Funk Clavinet/Clav in General on LearnJazzPiano.com

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Funk Clavinet/Clav in General

hey guys.  i know this is a jazz forum, but some dudes here answered my last round of questions about funk (circa 2002 on the old forum), and i know that some of the dudes here have played tunes/gigs from time to time, so i thought i would direct a couple questions here again.

1. where is a good source for learning how to play "funky" clavinet?  it's not covered in books with any real depth.  and when i listen to recordings the clav is buried in the mix and/or obscured underneath the guitar. i'm thinking of things like billy preston on "outta space" and ivan neville's work with the neville brothers. i can hear stevie wonder's parts, but his stuff is usually inseparably woven into the structure of the song, and i'm looking for some more general use techniques to play under a funk ensemble.

2. this is sort of tied to the above: how do you keep the clav from clashing with a guitar, since the tones and registers in funk clav and guitar are even closer than the piano and guitar in jazz?

thanks guys.

by ziggysane on 04/06/2009, 12:36

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i like max middleton's work on the old jeff beck album blow by blow. it was very cool and pretty out front in the mix if i remember correctly

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by Dr. Whack on 04/06/2009, 13:07

keyboard magazine has had numerous good artciles on how to play two handed funk/clav styles. they should be available in the archives.

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by Jazz+ on 04/06/2009, 21:07

bill withers has some funky clavinet recordings too as i remember.
i was preparing some repertoire for a pfunk band and learning some funky lines ,to me it is all about playing percussively ,very economically on certain blues scale notes and combinations of these.
if you into funk piano check out this

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by ado on 04/07/2009, 14:28

awesome youtube clip! what are those guys on?

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by DrJazz on 04/22/2009, 15:55

ado, i've had a copy of that clip since they first put it up a few years ago :). it was originally from gospelkeyboard.com or somewhere like that. the one guy is the former musical director from 'nsync. dude has some serious chops. it was originally billed as a "funk jam" and it was in four parts.

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by ziggysane on 04/23/2009, 13:54

(i hate to rag on another site, but the site that this video originally came from seems to be more interested in hawking its dvds than putting up free content like the above video. not that they weren't selling them before, but dominates the site now. i like that this site doesn't entice you to learn the "secrets" of jazz piano by buying it's dvds.)

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by ziggysane on 04/23/2009, 14:08

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Funk Clavinet/Clav in General

There are 6 comments, leave a comment.

by Dr. Whack on 04/06/2009, 13:07

by Jazz+ on 04/06/2009, 21:07

by ado on 04/07/2009, 14:28

by DrJazz on 04/22/2009, 15:55

by ziggysane on 04/23/2009, 13:54

by ziggysane on 04/23/2009, 14:08

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Funk Clavinet/Clav in General

There are 6 comments, leave a comment.

by Dr. Whack on 04/06/2009, 13:07

by Jazz+ on 04/06/2009, 21:07

by ado on 04/07/2009, 14:28

by DrJazz on 04/22/2009, 15:55

by ziggysane on 04/23/2009, 13:54

by ziggysane on 04/23/2009, 14:08

Reply to Thread

Jazz Piano Notebook Series

"Latinesque"

LJP Jazz Piano Blogs

Most Recent Discussions

Articles

Top Sheetmusic Picks

Jazz piano education is cool.

Rock on. Follow your passion.

Sign In