I don't like slap

[Count Bassy]

42 minutes ago, xgsjx said:

The problem with text is there’s no tonal context. Read my comments in a Bob Ross voice. 

Perhaps we need a "Happy little bush" emoji.

[xgsjx]

19 minutes ago, BillyBass said:

We haven't played in front of paying customers yet, that will hopefully come later.

We play a few songs together that I have found very difficult and it is normally me that decides on those songs.  I want to be pushed and by picking something out of my comfort zone I am obliged to develop and stretch my comfort zone.  The day I stop learning on the bass is the day I finally put the instrument down.  

I would like to learn how to slap as it's another weapon in the arsenal so to speak.  I am unlikely to use it much with my current band and, RATM and RHCP aside, there isn't much slap music that I listen to but having an ability is never a bad thing.

 

Hopefully not too long before you can get playing as a band again.

The best way to improve is just what you’re doing.  Playing things that are currently hard for you soon get easier (though as much as I try, I’m always a few bpm slower on “Hit Me” than what it should be).  Playing with other musicians is going to improve your playing too, it has for me.

Higher Ground is a great song for learning to slap. It’s a simple groove that you can learn finger style, then play with your thumb & index fingers as if they were picks. Before a few months have past, you’ll hopefully see a good improvement. 

[xgsjx]

25 minutes ago, Count Bassy said:

Perhaps we need a "Happy little bush" emoji.

Nah, a “Beat the devil out of it” emoji. 👹

[Chewie]

NO RICKENBACKERS

NO SLAP DEBATES

 

[Barking Spiders]

Outside of funk the best examples of well played and appropriate slap are in 80s pop tunes e.g.  Club Tropicana, Too Shy, Forget Me Nots, You Can Call Me Al. All bang on the money.

[Geek99]

Used sparingly it’s acceptable IMHO

I wish I was better at it 

[Nibody]

12 hours ago, Belka said:

It seems nobody hates slap more than bass players. I'd imagine in the guitar world you get guitarists 'hating' tapping or sweep picking for the same reason. Or drummers who 'hate' double kick drum playing. Do any of the bassists here who hate slap also hate tapping and sweep picking on guitar, or double bass drum patterns, or does the fact that it's not actually done on bass mean you don't have that intimate emotional connection with those styles?

I hate frantic neo-classical guitar solo's in the vein of Yngwie Malmsteen - the type of playing where the point seems to be to fit in as many notes in a bar as possible. Drumming wise again pretty much as with slap, a nice bit of tasteful double kick has its place - but when it gets to the point of silly-beats-per-minute Im turned off. Also with vocals. Mariah Carey and Whitney houston left me cold with the frantic running up and down the scales where a simple note would have sufficed.

 

[Stub Mandrel]

7 hours ago, Count Bassy said:

Perhaps we need a "Happy little bush" emoji.

🌳

[inthedoghouse]

24 minutes ago, Nibody said:

I hate frantic neo-classical guitar solo's in the vein of Yngwie Malmsteen - the type of playing where the point seems to be to fit in as many notes in a bar as possible. Drumming wise again pretty much as with slap, a nice bit of tasteful double kick has its place - but when it gets to the point of silly-beats-per-minute Im turned off. Also with vocals. Mariah Carey and Whitney houston left me cold with the frantic running up and down the scales where a simple note would have sufficed.

 

+1 to all that.  The guitarist in my last band was very proficient at sweep picking and tapping etc but he used it very sparingly and certainly not in every song. by a long way  His reasoning was, and I totally agree, that it gets boring to listen to and also detracts from his other playing if all he did was the flashy stuff.

[Nibody]

20 hours ago, EBS_freak said:

All this talk of Davie. If Davie was a smoking hot girl, would all these white middle aged derogatory comments be so present in conversations? You know as well as I do, it would all be a load of heart eyes emoji, marry me comments and rubbish like that.

Quite frankly NO. The only other thing I detest equally to overuse of slap in relation to bass on YouTube is a mediocre musician being lauded with praise by a lot of rather creepy simps like the second coming of "Bass-Christ" purely due to the fact they happen to be female and wearing a low cut top. Its mysoginistic on multiple levels. And more than a little disturbing.

It takes away from the player as they are being objectified due to their appearance rather than their ability.

[xgsjx]

10 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

🌳

🖤

[EBS_freak]

3 hours ago, Nibody said:

Quite frankly NO. The only other thing I detest equally to overuse of slap in relation to bass on YouTube is a mediocre musician being lauded with praise by a lot of rather creepy simps like the second coming of "Bass-Christ" purely due to the fact they happen to be female and wearing a low cut top. Its mysoginistic on multiple levels. And more than a little disturbing.

It takes away from the player as they are being objectified due to their appearance rather than their ability.

That's my point.

A lot of them aren't even mediocre.

[Barking Spiders]

14 hours ago, Nibody said:

I hate frantic neo-classical guitar solo's in the vein of Yngwie Malmsteen - the type of playing where the point seems to be to fit in as many notes in a bar as possible. Drumming wise again pretty much as with slap, a nice bit of tasteful double kick has its place - but when it gets to the point of silly-beats-per-minute Im turned off. Also with vocals. Mariah Carey and Whitney houston left me cold with the frantic running up and down the scales where a simple note would have sufficed.

 

Argh, 'neo-classical' , a phrase that makes my blood freeze. The Shrapnel label seems to be dedicated solely to shredders of this ilk. Fortunately it's a micro-niche genre that doesn't intrude into polite society and most of its exponents aren't known outside the rock guitar community. 

On the other hand I'm a sucker for double bass drumming, with fave players like Chris Adler, Dave Lombardo, Joey Jordison, Mario Duplantier and Marco Minnemann.

[40hz]

4 hours ago, Nibody said:

Quite frankly NO. The only other thing I detest equally to overuse of slap in relation to bass on YouTube is a mediocre musician being lauded with praise by a lot of rather creepy simps like the second coming of "Bass-Christ" purely due to the fact they happen to be female and wearing a low cut top. Its mysoginistic on multiple levels. And more than a little disturbing.

It takes away from the player as they are being objectified due to their appearance rather than their ability.

Nailed it. My pet YouTube hate.

[Bassybert]

4 hours ago, Nibody said:

Quite frankly NO. The only other thing I detest equally to overuse of slap in relation to bass on YouTube is a mediocre musician being lauded with praise by a lot of rather creepy simps like the second coming of "Bass-Christ" purely due to the fact they happen to be female and wearing a low cut top. Its mysoginistic on multiple levels. And more than a little disturbing.

It takes away from the player as they are being objectified due to their appearance rather than their ability.

Interesting point you make here and something I've definitely witnessed before.

On the flipside, what's your view of people who happen to be female and are almost certainly wearing revealing clothes on purpose for the video? Do you treat them with the same disdain for trying to get cheap likes and comments? You've obviously already judged their playing ability as mediocre.

[Nibody]

3 hours ago, Bassybert said:

Do you treat them with the same disdain for trying to get cheap likes and comments? You've obviously already judged their playing ability as mediocre.

If that is what they feel they have to do thats up to them. I just look for another video whith someone who can play well. It speaks more of those who buy into it  in the faint misguided hope that by raving about how great they are they are, they are going to climb out of the screen and into their lap.The other flipside is actually good players who recieve the same - first one that springs to mind is Tal Wilkenfield.Not my cup of tea musically but a great player but if you go by the coments section on video's featuring her she gets more lauded for the fact she is a young attractive female who doent wear bra's that that she can kill it on a bass.

[Al Krow]

It's definitely an interesting digression.

But here's the thing: for some reason super models, whether male or female, are all very "cute" as are many of the best paid film stars.

The advertising industry worked that one out when they first figured out what advertising was, together with the fact that "sex sells".  

Methinks you're wasting your time trying to slap that one  down: when it comes to show biz / the ents industry (which YT vids are just another facet) appearances matter whether we approve of that being the case or not; it's simply a fact of how us "stupid humans" are wired, right? 

[Dad3353]

6 hours ago, Barking Spiders said:

... On the other hand I'm a sucker for double bass drumming, with fave players like Chris Adler, Dave Lombardo, Joey Jordison, Mario Duplantier and Marco Minnemann.

I'm the opposite, regarding double-pedal drumming. Used tastefully (read 'sparingly...), it's very effective, but 'blast beats' do nothing for me, except maybe get me to turn it off. I've not a long list of drummers expert in this (naturally, as that's what I don't listen to..!), but there are top folks such as Weckl, or Bozio (there are many others...) that get my attention when they dabble in this Dark Art. I do have a double pedal on my kit; I use it maybe twice in a typical set, rather as a suspense-building crescendo (think timpani rolls...) than as a beat in itself. In fact, at my last job, I had a double pedal under my desk, and spent the 'working' day exercising, but basically as muscle and reflex builder rather than as a musical instrument. As with much else, 'Less Is More', I reckon. 

[Stub Mandrel]

12 hours ago, Nibody said:

Quite frankly NO. The only other thing I detest equally to overuse of slap in relation to bass on YouTube is a mediocre musician being lauded with praise by a lot of rather creepy simps like the second coming of "Bass-Christ" purely due to the fact they happen to be female and wearing a low cut top. Its mysoginistic on multiple levels. And more than a little disturbing.

It takes away from the player as they are being objectified due to their appearance rather than their ability.

Hooray for JuliaPlaysGroove - her playing speaks for itself!

[SteveXFR]

4 hours ago, Dad3353 said:

I'm the opposite, regarding double-pedal drumming. Used tastefully (read 'sparingly...), it's very effective, but 'blast beats' do nothing for me, except maybe get me to turn it off. I've not a long list of drummers expert in this (naturally, as that's what I don't listen to..!), but there are top folks such as Weckl, or Bozio (there are many others...) that get my attention when they dabble in this Dark Art. I do have a double pedal on my kit; I use it maybe twice in a typical set, rather as a suspense-building crescendo (think timpani rolls...) than as a beat in itself. In fact, at my last job, I had a double pedal under my desk, and spent the 'working' day exercising, but basically as muscle and reflex builder rather than as a musical instrument. As with much else, 'Less Is More', I reckon. 

I'll agree double pedal is often used badly but there are some particularly talented drummers who get away with using it a lot, Danny Carey of Tool and Mario Duplantier of Gojira are both incredibly good examples. 

[Mickyk]

Back in the eighties we used to do this number and i had the slap thing of to a tee with this  number,but i used to alternate between playing a slap version all the way through at some gigs to just playing portions of slap at another gig,and we found that the latter went down the best,so imo its horses for courses.

 

Edited March 26, 2021 by Mickyk

[meterman]

When people say they don’t like slap, do they really not like it?

I mean, there’s repetitive slap, annoying machine gun style slap, 80’s throwback slap, YouTube bass demo hell slap... something for everyone, surely?

🤔

 

[40hz]

4 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Hooray for JuliaPlaysGroove - her playing speaks for itself!

Devil's advocate here. Does her playing really set her apart? I've seen hundreds and hundreds of bass players of different shapes and sizes playing equally as well if not better in many cases? What does she do that's different?

[Dad3353]

1 hour ago, SteveXFR said:

...Mario Duplantier of Gojira ...

One of the more interesting drumists, to my ears, and so passes muster. 

[Al Krow]

3 minutes ago, 40hz said:

Devil's advocate here. Does her playing really set her apart? I've seen hundreds and hundreds of bass players of different shapes and sizes playing equally as well if not better in many cases? What does she do that's different?

Certainly be good to test that hypothesis.

Here's one YT clip by her that is well regarded (and even includes some tasteful slap to keep it vaguely on topic 😉). Over to you to find a few bass players from the "hundreds and hundreds" of any shape or size who have recorded this one track and played it equally well.