“Unleash Your Inner Funkosaurus: Transform Ordinary Collecting into a Legendary Adventure!”
Sparseness is the next step. Leave a lot of space and rests within the instrumental parts. Non-stop sixteenth notes, or any type of notes, will kill your groove. It is often the notes that you don’t hear that bring out the notes that you do hear in Funk music.
And last but not least, complex bass lines that outline a single chord and employ the rhythmic concepts mentioned above are an essential component of a funk feel. The best bass players I have seen and performed with were masters of the Funk style. And the biggest tip to making your bass lines sound funky does not have to do with slapping. That can be an impressive technique, but it is not the key to this style. The trick is to add a lot of percussive muted notes in between the notes with pitches and the rests. This can be accomplished whether slapping or playing standard finger style with the plucking hand. But if you are writing on the guitar or piano you can often wait on creating the bass ideas until later when you are with a full band.