Soloing over a rock tune is not that different from playing a blues or funk solo. The most common scales used in these styles are the pentatonic and blues scales. [...]
Rock Piano Soloing
Rock Piano with Slash Chords
A very powerful yet simple element to use when playing rock piano is slash chords. This means that you play a chord over a different bass note than its root. So while you would normally play a C [...]
Rock Piano Chords
As you learned in the previous post, rock music relies heavily on chords. At the same time it is strongly influenced by the blues, especially in its early times during the 50s and 60s.
The following example moves from the I to the IV to the V chord [...]
Funky Chord Segment
Another important element of funk music is chord progressions. While some tunes can stay on just one or two chords for minutes, others feature characteristic harmonic movements. These are often in the domain of the keyboard, piano or organ player.
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Funk Riff 2
Having a bassline in place makes it easy to turn the groove into a funk riff. While the rhythm section in a funk band creates the foundation of a groove, guitars, keyboards or horn players usually play just short attacks – chords or melody notes – to give the tune its characteristic style.
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