Meter Maid - Graded Music Study - Band Video - Funk Genre

Meter Maid - Graded Study Piece - Band Video - Funk Genre
Introduction
I think it’s fair to say that Funk Music is in most cases favoured by the Bass Player and to be honest it’s hardly surprising. It’s one of those musical styles that is very much driven by the rhythm section and in particular enables us as bass players to reach out and drive the music in different ways using a variety of different bass techniques. And some of these different techniques are used in this piece called Meter Maid.
It’s written in the style of a pioneering Funk band called ‘The Meters’, who were around in the 1960’s and continued through to the latter part of the 1970’s and I strongly suggest you listen to plenty of their music in preparation to tackling this piece well. The Meters’ sound was a mix of earthy funky grooves usually played in unison and typically these grooves would be heavily syncopated in rhythm due to the strong influence of New Orleans music in their ideas.
Just for the record, every time I listen to or play Funk music like this, I just can’t stop myself from moving with the music and I personally feel that regardless of style or genre, self expression is an important aspect of interpreting the music we play. So enjoy this piece of music and if you want to move to what you play… then my advice is move!
Analysis
Meter Maid is split into 3 main sections of music. A B and C.
The A Section is 4 bars long and is used as an introduction to the piece, but it also repeats again at bar 13. In each case it’s treated differently so remember to follow the music.
The B Section is 8 bars long and is the main part to Meter Maid. As you’ll hear and very much in keeping with how ‘The Meters’ play, this section consists of a unison melody that the bass plays with the guitar. If you look though the bass part, you’ll notice that we play the melody line using both finger and slap technique at different points so remember to scan ahead!
The C Section is also 8 bars in length and starts on bar 25. It offers the instruments in the band a chance to improvise in turn and as you can see at this point there are chords written in to help guide your improvisation.