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Bunch of slappers!


operative451

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I found the biggest issues with the Super Fast Slap Bass lesson are

1. Only one of the words in the title are relevant to myself i.e. "Bass", all the others including "super", "fast" and most certainly "slap" do not apply to me. 

2. I got to about 49 seconds and the guy mentions the 6th fret?!  WHAT!? what the hell is a 6th fret doing there.... anything past 5 and it's just not bass anymore! Just cos these instruments have "6th frets" and above does NOT mean we should be playing them !

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@Leonard Smalls said it well, there are very good slap players that use the technique as part of their vocabulary, like Jonas Hellborg every time he's slapping or Marcus Miller, but they don't over abuse the "effects" of the technique. And this where the hatred lies : over abuse of over heard phrases.

That said, there is a terrific Louis Johnson slap bass part here, nobody would disagree :

 

 

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I can't play slap. I'd like to be able to but have never managed to get my fingers to co-operate, and can't see a real use for it in any band situation I'm ever likely to be in. I'm not averse to others using it and it's not mandatory for me to watch any Youtube videos with it on. If thine Youtube offends thee, turn it off. However, if someone intends to demonstrate the capabilities of a bass and does nothing but slap on it, that's not a good demonstration.

I thought that slap interplay between the two street bassists was rather good. Couldn't have coped with two 45 minute sets of it though.

And a while ago, in a prog rock covers band that never fled the nest, we did a couple of King Crimson numbers, Epitaph and Court of the Crimson King. For one of them, there's a video somewhere on Youtube with a post-Greg Lake incarnation of KC performing it, in which the bassist at one point plays some slap and demonstrates why you should never play slap in prog rock.

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Spent years in my youth perfecting slap bass playing. That and wa+*ing. I can still do both but dont have the same enthusiasm as I did then. But I will say one of these useless talents still draw a crowd if I do it in public during gigs at certain point in the set by myself. 

Edited by bassjim
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3 hours ago, Leonard Smalls said:

I don't understand all the hatred for slap bass; surely it's better to celebrate skill than it is to dismiss it as "showing off" or "fretw£qry"?

After all, if every musician stuck to doing the absolute minimum just in case someone say "look at him, he's up himself!" we all only be playing the root and occasional 5th. There'd be no Stanley Clarke, Les Claypool, Billy Sheehan, Jonas Hellborg etc. Or for that matter, no Bach, Mozart or even Mach and his Saddest Of All Keys...

I would never dismiss Les Claypool or Bill Laswell, because their great technique is a tool for crafting music, that's not the focus of it. And lots of musicians I love are extremely skilled and "technical". Sometimes to a "not even human" degree

BUT

When musicians are focused on virtuosity itself, in my book that's just showing off. Pointless, boasted, shallow exhibition. There is a very explanatory word for that, in Italian. Unfortunately it's untranslatable

It's not even the slap technique itself, slap just happens to be, it seems, the favourite technique of such kind of musicians described above, so that is has more of less become the epitome of overplaying and boaster musicians.

 

Edited by oZZma
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40 minutes ago, bassjim said:

Spent years in my youth perfecting slap bass playing. That and wa+*ing. I can still do both but dont have the same enthusiasm as I did then. But I will say one of these useless talents still draw a crowd if I do it in public during gigs at certain point in the set by myself. 

Jeez, I see what you mean now. Your setlist must be right stale.

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I guess my point is/was completely made by the video above (and yes i like that song) - nearly all of the bass part is played as, y'know, notes! Except for the bit where he starts flapping at his bass like its got a wasp on it.

I should add i was initially attracted to the bass when i realised most of the fuzzed out droney roar that i loved from the Jesus and Mary Chain was the bass, not the guitar. Whose first bassist famously said when asked in an interview about why his bass guitar only had two strings replied: “That’s the two I use. I mean, what’s the flipping point in spending money on another two? It’s like, two is enough. It’s adequate. Anybody can play this bass."

I wouldn;t go that far but i must admit, last time i changed strings i did wonder if there was any point in changing the G as i hardly touch it... :D

 

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7 minutes ago, operative451 said:

 

I wouldn;t go that far but i must admit, last time i changed strings i did wonder if there was any point in changing the G as i hardly touch it... :D

 

My guitarist mate used to annoy me by saying that I only used the E and the A. That was because most songs we did spent most of the time on those strings. He never appreciated my runs and octaves 

 

Now I make sure I play on those strings with the stuff I learn. Stuff him. 

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All techniques are tools, and it's as well to have as many tools as possible so that you can play the right thing at the right time.  Personally I can do it a bit, but mainly use it for fun as it's not of huge use for the bands I've been in (though I can claim to have used it during a gig with a death metal band at Christmas)

I'd hold up Juan Nelson from the Innocent Criminals at this point - doesn't use slap a lot, but when he rolls it out, man, it's effective.

And I'd throw in Art Liboon from Mordred, one of my favourite bass players, proving that slap bass and thrash metal are made for each other

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As Ive said, slapping is great when used in its proper environment. Yes, I joked the mid eighties. My gripe is people demonstrating amps or basses who exclusively slap, which doesn’t let you properly hear the instrument and what it can do. I doth my cap to folk who do it well and folk who include it in demo videos alongside normal playing but when it’s used exclusively to demo, it’s just a knob showing off!

Edited by ubit
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Slap bass playing needs to lock in supertight with the drums and is best heard in funk, where BPM average 90 -115. To my ears slapping at speeds of 130 BPM goes against  what slap was originally meant for; getting down and dirty to on the dancefloor! That superfast way of playing is as self indulgent, unlistenable and ultimately pointless as guitar shredding.

 

Edited by Barking Spiders
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