Double thumb advice

[Master blaster]

hi, its been a while since i last posted on here. Ive set it upon myself to learn double thumbing. I was wondering if anyone has any tip/exercises which could help me.

Any help will be much appreciated

Cheers

James

[escholl]

this is probably going to be a mostly useless post, because i don't really remember how i taught myself, but i remember that i would just sit there and go up and down the open strings and back, like E-A-D-G-D-A-E-A-D.... and so on, usually while watching tv or something to get my mind off of the mindlessness of it. but by double thumbing each string, you become really comfortable playing that technique, and can then move on to play lines and stuff.

[OutToPlayJazz]

There are some nice double thumbing exercises in Stuart Clayton's "Ultimate Slap Bass" book.

[Master blaster]

cheers guys. i will track down that book and have a wee browse.

[Rayman]

Have a look at Victor Wooten on youtube or maybe thebassvault.com where he'll show you all you need to know.

[Rayman]

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZBsq5_6lMk"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZBsq5_6lMk[/url]

[agoulding]

basically use your thumb like a pick - its basically the same idea, but use a bit more force and you thumb would ideally fall down onto the string below, can take a while getting used to mind

[Larmer]

I find pulling my thumb up against the end of the fretboard challenging, because I always play with the lowest action,
but when I slap below where there's nothing against, I always feel like I'm digging in too deep.

I've found players using both positions, what would be the ideal option to get started?

[urb]

OK this is crappy quality but gives you all the basic info you need to start developing this picking technique and integrating into your playing:



Hope that helps

Mike

[rjb]

Cool video. Victor's a good teacher...

[Jon Liebman]

[quote name='Rayman' post='436680' date='Mar 16 2009, 05:39 PM'][url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZBsq5_6lMk"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZBsq5_6lMk[/url][/quote]

Rayman,

Thanks for that link!

Jon Liebman
www.JonLiebman.com

[saibuster]

i've tried to practice this technique a couple of times but always ended up feeling like i might accidently bust my thumb nail. Is there a way to avoid getting the string getting in between your nail and your finger when you hit the string in the downward motion? I tried cutting my fingernail really deep, but it ended up with a sore thumb and still couldnt avoid getting the string "jammed" between the nail the the finger. Im probably doing something wrong...

[trent900]

Ha! Bump this thread - Master Blaster's original post precisely echoes my current state of mind.

To saibuster: it's taken 7 months to get an answer, but I hope this helps: I'm not an expert on slap by any means (or I wouldn't be on this thread) but I don't get the problem you describe. Thinking about the mechanics of it, maybe you need to rotate your wrist further forward/down, however you want to think of it, so that it's the flesh part of your thumb that's hitting the string, not the vertex between flesh and nail. This puts your finger knuckles right down near the bass body when you strike.

Now onto my question, kinda leading on from the above. I may have taken my own advice too far, in when I try to double-thumb my middle finger first knuckle takes a fearful pounding from me whacking it against the body down near the tone knobs. There's not a huge amount of skin left on it, boo hoo. Am I doing this all wrong or is it one of those 'live with it and wait for it to callus' times?

Also - I only have a 1.5" gap between my neck pickup and the top of the fretboard. Am I right in thinking this is bound to make slap a little bit challenging?

Many thanks for any advice in advance,

Jon

[Bassman101]

Theres this video, probably the best on the tube [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM7EOeaybL4&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM7EOeaybL4...feature=related[/url]

[witterth]

[quote name='escholl' post='436622' date='Mar 16 2009, 08:40 PM']this is probably going to be a mostly useless post, because i don't really remember how i taught myself, but i remember that i would just sit there and go up and down the open strings and back, like E-A-D-G-D-A-E-A-D.... and so on, usually while watching tv or something to get my mind off of the mindlessness of it. but by double thumbing each string, you become really comfortable playing that technique, and can then move on to play lines and stuff.[/quote]
even though I cant "do" double thumb stuff ( I wouldnt know it from double cream/top/diamond/jepoardy/ect)
the idea of going over& over& over is REALLY sound advice IMO
especially while watching tv(Honestley)

[thebuckets]

been mentioned many many times before but check out MarloweDKs play bass now site its full of instructional video and he has a great DT technique