Good videos or books for a total beginner to slap?

[waylander]

Hey All

can anyone recommend a good book, dvd or YouTube channel for learning to slap from scratch? 
 

I bought Slap It! by Tony Oppenheimer, but it doesn’t actually feature anything on how to hit the string. I figure it’ll be good when I’ve got the basics but don’t have those yet. 
 

I’ve never done it before and have had a go watching a couple YouTube vids but need something that’s going to show the very basics like how to strike correctly and proper technique to get me started properly? 

[gregouille23]

Hi,

I actually came here seeing the title to recommend you the Slap It book 😁 Once you get the hang of the technique, it is a great book with very nice fills and patterns that you can re-use and make your own.

Now regarding the actual technique... Is there something specific that you feel you are not doing properly? The "pop" is pretty straight forward I think, the hitting with the thumb take a bit more practice. You need to hit quick with your thumb by rotating your wrist (ie not your arm!!). As always, start slow, be patient and speed will come.

I would recommend the videos from MarloweDK, this is how I started. Mark from TalkingBass also has amazing videos, but I never really checked his slap videos. I am sure they are very instructive though so check him out!

Good luck!

[waylander]

33 minutes ago, gregouille23 said:

Hi,

I actually came here seeing the title to recommend you the Slap It book 😁 Once you get the hang of the technique, it is a great book with very nice fills and patterns that you can re-use and make your own.

Now regarding the actual technique... Is there something specific that you feel you are not doing properly? The "pop" is pretty straight forward I think, the hitting with the thumb take a bit more practice. You need to hit quick with your thumb by rotating your wrist (ie not your arm!!). As always, start slow, be patient and speed will come.

I would recommend the videos from MarloweDK, this is how I started. Mark from TalkingBass also has amazing videos, but I never really checked his slap videos. I am sure they are very instructive though so check him out!

Good luck!

Thanks! Pops not to bad but I tend to go a bit too hard at time.

As you said it’s the thumb. I’m not comfortable how to strike and get the right balance of tone and percussion from hitting the fret. Seems to be a bit one or other at the moment and the way I’m doing it doesn’t seem sustainable to keep up as my rebound to get the next note is pretty wide and probably wouldn’t be able to hit an off beat if I’d played on the beat. 
 

i think the main thing is how to strike the string, where on the thumb to hit with as at the moment I’m pretty sure I’m doing it wrong. 
 

thanks for the suggestion, I’ll take a looker later at Talkingbass and see 🙂 I did watch one by them on how to start but didn’t really show the thumb or strike in much detail (was good for the wrist action though!) will see what other videos are on their channel!

[gregouille23]

Like with every new thing, you will get better as you practice. This is not really complicated technique but requires practice:

• Hit the string with the side of your thumb at the interphalangial joint
• Strike the string in a swift, quick motion with the adequate strength. Think of a hammer-on, if you hit too slow you will get little or no sound, if you hit too hard you will get a note too loud.
• Focus on moving only your wrist when you slap/pop.
• Some people would advice to keep the thumb parallel to the string but this is really not a must. Plenty of well known bass players (Flea anyone?) achieve great slap groove and speed with the thumb pointing down.

Find what works best for you, practice makes perfect You'll get there, be patient!

[Reggaebass]

I don’t slap a lot but I wanted to be able to do it and I found Scott Whitley’s videos really good , he starts from the basics, I think there’s 11 of them 🙂

 

[waylander]

On 03/08/2020 at 11:30, gregouille23 said:

Like with every new thing, you will get better as you practice. This is not really complicated technique but requires practice:

• Hit the string with the side of your thumb at the interphalangial joint
• Strike the string in a swift, quick motion with the adequate strength. Think of a hammer-on, if you hit too slow you will get little or no sound, if you hit too hard you will get a note too loud.
• Focus on moving only your wrist when you slap/pop.
• Some people would advice to keep the thumb parallel to the string but this is really not a must. Plenty of well known bass players (Flea anyone?) achieve great slap groove and speed with the thumb pointing down.

Find what works best for you, practice makes perfect You'll get there, be patient!

Thanks for the suggestions! Haven’t had chance to watch any videos yet or try out practicing slowly but I think I’ve got a starter for ten now 🙂 will have a crack one night this week if I can 

[waylander]

On 03/08/2020 at 11:41, Reggaebass said:

I don’t slap a lot but I wanted to be able to do it and I found Scott Whitley’s videos really good , he starts from the basics, I think there’s 11 of them 🙂

 

Thanks! I’ll take a look at the video 🙂