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Is Slapping now passe?


-Will-

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Just wanting get some opinions. It is a style that I have never used outside of the practice room, but I am wondering if it is a style that I should try to develop.
Music has no boundaries. It is yours to discover, to enjoy, to draw from and to pass on to others.
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I suppose the technique is "passe" in terms that you don't hear it being played by rock bands on the radio right now...but yesterday's dinosaur rock could become tomorrow's retro revival. You never know. 7 years ago Jamiroquai was quite popular playing music very influenced by the 70's, and being a phat, slap-savvy, deep-pocket R&B bassist was suddenly mainstream.

 

I guess it depends on your gig, I suppose, I don't play many gigs anymore that require me to slap, but it happens. If I played a lot of weddings, I'd probably be slapping quite a bit (can you imagine "To Be Real" without that bassline)?

 

If you like the technique and want to become proficient at it, there's no reason to not learn it. Larry Graham CD's are pretty affordable right now, I'll bet.

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I don't thing any technique can become passe--it's just the genres usually associated with the techniques that can become less fashionable, as our esteemed colleague, Mr. Loy, has mentioned.

 

If you're really interested in a technique, there's no reason not to learn it. You might even think about using it in a genre where it's not usually found.

 

For example, Mike Watt (The Minutemen/fIREHOSe) incorporated slap techniques into punk/country/rock/experimental music before The Red Hot Chili Peppers or Faith No More existed (in fact, Blood Sugar Sex Magick was dedicated to Mike Watt.) Up until Watt did his thing, you'd be hard-pressed to hear slap bass in this style of music. These days, perhaps it is a bit passe to hear slap bass in rock--it's been done to death. It might come back. You never know. I'm not hoping for it or counting on it, though.

 

But that still leaves a lot of room for experimentation--slap bass in Klezmer, for example. Slap bass in folk... Slap bass in bluegrass... who knows where it'd work if you're good at it and clever enough to give it a shot.

\m/

Erik

"To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists of breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting."

--Sun Tzu

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I have seen a remarkable player like Linley Marthe play finger style for a whole evening and then throw a quick slap passage where a drummer whould have thrown a drum roll.

That way is most impressive in my opinion: a quick percussive sound to mark a turning point. One more trick in the bag rather than a way to play all the evening.

-- Michele Costabile (http://proxybar.net)
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I'd say go for it, Will...I don't see a reason to not have a bunch of different tools in the toolbox.

 

One thing I'd say (and one mistake I made early on)...relying on slap to do a rhythmic bass line. Early on when I was playing, I'd use fingerstyle for more melodic and less rhythmically busy bass lines, then I'd use slap for more rhythmic and busier bass lines.

 

That's what I did at the time (about the first couple years or so of my bass-playing), but looking back I now think that was such a bad habit. So, I consciously pointed myself toward purposefully using fingerstyle for busier rhythmic lines, and playing more sparse bass lines with slap. Some of the best sounding slapped basslines aren't busy (or at least not a constant flurry of notes)...they leave a lot of space around the notes that are actually played.

 

So, my current mindset is to seperate the bass line itself (the notes and rhythms that work for the song) from the technique that I use to execute it. In other words, if I've got a good bassline in mind, I want to be able to execute the exact same (or almost the exact same) bassline with fingerstyle or slap...I can pick which one sounds better, or alternate between them to create sonic differences in the song, etc. I feel like this is a much better approach...YMMV.

 

One other habit I'd suggest to not adopt...don't always reach for an octave to pop. That seems to be the default choice for so many slappers (kind of like power chords for a guitarist I guess). There are plenty of chord tones or scale tones within reach to pop, or for that matter there's no reason at all that you can't pop the exact same note that you are slapping...that can really work well in a lot of cases. (The hand position feels a little awkward at first, but it's not at all hard to get used to).

 

And if you're just starting to learn slap, go ahead and learn to pop with 2 fingers (or even 3 fingers...index + middle, or index + middle + ring...both successive notes and popped together). On the slaps, learn to do slap-throughs and double-thumbs (slap down and thumb-pluck on the way up) as well as perpendicular thumps (ie. floating your thumb). Check YouTube for videos on the Wooten-style double-thumps...I personally haven't found a use for his whole technique of double-thumps + double-pops, but I think the double-thumps alone can be quite useful. You don't have to "shred-slap" with any of these techniques (even though that's how they are usually used)...perpendicular slaps sound different than down-slaps, so you can use that difference in combinations that create a cool-sounding bass line, for instance. I think that it's possible to do some really nice grooves using 1, 2, 3, and 4-note combinations (with some rests around them of course), and those types of techniques help you get there IMO. If you're going to make slap one of your tools, might as well make it the most versatile tool that it can be, right?

 

Dave

 

Old bass players never die, they just buy lighter rigs.

- Tom Capasso, 11/9/2006

 

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If I were to rate my different techniques (finger style, pick, slap, two hand tapping) slap would be the lowest on the list; just below two hand tapping. I know how to do it well enough that I can play anything I've ever had to play. This means all the cover songs like "Brick House", "Higher Ground" (RHCP version as the original does not have slap bass), etc... I don't sit and practice slap so I can compete with all the idiots at the NAMM show.

 

For the most part I use slaps/pops in music as a different sound. If you see Late September Dogs on any given night odds are high that I'll use a few slaps/pops in various songs to accent hits, make the bassline jump out, or whatever.

 

It's a different sound that you can have in your bag of tricks. You don't need to be able to slap "Teen Town" to be able to use the technique in a song.

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No slap is not dead. I have been labled a Funk bassist, but I rarely use this tech. It is good to know how, but at one time it was really over kill IMHO. If you don't know how to learn you will find use for it, but please don't over do it.
If you smell something stinking, it's juz me, I'm funky like that
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I have seen a remarkable player like Linley Marthe play finger style for a whole evening and then throw a quick slap passage where a drummer whould have thrown a drum roll.

Yes, I have heard a few guys bring it out like this. It's very effective.

 

Here's that great old thread/battle that Bottle 12 am started . . .

 

Check it out

State of a Slap Happy Nation

 

I'm not a great slapper, I love to play it but I don't get asked to very often if at all anymore. Even fifteen years ago I was playing it on a session and the singer asked me not to use it as it made her song sound dated. I think that might be less true now but I find a way to sneak it in when I can. It sounds different on fretless too. I'll think of a way to play it more.

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IMHO slapping is one of the great things about playing bass. When people come round to my house and see my bass the thing they'll always ask me is can you play abit of slap and pop? And I can't really blame them - because it's that special thing unique to the bass. Sure it isn't used alot (which is fair enough) but there'll always be room for abit of slap and pop in music. It feels great to play and it sounds great to listen to
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I think when one concentrates on that 'bippity bippity' style of slap, unless you plan on a solo bass gig, I think it's useless for ensemble playing. Melodic slapping, such as Larry Graham style is much more desirable and can be incorporated in a band setting! I also think most non musicians would rather listen to a tasty slap groove than a 5 minute uber-fast, mile a minute slap thingy! Boring! And this is coming from an old school R&B/Funk bass player who does slap.
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I have never learned the technique well enough to use it in a live situation.. True, the gigs I've done over the years rarely required anything beyond finger/pick styles, and a sax player I used to play with kept calling me "steady Eddie" and challenging me to "funk it up" some more.. but I've never really figured out the mechanics of slap..

 

A funny story... One night we were in the middle of playing "Brick House".. and gawd possessed me to actually pop a couple in that "shake it down now" part... Should have seen four bandmates' looks of astonishment...

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