Chords for Flea Teaches His Stupidly Simple Slap Drill (For Insane Speed)

The way that I learned how to slap the bass is I started making an octave _ _ _ like this and I started
playing a rhythm that goes like this.
I go _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ and you know eventually you get faster and faster and you're _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _
_ A couple really surprising [F#] things about this clip.
One, Flea [Am] actually owns a shirt.
Who knew?
And two,
he used a stupidly simple speed drill [A] to be able to play stuff like this.
_ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _
We're gonna deep dive on
this drill so you can learn to slap way faster and more [D] accurately. _ _ _
See how this pattern [E] is Flea's
secret sauce for tons of chili pepper songs _ _ [A] and _ _ easily use this drill [G] to create [A] your own red [E] hot slap lines.
_ [D] _ _ _ [Em] _ _ _
_ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _
[D] _ First of all to nail this drill you need [E] solid slap and pop [N] technique.
Take it away Flea.
This is a
technique that is done several different ways and I have a way that I do it.
My Flea way is you strike
a low string with your thumb with the bone that's in the middle of your thumb right here and
the second half of this technique is the pulling up.
You [E] hop down with your thumb and then you
pull it up with I use my middle finger right here.
I will slap down with my thumb and then with my
middle finger it will go underneath the D string and pull up like this. _
Okay let me fill in a few
gaps here.
I teach these techniques in detail in a couple other videos here on YouTube which I'll
link in all the places.
But here's a lightning round refresher so listen [G#] fast.
Fresh round wound
strings.
[E] Low to medium action.
Tone knob up.
Rotate your forearm at the elbow.
Strike the string with the
side [G] of your thumb.
Set a finger under a high [E] string.
Then rotate your forearm back up.
Put your
finger [N] on your mouse.
Move it to the subscribe button and click.
_ [C] _ _ _ [D] Quick refresher on why you're
doing this.
It'll build your speed, accuracy, and endurance.
Put some calluses on your calluses and
you're drilling a pattern used by Flea in real bass lines which we'll talk about in a minute. _
_ [F] So this drill is a two bar pattern and the order of slaps and pops is actually very simple.
If you
ignore the first note you can see this is just a repeating [E] pattern of pop thumb thumb pop thumb
thumb pop thumb thumb etc.
And then the end of the pattern is pop thumb but then the final thumb is
the start of the next two bars.
So it's really just one pattern over and over. _
_ And all the notes are
octaves meaning the higher sounding repeat of the same note name.
And you can always find an octave
by going up two strings and up two frets like this or the other direction down two strings and down
two frets. _
So you play through that twice starting on the open E with the octave E like this. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [F] Then you
move it up a fret, wash rinse, and repeat.
And once you get past the open string you should fret all
these octaves index pinky not index ring which some students want to do but it wastes energy in
this situation.
So then you play the pattern twice from the first fret _ again. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[F#] Then you go up another
fret etc etc.
Flea continues this pattern all the way up to the 12th fret and then works his way
back down.
I'm not going to play the full drill with you in this video because it [Gm] takes forever
and I have somewhere to be in five hours.
But there's a note flight link in the description
with sheet music and tab.
Four things to look out for as you practice this drill.
One, accuracy.
Are
you hitting the strings you mean to hit and only those strings?
Two, consistency.
Are all the [F] notes
ringing out clearly for their full duration and not getting super choked like this?
[F#] _ _ _
_ [A#] Number three,
one of my favorites, are you breathing?
[Bm] By halfway through this exercise you probably aren't but you
should so you don't die.
And four, have you bought my beginner to badass course?
Because if not that's
[G] definitely where you're going wrong.
It'll instantly improve your technique [A] tenfold so check it out at
BassBuzz.com. [D] Please, [F] please my basses are starving.
This poor little pea bass has [Gm] had a crackle in his
electronics for over [C] a year now.
The doctors say he hasn't got long to live.
_ [G] _ If [E] you're super new to
slap a good beginning tempo to work towards is 70 beats per minute which sounds like this. _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Then as you gradually work up in small increments of two or three bpm at a time you can [Fm] set your
sights on a more intermediate target [F#] like [F] 140 bpm. _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [F#]
Finally aiming for flea [E] tempo which in this clip is
about _ 218 bpm. _ _ _ _ _
_ And if you can go faster than that [F#] you get to replace flea in the chili [G] peppers. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [G#] _ _ _ _ _ _
Call me up [A] Ketus. _ _ _ _
_ _ [G] Like I said this [D] isn't just an arbitrary practice pattern.
You can find it in
lots of real flea bass lines some of which I cover in my 7 Reasons Flea is Awesome video
here on YouTube like the one he plays here [G] at the end of this drill.
_ [A#] _
_ _ _ _ _ [D#] Can you name that [C#] tune?
This is
Get Up and Jump from 1984's Red Hot Chili [G] Peppers album. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ So if you ignore the notes and just look at
the thumb pop pattern it's almost exactly what you just learned minus the little hammer on at the end
of the line.
_ _ _ _ [Dm] _ _
_ _ There are also lots of flea lines where [E] he uses this pop thumb thumb pattern but
starting on the thumb instead of the pop so it's thumb thumb pop.
You [D] can hear that in Dark Necessities
_ [G#] _ _ _ [G] _ _ [E] _
_ and also in the Chili Peppers cover of Higher Ground.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
[E] Here are three stupidly simple recipes
to create your own bass lines or bass solos using this drill.
Recipe one static bass.
Leave all your
slaps on the open E string that's [D] your static bass and then you'll move the pops around [E] a scale of
your choice.
Let's use the E minor pentatonic scale here which I also talk about in my Geezer Butler
NIB video.
So here are the notes you have to choose from in this scale E [G] [B] D A [D] B D or [G] _ EGAVADA
for short and one simple shape you could frame them with.
[A] _ _ [E] _
Now just play the drill same rhythm
from before but randomly pick scale notes for your pops and leave all the slaps on the open E string.
Here's one way that could sound. _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [Em] _ _ _ _ _ Recipe two moving octaves.
You can actually move [B] the octaves around
the scale as well.
So let's grab a lower register of that E minor pentatonic scale.
[E] These are the
notes we can use for [G] the lower octave [A]
for the slap [D] _ [E] _ _ and then use the two strings up two frets up
shape to grab the higher octaves for those notes.
_ [G] _ _ [A] _ _ [B] _ _
[D] _ _ _ [E] _ _ And again using the same rhythm same pattern you
could come up with something like this.
_ _ _ [G] _ _ _ [E] _
_ _ _ [D] _ _ _ [E] _ _
_ _ _ [A] _ _ [E] Finally recipe three be the flea.
There's an even bigger
takeaway here.
You can use similar drills to develop your own style of playing so you're not
just a flea clone.
To do this come up with your own combination of slaps and pops that lasts one
or two bars and sounds cool to you.
I'll just make up this still slapping low notes and popping
octaves just like Flea was. _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ Move it [G] around the bass _ and _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [A] drill up your [E] speed. _ _
_ [G] _ _ _ _ [A] _ _ _
[D] _ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _ [G] _
_ _ [A] _ _ _ [D] _ _ [E] _
So [D] rather than copying
Flea's exact drill you're copying the mindset you use to create it.
[G#] That gives you the power to
create your own speed drills and [G] slap lines that are unique to you.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _