Into the groove

PRINCE SLYLY TOLDher she was “too funky.” Bruno Mars sent her one of his signature Fender Strats, and Bootsy Collins and Ray Parker Jr. left glowing comments on her Instagram posts. Guitarists are usually lauded for their soloing prowess, but Ella Feingold doesn’t solo — she doesn’t feel the need. Instead, she weaves magic with her rhythm playing, creating a unique and soulful blend of classic and forward-looking funk guitar that’s fueled by her uncanny sense of time.

In 2022, Feingold received a Grammy participation certificate for her playing on the Record of the Year winner, “Leave the Door Open,” by Silk Sonic, the R&B duo featuring Mars and singer/rapper Anderson .Paak. At the time that Mars invited her to perform on their album, An Evening With Silk Sonic(which won four Grammys that year), Feingold had already made a name for herself playing with artists such as Queen Latifah and Erykah Badu. But participating in the project was key to her making it through a challenging period of her life, during which she hadn’t touched her guitar in five years. As we’ll see, there’s more to the story. But first, let’s check out some of Ella’s playing.

For this lesson, we’ll be selecting from Feingold’s funky trove of Instagram reels (@ella_rae_feingold), which will also appear in the online version of this lesson on guitarplayer.com. Ex. 1 is one of her chill single-note grooves. (The time stamp indicates when the example begins in the corresponding video.) Note how she creates many interesting musical twists and turns while using just one chord, Bb9. The Godfather of Soul, James Brown, was a master of conceiving one-chord grooves and was a major influence on Feingold’s playing. Her use of deadened notes (indicated with Xs) is elemental to funk playing, as they percussively propel the music along, much as a drummer would.

As it happens, this line of thinking is essential to Feingold’s overall approach. “I don’t look at my instrument as a guitar; I look at it as pitched percussion or a drum,” she explains. To deaden notes, simply lift your finger so that it lightly rests on the string, creating a percussive sound when picked. Also contributing to this effect is the guitarist’s use of palm-muting(P.M.), which is performed by lightly resting the pick hand on the bridge, lending an additional muffle to the note attack. The sliding trill in bar 1 is really meant to funct