What would you do?

[Bill Yellow]

I have always prided myself in being a solid no-nonsense bass player, not given to any poncey flamboyant stuff. Particularly never messed about with slapping. Not on the bass, anyhow.

So now the band are suggesting we cover the Chilli's Higher Ground.

What would you do?

[Graham]

Could just play it finger style - I do that for Treasure by Bruno Mars, as I'm not very good at slap and it sounds much better this way

[Acebassmusic]

Ah the bass guitar....the only musical instrument where people think you're strange if you want to become better on it....lol. 😂

Theres nothing wrong with being a solid bass player but don't let pride hold you back from trying new things (you might like them!). Where is the line drawn between solid and poncy? Your 4 to the bar root notes might be twice as many as a trad country player. Does that then make your playing poncy? 😂 I would say give it a go but if you're going to do it slap style then  probably try learning a couple of easier pieces first to get the technique down (or fingerstyle as others have said). Main thing have fun with it. Good luck.

[SteveH]

Go for it. If the song requires slap bass, you've got to do it, and it is a cracking bass line, not "poncey " in the slightest.

[Paul S]

Speaking as a bassist whose slap technique could, at best, be described as 'agricultural' I would do the intro as slap then quit whilst ahead and play the rest with pick or fingers.  No-one will notice.

[Maude]

I'd say give it a go, but, play with your EQ. 

I don't slap really, but when I have it always sounded quite bad, very harsh and not pleasant on the ears. Then a few years back I bought a Yamaha Magicstomp and while going through the previous owners presets I came across a slap setting, suddenly my slap sounded amazing. I didn't improve my technique obviously but it made my simple octave type lines sound sooo much better. It must just be EQ and compression but it's great.

[Mykesbass]

Suggest you do Stevie Wonder's excellent cover of it 🤨

[Lozz196]

Panic

Re-evaluate

Then panic again.

[mcnach]

1 hour ago, Bill Yellow said:

I have always prided myself in being a solid no-nonsense bass player, not given to any poncey flamboyant stuff. Particularly never messed about with slapping. Not on the bass, anyhow.

So now the band are suggesting we cover the Chilli's Higher Ground.

What would you do?

 

I'd go with it.

It's a pretty easy song to play. If you've never really slapped before, you'll pick it up in no time. It's a simple pattern, all you have to do is relax your arm, and start slowly, get the notes right and... speed up to the required speed (it's not even that fast).

For some reason people seem to respond well to it and it's fun to play. You get to learn something a bit out of your comfort zone too. 

[mcnach]

56 minutes ago, Graham said:

Could just play it finger style - I do that for Treasure by Bruno Mars, as I'm not very good at slap and it sounds much better this way

 

Indeed, if you're not a RHCP tribute or anything, playing the RHCP version fingerstyle sounds pretty good too... but I'd still try slap, if nothing else so that you learn something new. It can open doors to other stuff. Slap does not need to be naff, you know?

[mcnach]

31 minutes ago, Maude said:

I'd say give it a go, but, play with your EQ. 

I don't slap really, but when I have it always sounded quite bad, very harsh and not pleasant on the ears. Then a few years back I bought a Yamaha Magicstomp and while going through the previous owners presets I came across a slap setting, suddenly my slap sounded amazing. I didn't improve my technique obviously but it made my simple octave type lines sound sooo much better. It must just be EQ and compression but it's great.

 

Watch out for 'slap settings' that sound great alone but get you lost in the mix. Most scoop the mids far too much. You still need strong low mids or you'll lost a lot of the thump and presence.

[mikel]

Play what and how you enjoy playing. If you don't want to learn to slap bass then don't do it. If the guitarist didn't want to play a style of music he was not into I feel sure he would put his foot down and decline. Do what you enjoy.

[gjones]

4 hours ago, mcnach said:

 

I'd go with it.

It's a pretty easy song to play. If you've never really slapped before, you'll pick it up in no time. It's a simple pattern, all you have to do is relax your arm, and start slowly, get the notes right and... speed up to the required speed (it's not even that fast).

For some reason people seem to respond well to it and it's fun to play. You get to learn something a bit out of your comfort zone too. 

I agree with the above.

But you'll probably never ever slap again in your life.

The great Ed Friedland has recorded instructional DVDs on slap bass (I bought one), but in real life no band he's ever played with, has ever asked him to play any

[arthurhenry]

Play it the way you play. It's a line, a piece of music with notes. Play the notes in time, in tune with groove. Job done.

[steantval]

I disagree with a few folks on here, why learn a whole new technique just for one song in your set.

Learning slap is not something you learn in just an afternoon of trying to get it, RHCP version is pretty fast slap, hardly describe it as easy, maybe to players who are used to playing slap.

[steve-bbb]

slap it like it owes you money

[mcnach]

15 minutes ago, gjones said:

I agree with the above.

But you'll probably never ever slap again in your life.

The great Ed Friedland has recorded instructional DVDs on slap bass (I bought one), but in real life no band he's ever played with, has ever asked him to play any

 

I don't know, it's up to you, really. I really don't get the "oooh, slap, won't do that" attitude I see sometimes (not saying you do, just a general observation)

I learnt to slap because in a RHCP band you sort of have to... I could *copy* slap parts easily after a while, but it's a lot harder to come up with your own good slap lines, that's why I rarely use it in our original material, but there's a couple of things that contain a little slap. And when I'm playing with a band that wants to cover a song that happens to contain slap, I can do it. Why not?

There's a lot of tasty slap out there, it doesn't have to all sound like the proverbial drummer falling down the stairs that you often hear in music shops

Seriously, RHCP's Higher Ground is a pretty simple song to play, it's not like you need to commit teh next 8 months or something.

 

[steantval]

 

[mcnach]

12 minutes ago, steantval said:

I disagree with a few folks on here, why learn a whole new technique just for one song in your set.

Learning slap is not something you learn in just an afternoon of trying to get it, RHCP version is pretty fast slap, hardly describe it as easy, maybe to players who are used to playing slap.

 

How do you know it's only for one song?

There's something to be said for continuing learning and expanding your horizons. 

It is a very easy song, but with educational potential. The only difficulty for someone who doesn't slap is its speed, when you first look at it. I get that. But once you analyse it, there's not a lot to it: a simple pattern over three chords that shifts at one point or another a whole tone. If you play it slow it won't take too much effort to get it to sound right. The hardest parts on that song are actually the non-slapped bits!

I'm sorry if I look like I'm insisting too much... I don't mean to tell the OP that he absolutely must slap Of course not... But I'd rather he made that decision based on... well, a choice, and not because he thinks he can't do the other style... when I'm pretty sure he would pick it up fast if he wanted to.

I insist because of my own 'history'. I never cared for slap. There were a few things that I liked but they sounded too difficult for me to even try... some stuff by Larry Graham (POW), RHCP (Tell me baby), Louis Johnson (Michael Jackson - Get on the floor)... However, I joined a little covers band and we did a few RHCP tracks. Fortunately, only one had slap: "Can't stop". I learnt it. Badly at first, a bit better after a few weeks. Then the band folded. Drummer was a big fan of the RHCP and we decided to meet once a week to play RHCP tunes, and by now I was curious about slap. Higher Ground came up as a suggestion, and I laughed... No way. But I went home, sat with the song, and figured out what the bassline was... and it was not hard, it was just uncomfortable for me and I just could not do it at the right speed but it was not hard to get the notes to sound right. Every day I'd play 15-20 minutes, and by the end of the week I was still off target speedwise, but not too far and I surprised the drummer playing it... with a few mistakes, fumbles, and slower than it should... but merely a week earlier I thought that song was way out of my reach.

It wasn't long until I could play that, and many others. I was not great. I am not great at it, I very rarely slap... but if there's a situation calling for a bit of slap, or there's a song that has slap, I don't need to say "no, I can't".... you know what I mean? And that feels good, knowing that you have expanded your set of skills. 

RHCP's Higher Ground sounds pretty cool if you don't slap. Nothing wrong with that. But that intro is classic, and doing it without slapping feels like you're diluting it too much. I used to hate it myself, because I never liked being the centre of attention, and being alone for the first 4 bars or whatever it is... ugh, nerves!   

 

 

[jimmyb625]

How can you ever try a bass in a music shop if you don't slap??

🤣

[mcnach]

7 minutes ago, steantval said:

 

 

Not exactly how I'd play it but a very adequate version. If you slow it down, it's not difficult. It just requires a bit of practice so that you can play it at speed.

I am not a fan of Flea's first few albums with his almost gymnastic style of slap. Once I was slowing down... Get up and jump I think it was, or Blackeyed Blonde... and I thought they were pretty cool funky riffs *IF* you played them fingerstyle and a lot slower. a LOT slower  Glad he gave up that fast slap in the end.

 

[mcnach]

5 minutes ago, jimmyb625 said:

How can you ever try a bass in a music shop if you don't slap??

🤣

 

In reality it should be your secret weapon, and wait for the guitar shredder... THEN you turn up and slap!

 

God, I'd hate working in a music shop, I'd go insane...

 

[Graham]

14 hours ago, jimmyb625 said:

How can you ever try a bass in a music shop if you don't slap??

🤣

Or record a YouTube demo

[paul_c2]

23 hours ago, Bill Yellow said:

I have always prided myself in being a solid no-nonsense bass player, not given to any poncey flamboyant stuff. Particularly never messed about with slapping. Not on the bass, anyhow.

So now the band are suggesting we cover the Chilli's Higher Ground.

What would you do?

It depends if you feel its achievable (might be an amount of work to get there though), or whether there's actually some underlying issue where they are suggesting things you don't like/don't want to/can't play? 

I accept some people are influential in a band and others are happy to let them be.

[chris_b]

I'd play Higher Ground like Nate Watts did on the original. It would easily fit with the Chilli Peppers version.