Slap Bass
A lot of guys ask me about slap bass. For several reasons I don't have any lessons on slap bass on the site.
One of the reasons is that I've not worked on my own slapping for many years - I don't think I've played a song with slap in it on a gig for about 10 years, so it's not been a skill that I've needed to work on.
Another of the reasons is that improving my slap bass (which needs A LOT of improvement!) does not figure in my current musical goals. There are other things that are higher up the priority list for my own musicianship.
However later in the year I should have more time available to practice so I'm thinking of picking up on my slapping again. Also, as I said at the top, A LOT OF GUYS (and girls) ask me about slapping.
So that's the reason for this page. There's a load of info out there for people to learn slapping from. But there are 4 products that in IMO are the best. If your budget doesn't stretch to all 4, then get the first two and use them for the instruction that you need. Each one has been reviewed in greater detail on the site - if you click on each link you'll go to the review page.
Happy slapping!
Ultimate
Slap Bass by Stuart Clayton
This is the best book on how to learn slapping IMO. It starts with the very basics, and then takes you on a step-by-step journey through the realms of slap, covering scales that work for slap, hammer ons, pull offs, trills, plus on to more advanced techniques like machine gun triplets, double thumping etc.
The
Slap Bass Program by Alexis Sklarevski
This Video Lesson originally came out on VHS in the early 90s. As such it's missing sections on some of the later slap innovations like double thumping - but that's the only thing wrong with this. It's a great visual companion to the Stuart Clayton book - so you can SEE how it should be done.
Funk Bass is like the Stuart Clayton book - except as well as some grooves to play with, there are lines to actual songs to practice on. Plus backing tracks to play along to when you've mastered them. So you can actually start using your lines in context rather than playing cool sounding grooves. Subtle difference - crucial though if you're actually gonna add a technique to your playing arsenal that you can actually use in band situations.
This was the first ever tuitional book on Slap. It's short on the techiques and explanations, but LOOOONNNNGGGGG on cool sounding grooves and examples. One caveat: learn the grooves in different keys and styles (UNLIKE ME - back in the day I could play EVERY SINGLE ONE of these grooves - ask me to slap in Ab Minor7 though and I was sunk without trace!)
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