Beer of the Bass Posted November 14, 2010 Share Posted November 14, 2010 I'm not a big slap bass fan (meaning electric bass slap, not double bass.), but I feel like I ought to be able to do a bit if a band asks for it. During a band rehearsal yesterday, the drummer suggested some slap bass on one particular tune, I tried it and realised I could do with working on it a little. I practice fingerstyle and pick playing, and just want to add some basic slap to my arsenal. I don't like the flash, saturday morning music shop associations, and things like Level 42 are really not my bag, though I won't put them down, as musical tastes are a subjective thing. I don't mind certain types of slap groove though, especially where it's not shouting "look at me!". With that in mind, where can I find some material to help me get the basic techniques down? A book, online video tutorial or anything else would do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phil.i.stein Posted November 14, 2010 Share Posted November 14, 2010 try marlowedk on youtube nothing too flashy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beer of the Bass Posted November 14, 2010 Author Share Posted November 14, 2010 [quote name='phil.i.stein' post='1023291' date='Nov 14 2010, 11:58 AM']try marlowedk on youtube nothing too flashy.[/quote] Cheers phil, those look useful... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pumkinkin Posted November 17, 2010 Share Posted November 17, 2010 this will probably be reiterating something you already know as it's somewhat the gold standard in slap training but you might check tony oppenheim's slap it! i'm not a big fan of slapping myself but this is quite useful and i could even say i like both playing the examples and the way they sound. you can find some samples at [url="http://www.slapit.com/"]http://www.slapit.com/[/url] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Academy Posted November 17, 2010 Share Posted November 17, 2010 The New Slap Bass Program by Alex Sklarevski. Highly recommended. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EBS_freak Posted November 17, 2010 Share Posted November 17, 2010 (edited) [url="http://www.basslinepublishing.com/ultimate-slap-bass.html"]http://www.basslinepublishing.com/ultimate-slap-bass.html[/url] Stu's book (+CDs) is the business. Edited November 17, 2010 by EBS_freak Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikeg Posted November 20, 2010 Share Posted November 20, 2010 [quote name='EBS_freak' post='1027246' date='Nov 17 2010, 07:51 PM'][url="http://www.basslinepublishing.com/ultimate-slap-bass.html"]http://www.basslinepublishing.com/ultimate-slap-bass.html[/url] Stu's book (+CDs) is the business.[/quote] +1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lowdown Posted November 21, 2010 Share Posted November 21, 2010 [quote name='pumkinkin' post='1027078' date='Nov 17 2010, 05:02 PM']this will probably be reiterating something you already know as it's somewhat the gold standard in slap training but you might check t[b]ony oppenheim's slap it! [/b] i'm not a big fan of slapping myself but this is quite useful and i could even say i like both playing the examples and the way they sound. you can find some samples at [url="http://www.slapit.com/"]http://www.slapit.com/[/url][/quote] +1 Its been around for years, great stuff. Garry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ezbass Posted November 21, 2010 Share Posted November 21, 2010 (edited) Another thing you could try is to play the root with your thumb in a real old school thumbstyle and then pop the octave in the more usual slap and pop technique. Pino does this, albeit without too much snap, [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_zRDchkDXg"]see this[/url] from about 30 secs onwards. I'm going to try it with my band on Higher Ground as I don't want to replicate the RHCP version, but keep the general feel, plus I'm no Flea. Just a thought. Edited November 21, 2010 by ezbass Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
louisthebass Posted November 21, 2010 Share Posted November 21, 2010 In addition to the Alexis Sklarevski DVD & the Stuart Clayton book, try "Funk Bass" by Jon Liebman (I think he's a member on here). Good book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris2112 Posted November 21, 2010 Share Posted November 21, 2010 This dvd here: [url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ed-Friedland-Slap-Ultimate-Guide/dp/B00008G90O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1290373667&sr=1-1"]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ed-Friedland-Slap-...3667&sr=1-1[/url] It's by Ed Friedland, who is an absolutely fantastic player, and it goes right from the basic form of the techniques all the way up to the fancy stuff with a few tricky lines! I bought it a few years ago and it really revitalised my slap playing as it brought me back to basics and made me focus on raising the standard from the ground up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sonicaddiction Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 I've started by looking at the examples from slapit.com. I created a simple drumbeat in Logic with sixteenth notes on the hi hat, kick at 1 and 3 and snare at 2 and 4. Then i set the tempo to 30 and started to play the lick until I could play it REALLY CLEAN for maybe ten times and then recorded a few loops of the lick. This was a great way of finding bad sounding parts and try to correct them. When everything sounded great i increased the tempo a little bit and repeated the process. First i increased in steps of ten and then reducing the step size as the tempo increased. Above 70 or 80 i did only increments in steps of maybe 3 bpm. After a while I could play the licks in a fairly high tempo with good clean technique and it was really fun! When my slap technique gets better I could probably be bit less rigorous with the method though and maybe start at higher tempos and/or increase the tempo with bigger increments. I'm also realising I'm much more partial to the soloed neck pickup slap sound. I'm getting more and more convinced of going towards a P-style bass... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyBob09 Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 [quote name='lowdown' timestamp='1290334388' post='1031188'] +1 Its been around for years, great stuff. Garry [/quote] Yip, another +1 for Slap It here. It's more chop building and see what you can do with it than being flashy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JakeBrownBass Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 Practice slowly with a metronome. So many bass players play out of time when playing slap because they're concentrating more on technique than timing, feel & tone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fumps Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 [quote name='JakeBrownBass' timestamp='1326594638' post='1499404'] Practice slowly with a metronome. So many bass players play out of time when playing slap because they're concentrating more on technique than timing, feel & tone. [/quote] +1 If people ask me if i can play slap i say no. i can do some stuff but my timing goes out so i dont think i can play funk at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chaypup Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 (edited) [quote name='Chris2112' timestamp='1290373762' post='1031906'] This dvd here: [url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ed-Friedland-Slap-Ultimate-Guide/dp/B00008G90O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1290373667&sr=1-1"]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ed-Friedland-Slap-...3667&sr=1-1[/url] It's by Ed Friedland, who is an absolutely fantastic player, and it goes right from the basic form of the techniques all the way up to the fancy stuff with a few tricky lines! I bought it a few years ago and it really revitalised my slap playing as it brought me back to basics and made me focus on raising the standard from the ground up. [/quote] I found it went straight from really really basic straight to super fast wa**ery with nothing inbetween. You can have my copy if you want. Edit: I mean the OP can have my copy, not Chris2112 as I'm sure he already has it! Edited January 20, 2012 by chaypup Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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