I don't consider myself a "Funk Expert" by any means, but I am a lifelong student, practitioner, and connoisseur of all things funky.
I thought I'd offer some quick tips for those who might be interested in improving your Funkitude.

There are many different types of Funk - what we consider Funk today has taken many different forms over the years. I first want to talk about a few things that are common in any funky music.

1. THE "ONE"
We have the legendary James Brown to thank for identifying and conceptualizing this. The idea is that Beat 1 of each bar or phrase has to be strong and dominant. As long as the One is there, lots of other syncopations and displacements of beats can happen and it still has the Funk. Let Bootsy Collins, who got his start playing for JB before becoming a Funk legend himself, explain it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHE6hZU72A4

2. One is Loose, the Other is Tight
Bass and Drums, in whatever form, are the bedrock of Funk. There is a certain unwritten rule that the funkiest arrangements all seem to follow (with some exceptions ofc):

If the drums are playing a busy, heavily syncopated beat, then the bass needs to play very simple parts. Listen to James Brown "I Got The Feelin'":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5CAQU6KsMI
In that song, the drums are playing all sorts of syncopation, with lots of snare ghost notes, displaced beats, and stuff like that, while the bass is hardly ever doing anything more than 8th notes.

Conversely, if the bass line is something busy with lots of notes, the drums need to be simple. I'll get to some examples of this in a minute.

If both the drums and bass are playing very busy, syncopated things, you have something more like Prog or Jazz Fusion - not Funk. Not saying that that's a bad thing, just saying, we're talking about Funk here.

3. Jigsaw Puzzle
The best Funk arrangements have lots of interlocking rhythms. Each instrument plays its part in the ensemble, not stepping on the other parts, but adding complexity to the mix by playing something that interlocks like a jigsaw puzzle. Sly Stone was an absolute master of this. Listen to Sly's "In Time", possibly one of the funkiest songs ever:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Mld7eSaydI

Notice how every instrument has its place in that mix. The drum machine provides a 16th note pulse that the live drums play off of. Notice how the guitar often follows the syncopated snare drum. The organ plays on the ONE, and the horns play rhythms that contrast with the guitar and organ. The bass drives the tune with a rhythm that is independent of everything else, with lots of space in between the notes.

Here's another great example from Sly, probably his most famous tune:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5BP2KlPD4U

That is another great example of very basic, tight drumming with a syncopated bass line over top. If the drums had been really busy playing fancy licks, the whole groove would suffer. Listen to how the main guitar in the left channel contrasts rhythmically with the bass, which is the main hook of the song. There is another guitar with wah wah in the right channel that is doing something completely different from the other one, but keeping it very simple, playing mostly on the 1 and 3.

Another masterpiece is Stevie Wonder's "Superstition":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CFuCYNx-1g

There are at least 4 different Clavinet overdubs on this track, each playing a different rhythm. Also, notice how simple Stevie's Moog bass line and drums are in the main part.

4. Simple Chords
If you've listened to the examples so far, you might notice something else: the main parts of classic Funk tunes tend to vamp on a single chord, changing only in bridge sections. Some Funk music changes chords or has a riff made up of multiple chord changes, but mostly, it's the 1-chord vamp that rules. This makes RHYTHM the most important element.
Lots of times, the chord is a dominant 7th chord, or a 9th chord.
Jazz chord extensions are totally ok, but not necessary.

5. Different Strokes
As I mentioned at the beginning of this little article, Funk has taken many different forms. One of my favorites is what was being done in the early 80s. Funk sorta started to creep into lots of other genres of music around that time, in the wake of Disco.
Check out how VERY simple the drums are on this song, with a busy Moog bassline:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xvwk64uBNMs
There's a little bit of busy hi-hat at the beginning of the 2-bar vamp, but the rest is just BOOM-BAP-BOOM-BAP quarter notes, letting the bass do all the subdividing of the beat. This is also a good example of the "jigsaw puzzle" arrangement technique, with each synth sound on its own rhythm.

Arif Mardin produced the following example, and the whole album is a MASTERPIECE of interlocking rhythm production. This is not a Funk record, but it embodies so much of what I've been talking about, it's worth sharing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gjZSVOELbI

Here's what George Clinton of Parliament-Funkadelic was doing in the 80s:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ5H9Av6x9M
(that is one of the best examples of the Sequential Prophet-5 synth too!)

If you wanna know if the Funk is still a thing in music (since it's really missing mostly in mainstream music now), the new Childish Gambino record should answer that question: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDQ7MUWg92M

Well, there's a million more things that I could say...But I'm gonna leave it here for now!
ON THE ONE!
Moot

Funk is never complete without Stevie Wonder and James Brown. <3 [insert wink here]

Fortunately for me I've listened and know a lot about funk in music, but still very nice simple and understandable guide.

_{Also props to you for mentioning a track on the new hot album by Donald Glover (aka Childish Gambino)}

i read this 4 times and i still cannot funk my shirt up

Thanks RazerBlue6, a few people had mentioned wanting some ideas/tips, so I thought it might be helpful. And yeah the new Donald Glover/CG album is sooooooo good! I was counting down the days till its release...First time I've done that for an album in a while.

HertzDevil holy shirt!

Can't say I love every track on that album, but there are a couple tracks that are lit af

But his album is definitely a step up when compared to his previous one _{(I just don't like rap music, don't hæit me please, oh wait that's a meme now, give me hæit ples)}

That's the interesting thing about this new album- it's really alienated a lot of his fans who listen to rap and ONLY rap, but it has given him a whole new audience who weren't listening before because they don't care for rap.
What's ironic is that hip-hop is a direct descendant of Funk and Disco music!

I don't know... we wouldn't have DJ's if it wasn't for Jamaican culture in NYC. Yes, they sampled a lot of funk... nothing is simple ;-;

Also, just to be contrary, sometimes omitting "the ONE" all together (as in nothing playing on the first beat) can be pretty funky! ;)

as for me anything that has a fixed background and a lead voice jamming is funk; it is the main characteristic as i perceive it thus a distorted guitar in a metal band setup can perfectly funk imo

Guess things in funk compo weren't funk enough

oh thanks! ill probably try making a track again today taking all these tips in mind and see if i can make something good for the major : )

I'm by no means an expert, but i'd say using walking bass / notes spaced by full octave intervals is pretty funky practice

one of the best posts ever

Yeah, great tutorial

Thanks you guys...I haven't listened to any of the entries so far, so this was by no means a reaction to anything...Just simply offering some ideas since some people asked.

I hope it gets extended so we can get more entries! ....so I can actually finish mine! haha