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Can anyone here do this?


Barking Spiders

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I think it's a mixture of left and right hand technique.

Slow the YouTube video down to x0.75 speed (bottom right corner on the video) and you'll hear it's a series of triplets. With the first note being sound to outline the 'harmony', the other two notes being percussive. Vocally, it works; ONE-and-ah. 

1a. Left hand tapped note on the first

2a. Muted thumb down on the second triplet note

3a. A right hand pluck on the third triplet note.

 

Another permutation:

1b. Down thumb.

2b. Up thumb.

3b. Right hand pluck.

 

 

I'm a bit surprised with this video. I'm not a slapper by any means (hahahaha) but if you slow it down, it sounds like a flurry of triplets. I'd also hazard a guess on the player turning the volume up and playing a bit softer to bring it out more. Feel free to correct me, I'm curious as! :)

Edited by ChunkyMunky
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It sounds crap to me. Funny thing is if you look at his left hand there’s nothing there - no bass line or melody to speak of, just a clever percussive flurry. If he’s using it 50% of the time as he says, then more power to him. It very much strikes me as technique for technique’s sake; there is no musical end product.

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I just watched from a few minutes in (and only a bit of it) and honestly it made my chest hurt.

You know, there's this whole thing that we refer to as showboating; you know the type of guy, you're in a music shop, someone comes in, picks up a bass, turns up, goes rackity-rackity-slap-pop-pop-pop* and frankly it's just an unmusical mess that contextually you ask yourself how the feck does it fit into a band scenario.  (*In fact, this will be the soundtrack to next month's bass show.) 

It's almost like these guys have found something they can do with a bass that has little or no relevance whatsoever; I used to have a Saturday job in a butchers, the guy who ran the shop had a party piece in that he could juggle with meat cleavers.  Man alive, it was the highlight of my Saturdays, but that alone doesn't make him a good purveyor of raw meat.

OK, that guy can do something we can't, but meh.  Irrespective of the talent elsewhere, to repeat a quote from an earlier post, yes, it does sound crap and while initially I was going to say I'm sorry if this upsets anyone, my apologist period was last week.  Those little double thumb nuances will just get lost once you start adding other instruments and a voice.  It's a nonsense.

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Agreed on the lack of musicality and the wearing a hat indoors, but I do find techniques like this interesting; although i'd never use it for a full 'riff', I do enjoy using my bass percussively and familiarising myself with the feel and tonal qualities of the instrument. Sitting in front of the TV this kind of exercise is quite useful, but probably not in a band situation.

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1 hour ago, wateroftyne said:

All credit to anyone who has the time to invest in a technique as random as this.

I would love to, all my free time at the moment is taken up by covering an old Vauxhall Vectra with thousands of dried peas dabbed in glue, and there just aren't enough hours in the day.

Best use for a Vauxhall though I think you've taken the easy route there. For a better finish  -though it takes longer - dry lentils or failing that any other type of legume

 

Back to the geezer in the vid. Seems I'm in the minority here and I muchly like what he's doing though this double thumbing technique is probably heard best within a funk combo rather than playing jazzy type stuff with just a drummist.

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But that’s the rub; Larry Graham invented his style of playing to accompany his Mum at church meetings where there was no drummer. Basic thumb and pop is funky and sounds great. The issue with his style/technique is that it is so busy it almost doesn’t need anyone else. Add a drummer, guitarist and keyboard player and there will be no room for (as Prince put it) the most important member of the band - silence.

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