I've had a guitar for a while, but I'm a novice at it... and all I've ever really wanted to play is "chicken grease" (for examples of what I mean: the rhythm guitar in "Jerk Out" or at the end of "Lady Cab Driver")
I've looked online and found seasoned guitarists giving all kinds of jargon... can someone just give me a step-by-step of how to play some basic chicken grease?

Have you heard the song Chicken Grease, from D'Angelo's album Voodoo? There is a reference to the "Crisco sittin' on top of the stove". Here's the lyrics from verse 2:

2 get 2 the otha side
yall cross the road
but not the kid
see im like that old bucket of crisco
thats sitting on top of the stove
simmer to a sizzle like the days of old
but I'll wait till I've mastered this
let the others go first
so the brothers wont miss
fried till its burned and crisp
say we be cooking so the funksters can raise their fist like this

In other words, you put your hands in somethin' slippery to make your playing sound "mo' funky!" (I remember something about it being a way to soothe their hands from the callouses).

duggalolly said:

duggalolly said:

You have to eat a really greasy chicken first so your fingers
will be slippery enough
Just kidding..but Prettymansson on this board should know
since he's the master of it.
/peace Manki

^ Tack


Here it is.....
Feel the rhythm..dont worry about the notes at first...
just get your strumming hand..
your Right if you are right handed..your Left if you are left handed
to be able to scratch out the rhythm you hear in your head..once you get that..then start checking out some records to get the notes down..
James Browns early 70s music is the PERFECT place to begin..
Almost every guitar rhythm on his long string of funky hits is a TEXT BOOK LESSON IN FUNK !

.Hot pants
.Sex machine
.The big payback
.Licking stick
.Papa dont take no mess

get those 5 down and you are well on your way to becoming a funk guitar master..
I also suggest you pick this book up ..It comes with a cd so you can practice rhythms and chords and it teaches you both !
GET IT !

I could be wrong (someone please correct me if I am) but I always figured that "chicken grease" was basically just playing sixteenth notes on two strings repeatedly adding the occasional fill to make it more interesting...

Is that right?

Are there any other good funk books?

I already own that JB one and it is really cool. I own some others which are not so good however.

top 4 strings, playing a minor 7th chord:

Here's Bm7
7
10
7
9

It's not just 16ths, there's a swing to it, and the less you play, the better it sounds, but it's hard to have restraint when you're grooving to it. And that's where it comes together. Start out playing less, muting most of the notes, and eventually you'll learn to control the hits, similar to horn hits.

Check out this site (my site)
www.funkmusician.com

direct link to the podcast about chords and funk:
http://www.beaurocks.com/...&Itemid=36

Do a search on itunes' podcasts for funkmusician - there's two of them. The first one addresses the rhythm, the second one addresses the chords.
[Edited 3/16/08 17:50pm]

I thought it was called Chicken SCRATCH?

'dre

beauhall said:

Listen and learn

you could also check out
http://prince.forum9.biz
and ask the question there

http://video.google.com/v...9485&hl=en

Video tutorial.

D featuring Spanky Chalmers Alford on guitar. (God bless his soul RIP.)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=m4XI6LXCsH8
[Edited 3/26/08 22:01pm]

beauhall said:

[Flame Bait snip - luv4u]

Mong said:

Yo hater, if you missed the James Brown chords here then you don't know what funk is. If you missed his web site where he lays the chords out, then you're just hating on someone to hate on them.

Post your idea of the topic or [Snip - luv4u] about what you don't know.

I can tell you from a musicians stand point, his tutorials are on point.

I'm going by what I hear, and it ain't funky. Don't presume that I don't know what I'm on about and stop being patronising.

[Stop with the trolling - luv4u]

Mong said:

Stop being insulting and learn something.

The ninth chord/seventh chord is how James Brown's foundation of funk was built (along with palm muting for the scratch).

James Brown invented funk so what you think is funky is really irrelevant, the title of the thread is asking the question.

What Beau is demonstrating both on his site as a tutorial and live with a band is variations of the ninth and seventh chords, deal with it.

Thank you so much for enlightening me on what funk is. I really had no clue. [Flame Bait snip - luv4u]

Mong said:

You're welcome.

According to your original post here, it seems that you'll be alright in that department.

I dunno niether one of those was good example of chicken grease.

beauhall said:

Basically. And there are several variations I use when playing chords. Top 2 only...top 2 with the third up one...then there's the B flat pattern. I need to practice that one more often. Hell, I need to practice more period. I suck.