KjaK

Alright, so me and two friends are thinking of starting a funk metal band, and I'd be playing guitar, but I'm having a lot of trouble coming up with a guitar sound that fits. We we're thinking of sounding something in the area of Clutch, Rage Against the Machine, Red Hot Chilli Peppers' earlier stuff, and Primus, especially with a guitar sound slightly similar to Ler LaLonde's. So I was wondering if anybody knew any odd scales or techniques that could start me off in the right direction to finding a style that would work in this project. And I apologize if this is in the wrong forum but I'm not quite sure where to ask this. Thanks in advance for any help given.

AlanHB

Im not sure where the metal part comes in, but the most popular scales used in these genres are:

-Major scale
-Minor scale
-Blues scale

just like every other genre of music.

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food1010

LaLonde uses a lot of chromatics. There's no specific scale that will give you the sounds he uses. As for the others mentioned, major and minor should do the trick.

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gerraguitar

a lot of b7 riffs...whether you wanna call it the blues scale or mixo, Morello rocks the b7 sound a lot

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MaggaraMarine

You need that kind of bluesy, syncopated riffs and rhythms. Drums and bass are very important. And if you are talking about guitar sound, use Stratocaster and neck pickup. Most of the riffs use blues scale but it's not about scales. You won't sound like somebody because you use the same scales (because everybody uses the same scales). I think it's more about the rhythm and also your rhythm section (drums and bass). You can do whatever on the guitar but drums and bass do a lot to the sound. They might decide to do a reggae beat or a straight forward rock beat and the song would sound completely different even though the guitar parts are the same.

"Half tempo" beats can give the song a funky feeling. It's pretty much about rhythm. Use syncopation to get that groovy feeling and don't play the song too fast. And if the riff is fast, make the drums play the beat in half tempo.

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bondmorkret

Funk uses a lot of static dorian chords, so try experimenting with different dorian voicings. Tom Morello uses the blues scale a lot too, so try making some riffs with that!

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food1010

Huh?

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bondmorkret

A static dorian chord is a minor chord which stays put basically indefinitely. You can add any extensions to it from the dorian mode (9,11,13).

Funk metal is more likely to be riff based, so there will be riffs that outline a static dorian progression, rather than a series of chord voicings.

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AlanHB

^^^ Well its definitely a way to force a dorian vamp, however I'm unsure what this has to do with funk or metal.

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food1010

I'm aware of pedal chords/vamps. I was just being cynical/unhelpful.

But really though, a static minor chord is not a "dorian chord." It's a minor chord. It could have dorian implications, but not inherently. Modes are defined by melody, not harmony. They are merely supported by a relatively static harmony.

Sorry for being a pedant, but it's a lot more helpful to say that raising the sixth in a minor key is common in funk. The static harmony is important as well, but the term "dorian chords" is slightly misleading and otherwise irrelevant.

This part of your post is a lot better. The point is, harmony isn't really that important in funk. Funk is almost entirely defined by the rhythm, although there are some pretty basic melodic ideas that are fairly pervasive (i.e. minor key, raised 6). However, harmony is pretty secondary. There still are certain voicings that are preferred for funk, but that's not the primary concern.

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KjaK

Thanks for all the advice guys. It's been helping a lot.