm resting on the strings the whole time: you get a softer groove, perfect for backing a voice. Then lift your palm on the first stroke of each bar: the chord pops out.

On electric guitar

The tone. A clean sound, no distortion: distortion turns muted strokes into noise. Select the middle pickup or both pickups together, and turn the bass down a little.

Common mistakes

  • Your strumming hand stops before the muted strokes: the constant motion is what makes the groove, and it must never break.
  • The muted strokes are too loud. Only the ones on 2 and 4 are accented; the others are whispers.
  • An open string rings during a muted stroke: cover it with a free finger of your fretting hand.

You’ve got it when…