Give Up the Funk Ensemble Parts

Below you will find the Finale generated audio files for the score and each individual part. This can be helpful if you want to hear the timing of your individual part, however there is no substitute for listening to the studio recording to get the true feel of the piece.

If this piece is played exactly as written, it will be Funky as Funk, and accurate to the recording. That said, some of the rhythms can look awkward on paper, so I highly recommend listening to the original studio recording at least twice a week when learning this piece. Actually, I recommend listening to P-Funk at least twice a week whether learning this piece or not, but that's a separate issue.

This piece is interesting to me in that it relies a lot on the interplay between parts and mixing and matching to keep things interesting. While each part on its own may seem quite repetitive, once an ensemble plays it as a group the counterpoint, harmony, and rhythm games reveal themselves to explain why this piece is allowed to last five minutes. Use this recursivity to your advantage! Once a player learns 25% of this piece, they actually probably now know 90% of it!

Guitars 1 and 2: consider playing closer to the bridge. The strings' lack of give will provide a faster attack, making the 16th note runs easier.

Guitar 3 at measures 70, 72, 74, and 76 can play the high notes as harmonics and artificial harmonics if desired. I had originally notated it like that, but I couldn't get the volume I wanted when using that method.