Handicapped?

[funkybastard081]

Then there's tapping ...

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[...]

Originally posted by BenLoy:

If you're a bassist that only slaps, well, good luck getting a gig outside of NAMM...

 

What Ben said in his post. It's a tool. It's nice to have. As Jeremy pointed out you can probably avoid all gig situations where it's going to be required fairly easily.

 

When I was just starting out I thought the slap thing was IT. Then I saw a clinic with Stu Hamm and he said something like, "If you walk into a Madonna audition and go , you're not going to get the gig". That hit me and made me realize that it would probably be better to spend my hours of practice time working on more fundamental things.

[Eric VB]

Originally posted by Dave Brown:

the ability to get interesting sixteenth patterns at high speed [...] most people are enchanted by the "banjo roll" speed of alternating thumb and first finger.

This is usually where I falter. Trying to keep up those 16ths for any length of time is hard for me. 8ths are not so bad, but also not so enchanting.

 

For speed I like to thumb slap the open string and then hammer on before pulling off with a finger for a 16th 16th 8th feel. It's usually so quick that it doesn't matter if the open string doesn't make sense pitch-wise. I have horrible luck trying for a 2nd pull off as it interferes in "reloading" my thumb.

 

[Yes, I could benefit from the DVD mentioned in this thread.]

[Swed_bass]

Originally posted by Phil W:

So why should Swed_bass limit himself?

Hi Phil, I´m sort of coming back after a 20-year long break. Can´t spend as much time playing as I would want to so it´s really a question of priority in my case. I still need all time available to approve the fingerstyle while I´m worrying if I´m lagging totally since not slapping. Maybe I´m too old to learn something new or maybe just need to push myself harder to give it a try. Of course I´ve also recently defretted my ABG so I have another issue that I´m trying to get a grip of. Yeah, I never played fretless before, but at least this new bag doesn´t feel so odd. The slappetypopping might be next when I feel that the fretless playing doesn´t sound like a recordplayer with a slipping belt anymore.

[Phil W]

I would agree, it was actually a rhetorical question. I was arguing that it might be appropriate to limit yourself sometimes; as I limit myself by not learning pick playing, double-thumbing or tapping (I'd forgotten about that one).

 

I do tap the odd note/double stop occasionally though! but no more than 1 or 2 notes a gig! I haven't slapped on a gig for years.