Groove Lab · B Minor · Funk-Rock · 100 BPM

The Funk-Rock
Riff Pack

Nine riffs that live in the pocket — 16th-note grids, ghost notes, syncopation, space. This isn't about notes. It's about the groove that makes a riff impossible to stop playing.

First — the groove

Funk lives in the right hand

Funk-rock is the most addictive thing you can play, because it's pure groove — and groove is physical. The pitches barely matter; a one-note funk riff can be more hypnotic than a hundred-note solo. What matters is the 16th-note grid, the ghost notes, and the space. Master four laws and every riff in this pack falls into the pocket.

⬡

The 16th grid

Everything sits on a grid of 16 subdivisions per bar. Your strumming hand keeps all 16 — always moving, even when silent.

·

Ghost notes

Lightly muted, near-silent hits between the real notes. They're the percussion — the "chk" that makes funk funky.

↗

Syncopation

Accent the off-beats — the "e" and "a" of the count, not just 1-2-3-4. The surprise is the hook.

▢

Space

The rests are notes. A funk riff is defined as much by its holes as its hits. Don't fill them.

The golden rule: your strumming hand never stops. It moves in constant down-up 16ths the entire time — hitting the strings on the real notes, brushing them muted for ghosts, and missing them entirely on the rests, but never stopping. That perpetual motion is the engine of every funk riff here.
The Nine · Section A of the MIDI

Riffs in the pocket

All B minor, two bars, tab low-to-high. x ghost note (muted) · . rest · h hammer · / slide. The bars are written on the 16th grid — each character is one subdivision.

The Fuel · Part 1 · Section B of the MIDI

Funk chords

Funk chords are 9ths — bright, snappy, rootless-ish grips you stab rather than strum. Hit them short, mute fast, let the silence between stabs do half the work.

Stab, don't strum. A funk chord is a percussive event. Hit it, then immediately relax the fretting hand to choke it dead — that crisp "chunk-rest-chunk" is the sound. A funk chord held too long stops being funk.
The Fuel · Part 2 · Section C of the MIDI

The ghost-note drill

This is the single most important thing in the pack. Get this into your hands and every riff above clicks instantly. It's not a riff — it's the engine.

The 16-subdivision pattern

One note — B — on the 16th grid. Four are accented (loud, real), the other twelve are ghosts (muted, near-silent). Your hand plays all sixteen; the listener only hears four.

count:  1 e & a  2 e & a  3 e & a  4 e & a
hit  :  B x x x  x B x x  B x x x  x x B x
        ^accent  ^accent  ^accent     ^accent

How to practise: strum all 16 down-up. Fret the B firmly on the four accents; on the ghosts, relax the fretting hand so the string is muted and you only get a "chk". Start at 70 BPM. The goal is for the four accents to pop out of a steady bed of ghosts.

Why this is the whole game: once your hand can keep 16ths going while only some of them are "real," you can play any funk riff in this pack — they're all just different accent patterns on the same moving grid. The drill IS the technique.
Hear it · jam with it

The pack MIDI

funk_rock_riff_pack.mid

four sections · ~3:00 · 100 BPM · B minor funk

Every riff played twice so the groove locks in, then the funk chords on clavinet, the ghost-note drill, and a 12-bar funk jam — bass and clav stabs — to riff over. The jam is the addictive bit: loop it and don't stop.

SECTION A
9 funk riffs, each looped once.
SECTION B
5 funk chord stabs on clavinet.
SECTION C
The ghost-note groove drill.
SECTION D
12-bar funk jam — riff over it.
100 BPM B minor 9 riffs clavinet + funk bass

If your player ignores patch changes, set the riff track to a guitar, the stab track to a clav or electric piano, and the third to bass. Loop Section D and groove.