Double thumbing..

[ARGH]

Coz its hard and Im trying!

[steve-soar]

Not me!

[Josh]

I've finally got the hang of it, I just went ahead and tried after I saw this:

[url="http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=DDuK6nmdAB8"]http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=DDuK6nmdAB8[/url]

Oddly enough I've seen all the other videos for Double Thumbing and they never helped, but that little 19 sec clip made everything easier and I'm getting quite familiar with how it works but I won't over indulge my self with it. And also just a side note I prefer Miller's soulful appraoch as opposed to Wooten's at times OTT use of Double Thumbing.

Edited July 30, 2007 by Josh

[ARGH]

After seeing a few Woot vids,I have to agree,though Its actually Bill Dickens thats made me try it.
[url="http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=kyUCOeUTM7E"]http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=kyUCOeUTM7E[/url]

It is a bit mental.

this is tasty,What cant all slappers be this tasteful.
[url="http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=NHdN_O5k3WM&mode=related&search="]http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=NHdN_O5k3WM&...ted&search=[/url]

[Josh]

[quote name='ARGH' post='39309' date='Jul 30 2007, 11:47 PM']After seeing a few Woot vids,I have to agree,though Its actually Bill Dickens thats made me try it.
[url="http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=kyUCOeUTM7E"]http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=kyUCOeUTM7E[/url]

It is a bit mental.

this is tasty,What cant all slappers be this tasteful.
[url="http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=NHdN_O5k3WM&mode=related&search="]http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=NHdN_O5k3WM&...ted&search=[/url][/quote]

Miller to me is the essential slap bassist, easily. He has so much soul running through all of his grooves and his playing is just so clean and your hooked on each note, and he's also educated very throughly in Jazz and utilises that knowledge to come up with some great licks.

Opposed to King, Wooten, Flea (Who?...), and all the other well-known slappers, Miller will always be the one I will be amazed by, simply because he never over indulges and plays for the song each time.

[Sibob]

I'm not sure about this double thumbing, its kinda cool as a solo device i guess, but in the context of a band, its kinda pointless, just makes the drums sound to busy!

I'm not a fan of Bill Dickens! The start of that video isn't, IMHO, music. And his 'practice regime' kinda highlights that, "you can't hear any notes but you're strengthening your hands", i dunno just isn't for me.

Marcus Miller on the other hand, quality! Like was mentioned above, tasteful with a real sense of melody!

Si

Edited July 31, 2007 by Sibob

[guitarnbass]

I think the best thing is the marcus miller thing the guy posted, just start out with thumb, no plucks with the fingers. Using fingers with the thumb too, I started learning it with the clarke tune lopsy lu, it's a simple enough riff so that you can get a feel for it.

[Mikey D]

I spent alot of time practicing this in my 'youth' and getting things like classical thump down and to be honest at the time I really enjoyed it, but overall the time dedicated to it was a bit of a waste. I should have just spent the time transcribing or something.

But it is nice to pull it out occasionally as it does impress the lay people out there.

I went to a jam session once and there were some pretty good solos played that night, but almost everyone was more impressed with the 'slap' bass solo! (In fact, this man could not slap in time and was making some horrible sounds trying to do so, but the people liked it.)

[Alun]

[quote name='Mikey D' post='39492' date='Jul 31 2007, 01:08 PM']In fact, this man could not slap in time and was making some horrible sounds trying to do so[/quote]

I was doing my best!

[The Funk]

[Ba55me15ter]

I have to agree the Bill Dickens left me wondering what he was going on about. I thought his playing was far from clean and accurate, not to mention a million miles from musical. Marcus is of course a supreme funker and exudes soul from his playing, however Josh I think you're wrong about Victor; I think it's a common perception if all you do is see him on internet sites like Youtube doing the flashy stuff, but go and see him live (as I was lucky enough to do in Glasgow earlier this year) and you'll realise he is the master musician with absolute monster groove.

[lukeward2004]

Marcus Miller is my role model for slap bass playing and Double Thumping - ive only just got into the whole double thump thing but to be honest, the way Marcus does it in that video is the way I am learning to do it.

If there was one player I wish I could emulate, it would be Marcus - he is the living embodiment of funk soul music!

[bnt]

I've checked out a few of those YouTube videos... is the human thumb really supposed to bend back that far? Mine doesn't go past straight, there's nothing to hit the string on the way back up.

[ADJazzBV.aco]

Well Double Thumping is something you really need to work on, also normal thumping is hard and double is just to hard! i agree whit you when you say that Marcus is legend when it comes to Slaping!

[steve]

this thread and the marcus miller you tube stuff has inspired me to give it a go, it's tricky, but I get a really nice aggressive growly kind of thing going on (albeit slow with loads of mistakes). I think it'll be worth persevering with to increase my tonal variety

[thumbo]

I like double thumping for triplets (thump-thump-pop) in slap riffs. For me it's been the hardest bass technique to get my head around and I've still got a long way to go with it, I can't quite get my hand in the right position to thump-thump-pop on the same string, I get a kind of cramp when i try to do that.

[velvetkevorkian]

I useit, but I can't play as fast as Wooten or the Buddha. I realised when Urb posted this Alain Caron vid my technique is actually quite similar to his (purely by coincidence) in that I use the thumb up/down strokes rather than the standard slap technique (bouncing the thumb).

Thumbo, for thumping and popping on the same string, your thub needs to be basically perpindicular to the hand, and sticking out quite far. I find it easier to keep the fingers in a fist shape and just extend the first finger slightly to let it catch the string on the way back up.

Not sure how helpful that is...


[quote name='urb' post='28740' date='Jul 8 2007, 07:53 PM']In my humble opnion Alain Caron is the cleanest slapper on a 6 string - his tone is much nicer than The Budda's as well - he uses a pretty straightforward technique - he bascially does a down-stroke with the thumb then does an up-pluck with his index finger, meaning he can play very clean 8th notes - he then adds in double plucks for triplets and to crate different accents in a bass line, he also double thumbs - catching the string with the back of his thumb on the upstroke. Plus he does some normal slapper things like bouncing his thumb plus some left hand damping / patting on the neck.

This is a great video of him playing 'Slam The Clown' which is slapped throughout - you can clearly see how he uses the alternating thumb and index - plus he seems to play very lightly - it's all a matter of training those damn fingers to do what you want them to! His technique is so clean it's not about speed just the clarity of his execution - that makes his sound so good - he's a tasteful bastard as well...damn!

Cool Vid
[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkOYGlI-zoo"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkOYGlI-zoo[/url]

Hope that helps

Mike[/quote]

[chardbass]

+1 for the Millerheads.

Not sure I like the Alain Caron track- it's a great technique but it reminded me of a programmed line- which is a veiled compliment as it was executed perfectly. Flawless timing but no real soul to it- although in fairness the music is more fusiony and less of an R+B thing which allows your Miller style players to get more of a funk thing going on (Only my in my opinion)

The guy is still a monster player and I beg for an ounce of his talent and discipline.

[Josh]

[quote name='Ba55me15ter' post='40203' date='Aug 1 2007, 08:52 PM']I have to agree the Bill Dickens left me wondering what he was going on about. I thought his playing was far from clean and accurate, not to mention a million miles from musical. Marcus is of course a supreme funker and exudes soul from his playing, however Josh I think you're wrong about Victor; I think it's a common perception if all you do is see him on internet sites like Youtube doing the flashy stuff, but go and see him live (as I was lucky enough to do in Glasgow earlier this year) and you'll realise he is the master musician with absolute monster groove.[/quote]

I never said a bad thing about Wooten's sense of Groove man, his is second to none and I have greatly enjoyed the videos of him when he is just holding the groove, it's just that sometimes when he solos he tends to over uses Double Thumbing and comes across as a noise but when he is holding a groove with Double Thumbing it sounds great and Wooten is one with the groove. I was just addressing his use of Double Thumbing isn't to everyones taste, never questioned his abilities at holding a groove

[funkysimon]

I can't get double thumbing to work yet, but then I think there are many parts to my playing that need a lot more work before I start focusing on really advanced stuff. That said, this video is almost as nice as the Miller one:


Some of the guy's other vids are also worth checking out (I think he's been linked to before on basschat).

[Alun]

Nice vid. Good to see it being used in such a musical groove context