Although I do not think this is an official genre of piano, I think funk piano is one of the more interesting types of music that includes the piano. I have not heard many funk songs with just a regular, upright piano sound, but I do hear a lot of electric and acoustic piano in them.
I myself have not really gotten the chance to play funk songs on the piano, but I think they would be super fun to play. The role of the piano in funk songs reminds me a lot of the role of the rhythm section in jazz songs. The piano, bass, and drums really just provide a steady background beat to complement the main rhythms in the songs.
To be honest, the only reason I thought about writing a blog on funk piano is because I was listening to a funk piano playlist on Spotify and I was hearing the rhythms in the background and thought it was pretty cool that the artists were able to use the piano to produce all these different sounds.
Just like jazz, a lot of funk piano music is made up of different chords. This makes sense since the piano really is not there to carry the melody, but to provide some cool undertones. I can imagine that this also takes a little stress off the piano player. It is definitely easier for me to play chords in a song rather than other types of rhythms and notes. Chords also usually repeat throughout the song too so that is a bonus to the player as well. Now that I think about it, usually the musicians that are part of these funk bands play the piano in the song while they are playing some other instrument. Sometimes I will see a musician up on stage playing the guitar or bass and then take a quick break to run over to the electric piano to play a few chords during certain parts of songs. I definitely don’t think I could be that versatile with my instruments, but this kinda also shows how the piano is there just to provide some vibes.
There are many favorite funk songs of mine that you can definitely hear the piano in. If I had to list my top three I would probably say September by Earth, Wind & Fire, Another Part of Me by Michael Jackson, and Funky Town by Lipps Inc. Do you have any favorite funk songs?
Before reading your posts I did not realize there were so many different types of piano. I am not a very musical person and would not be able to identify the distinct genres of piano just by listening to it. Funk piano is the one type I can not easily relate to skating, but listening to the songs you listed I believe I have heard similar songs before. Great post!
This post inspired a google search about the differences between soul, jazz and funk music because when you asked if we had any favorite funk piano songs I immediately thought of Stevie Wonder, but he’s classified as a soul artist. I don’t know that I would be able to distinguish Funk piano from jazz or soul piano if i heard it. I do really like September by Earth Wind and Fire, so that’ll be my vote! Great post!
Funk piano sounds good, but funk instrumental is something you should definitely listen to! its really .. funky. Honestly, I do not know how many different sub-genres piano theme types exist out there, but if it vibes well, then its good! I think Rock wins the spot for me. So far Amazing blogpost and cant wait for the grand finale!