Chords for How To Slap Bass For Beginners (COMPLETE Walkthrough!)
Tempo:
131.45 bpm
Chords used:
D
A
G
E
F
Tuning:Standard Tuning (EADGBE)Capo:+0fret
Start Jamming...
How's it going guys?
I'm Hugh Richardson from OnlineBassGuitar.com. If you've always wanted
to learn slap bass but never known where to start, then stay exactly where you are.
This
is going to be a great video for you because in this lesson we're going to be going behind the
scenes on one of the courses that we've got on OnlineBassGuitar.com and looking through some of
the most important fundamentals of slap bass technique.
So if you're a complete beginner to
the technique or if you've been playing quite a while but you've never really gotten around to
slap, you've never been able to get the technique off the ground, this is going to be a great video
for you to watch.
And make sure you stick around to the end because if you are one of those people
who's really wanting to kick your slap playing into gear but not knowing where to start,
then I've got a great resource for you to check out.
But for now we're going to start looking at
some of the most important fundamentals of the technique.
A lot of the time when people start
to think about playing slap bass, they think about things that sound like this.
[G]
[E] [G]
[B] [G]
[B] [N] They might hear something like that and think, oh that sounds really cool, I'd love to be able to
do that.
But as a teacher what I've seen happen quite a few times in the past is people get to
this stage and don't really have the technical know-how or the understanding of all the technical
chops which go into putting something together like that.
So we're going to start right from
square one, right from the very start and we're going to start breaking down three of the most
important components of slap bass technique that all beginners should know.
So the basis of slap
technique is split into three fundamental movements.
The first is what we call the slap stroke or the
thumb stroke.
This is performed with the thumb [E] so it sounds like this.
[Db] You might all recognize the
sound of that from records you've heard before or from the demo that I played earlier.
So that's
the slap stroke, that's the thumb stroke.
[D] It can be played on any [G] string.
The next one is the pop
stroke which sounds like this.
[D] [A] Again you'll recognize the [E] sound.
So that's the first and the second and
then the third component isn't actually one that you hear, it's the hand movement.
It's the movement
which kind of [N] combines the slap and the pop strokes.
So we're going to start out with the
thumb stroke but just a little bit of knowledge that we need to know before we start that is what
position our slapping hand should be in.
So when I say slapping hand I just mean whichever hand you
slap the strings with.
For me because I'm right-handed it's my right hand.
If you're left-handed and you
flip the bass around the other way then it's your left hand.
So the hand position that I favor,
really really quite simple.
If you take your slapping hand, hold it up like this and just let
your hand relax as much as you can.
So you can see what happens to mine is my fingers sort of curve
in a little bit, my thumb sticks out to the side.
You don't have to be in this exact hand position,
the key is that you're just super super relaxed.
So make sure you're as relaxed as you can,
put your hand up like that and then from there you want to take this relaxed hand position
and transfer it across to the bass like this so that your thumb is almost running parallel to the
strings.
So this is what I like to call the parallel thumb position.
Just there we are like
that.
So you can see there's the strings, here's my nice relaxed hand position, thumb sticking out a
little bit to the side.
Then I just take that and I put that across the strings here so that my thumb
is resting just towards the end of the bass neck here.
You can slap further back here, personally I
just find it's most comfortable here.
So we've got our hands in that parallel thumb position, next we
need to look at how to actually perform the slap stroke.
So if you remember those three technique
steps that we talked about before, the slap stroke, the pop stroke and the hand position, this is where
we start to combine the hand position with the slap stroke a little bit.
So to perform a slap stroke
we want to try and contact the string with this bony joint of our thumb here, just like that, and
I'm trying to strike through the string rather than into it.
So try and think about the movement
of your thumb going down this way rather than across and into the bass.
And the motion you want
to have is a kind of rotational one, almost like you've got a key and you're turning it in a lock
to open a door.
It's got to be like this, so in that relaxed hand position with your thumb out and
then you rotate in to play a slap stroke like that.
Relaxed hand position, thumb parallel to the strings,
let's say if I want to play the E string, this one here, and then remember I want to go across the
string rather than into it, just rotate in and there's my slap stroke.
So [Db] it'd be a good idea
just to practice that a few times, just playing open strings, nice and simple, nice and easy.
And this technique is the [D] same for every single string that you slap, so if you want to go to the
A string you've just got to move your hand again like this, try and keep your wrist nice and straight,
[A] there's the A string, [D] D string, G.
So the next part of this is the pop [Ab] stroke.
Now this, we [D] know the sound
of it,
[N] again this is going to tie in with that rotational movement and that hand position that
we've talked about, so these are two really really important things.
So to perform the pop stroke,
it's really quite simple, all you have to do is take your index finger, get back in that hand
position, that relaxed hand position, hook the index finger just lightly underneath one of the
strings that you want to pop, so let's say I want to pop the D string, all I have to do, hook my
finger underneath a little bit and then again use that key turning rotation movement but this time
rotate away rather than rotating in.
So we rotate in to perform a slap stroke, rotate away to perform
a pop stroke.
So there we are, hands in the relaxed position, hook it slightly underneath the D [D] string,
rotate away.
[Eb] Now when we start to combine the two of these, this is where the hand position and that
idea of rotating the arm really comes in quite nicely.
First of all, if you take a look at the
hand position, what's so great about it, what I really love is that the hand doesn't actually have
to do an awful lot of work.
If I go in, let's say if I want to combine a slap stroke followed by a
pop stroke, if I go in [F] to play a slap stroke, I rotate in as [A] we've seen, then if you take a look
at my index finger, it's already in position.
I can just rotate away to perform my pop stroke.
[N] So
just here in the close-up you can see, check out this [A] hand, rotate in, rotate away.
Nice and simple.
So to [F] start with, if you are completely new to this technique, what I would
recommend is you practice slap and pop strokes [Gb] individually on their own.
So start out with just
slap strokes, you could try every single open string [E] and just get used [A] to the movement, just [D] get used to
the idea of using [Bb] that bony part of your thumb, brushing across the face of the string [D] [A]
[E] [N] and then
the same for pop strokes.
This time get used to rotating away, hooking your finger a little bit
under [D] the string [A] and [E] you're not trying to pull with the finger like that, what you're trying to
do is use the power that your whole forearm has got in that [G] rotational movement to pull away.
[A] [E]
Now once you're comfortable with the two of those, of course what you could move on to then is
combining them.
So if we take an open octave E, so that's going to be open E string for a slap stroke
and then second fret of the D string for a pop stroke.
What you want to be trying to do here,
keep that rotational movement but you're just rotating in, then away, then in, then away.
So
in, slap stroke, away, pop stroke.
And [N] of course as you get more comfortable with this you can start
moving it around the neck, so playing things like scales in octaves if you know any, can work really
really [F] nicely.
[G] [A] [Bb] [C]
[D] [F] [N] Or if you're not so comfortable with your scales, even just playing this up and
down every single fret is just as good a thing to do for your [F] technique.
[Gb] [G] See there, [Ab] I'm still having
to [A] work on that rotational [Bb] movement, still [Bm] having to work my hand for [C] this.
So [Bbm] it's good technique
practice [N] for beginners.
Now as I mentioned at the start of the lesson, all these concepts and all
this technique advice is part of our Slap Techniques Volume 1 course over at OnlineBassGuitar.com.
And if you've enjoyed this video and you're thinking, okay I really want to take this further,
I'd really encourage you to go over and check out the course.
I've left a link in the description
or you can click the YouTube card up here and that'll take you over to the site as well.
And
just as a little bonus, I've left a discount code in the description of this video.
So if you are
interested in taking your technique further, you want to check out the course, head over to the
website, use the discount code and you can get the whole course for $10.
There's a lot of stuff in
there for your money.
There's five backing tracks to play along to which are like fully arranged
songs.
There's loads and loads of exercises.
There's seven full HD video lessons as well as a load of
other bonus material.
So it's going to really do a great amount for your technique.
But of course,
if you don't feel that studying online is for you, then it's not a problem at all.
However,
if you have enjoyed this video, I'd really appreciate it if you could hit the thumbs up
button, subscribe to the channel or leave a comment.
I get back to all of them.
So it'd
be great to hear what you have to say.
Hopefully you found this really useful
and fingers crossed I'll see you in the next
I'm Hugh Richardson from OnlineBassGuitar.com. If you've always wanted
to learn slap bass but never known where to start, then stay exactly where you are.
This
is going to be a great video for you because in this lesson we're going to be going behind the
scenes on one of the courses that we've got on OnlineBassGuitar.com and looking through some of
the most important fundamentals of slap bass technique.
So if you're a complete beginner to
the technique or if you've been playing quite a while but you've never really gotten around to
slap, you've never been able to get the technique off the ground, this is going to be a great video
for you to watch.
And make sure you stick around to the end because if you are one of those people
who's really wanting to kick your slap playing into gear but not knowing where to start,
then I've got a great resource for you to check out.
But for now we're going to start looking at
some of the most important fundamentals of the technique.
A lot of the time when people start
to think about playing slap bass, they think about things that sound like this.
[G]
[E] [G]
[B] [G]
[B] [N] They might hear something like that and think, oh that sounds really cool, I'd love to be able to
do that.
But as a teacher what I've seen happen quite a few times in the past is people get to
this stage and don't really have the technical know-how or the understanding of all the technical
chops which go into putting something together like that.
So we're going to start right from
square one, right from the very start and we're going to start breaking down three of the most
important components of slap bass technique that all beginners should know.
So the basis of slap
technique is split into three fundamental movements.
The first is what we call the slap stroke or the
thumb stroke.
This is performed with the thumb [E] so it sounds like this.
[Db] You might all recognize the
sound of that from records you've heard before or from the demo that I played earlier.
So that's
the slap stroke, that's the thumb stroke.
[D] It can be played on any [G] string.
The next one is the pop
stroke which sounds like this.
[D] [A] Again you'll recognize the [E] sound.
So that's the first and the second and
then the third component isn't actually one that you hear, it's the hand movement.
It's the movement
which kind of [N] combines the slap and the pop strokes.
So we're going to start out with the
thumb stroke but just a little bit of knowledge that we need to know before we start that is what
position our slapping hand should be in.
So when I say slapping hand I just mean whichever hand you
slap the strings with.
For me because I'm right-handed it's my right hand.
If you're left-handed and you
flip the bass around the other way then it's your left hand.
So the hand position that I favor,
really really quite simple.
If you take your slapping hand, hold it up like this and just let
your hand relax as much as you can.
So you can see what happens to mine is my fingers sort of curve
in a little bit, my thumb sticks out to the side.
You don't have to be in this exact hand position,
the key is that you're just super super relaxed.
So make sure you're as relaxed as you can,
put your hand up like that and then from there you want to take this relaxed hand position
and transfer it across to the bass like this so that your thumb is almost running parallel to the
strings.
So this is what I like to call the parallel thumb position.
Just there we are like
that.
So you can see there's the strings, here's my nice relaxed hand position, thumb sticking out a
little bit to the side.
Then I just take that and I put that across the strings here so that my thumb
is resting just towards the end of the bass neck here.
You can slap further back here, personally I
just find it's most comfortable here.
So we've got our hands in that parallel thumb position, next we
need to look at how to actually perform the slap stroke.
So if you remember those three technique
steps that we talked about before, the slap stroke, the pop stroke and the hand position, this is where
we start to combine the hand position with the slap stroke a little bit.
So to perform a slap stroke
we want to try and contact the string with this bony joint of our thumb here, just like that, and
I'm trying to strike through the string rather than into it.
So try and think about the movement
of your thumb going down this way rather than across and into the bass.
And the motion you want
to have is a kind of rotational one, almost like you've got a key and you're turning it in a lock
to open a door.
It's got to be like this, so in that relaxed hand position with your thumb out and
then you rotate in to play a slap stroke like that.
Relaxed hand position, thumb parallel to the strings,
let's say if I want to play the E string, this one here, and then remember I want to go across the
string rather than into it, just rotate in and there's my slap stroke.
So [Db] it'd be a good idea
just to practice that a few times, just playing open strings, nice and simple, nice and easy.
And this technique is the [D] same for every single string that you slap, so if you want to go to the
A string you've just got to move your hand again like this, try and keep your wrist nice and straight,
[A] there's the A string, [D] D string, G.
So the next part of this is the pop [Ab] stroke.
Now this, we [D] know the sound
of it,
[N] again this is going to tie in with that rotational movement and that hand position that
we've talked about, so these are two really really important things.
So to perform the pop stroke,
it's really quite simple, all you have to do is take your index finger, get back in that hand
position, that relaxed hand position, hook the index finger just lightly underneath one of the
strings that you want to pop, so let's say I want to pop the D string, all I have to do, hook my
finger underneath a little bit and then again use that key turning rotation movement but this time
rotate away rather than rotating in.
So we rotate in to perform a slap stroke, rotate away to perform
a pop stroke.
So there we are, hands in the relaxed position, hook it slightly underneath the D [D] string,
rotate away.
[Eb] Now when we start to combine the two of these, this is where the hand position and that
idea of rotating the arm really comes in quite nicely.
First of all, if you take a look at the
hand position, what's so great about it, what I really love is that the hand doesn't actually have
to do an awful lot of work.
If I go in, let's say if I want to combine a slap stroke followed by a
pop stroke, if I go in [F] to play a slap stroke, I rotate in as [A] we've seen, then if you take a look
at my index finger, it's already in position.
I can just rotate away to perform my pop stroke.
[N] So
just here in the close-up you can see, check out this [A] hand, rotate in, rotate away.
Nice and simple.
So to [F] start with, if you are completely new to this technique, what I would
recommend is you practice slap and pop strokes [Gb] individually on their own.
So start out with just
slap strokes, you could try every single open string [E] and just get used [A] to the movement, just [D] get used to
the idea of using [Bb] that bony part of your thumb, brushing across the face of the string [D] [A]
[E] [N] and then
the same for pop strokes.
This time get used to rotating away, hooking your finger a little bit
under [D] the string [A] and [E] you're not trying to pull with the finger like that, what you're trying to
do is use the power that your whole forearm has got in that [G] rotational movement to pull away.
[A] [E]
Now once you're comfortable with the two of those, of course what you could move on to then is
combining them.
So if we take an open octave E, so that's going to be open E string for a slap stroke
and then second fret of the D string for a pop stroke.
What you want to be trying to do here,
keep that rotational movement but you're just rotating in, then away, then in, then away.
So
in, slap stroke, away, pop stroke.
And [N] of course as you get more comfortable with this you can start
moving it around the neck, so playing things like scales in octaves if you know any, can work really
really [F] nicely.
[G] [A] [Bb] [C]
[D] [F] [N] Or if you're not so comfortable with your scales, even just playing this up and
down every single fret is just as good a thing to do for your [F] technique.
[Gb] [G] See there, [Ab] I'm still having
to [A] work on that rotational [Bb] movement, still [Bm] having to work my hand for [C] this.
So [Bbm] it's good technique
practice [N] for beginners.
Now as I mentioned at the start of the lesson, all these concepts and all
this technique advice is part of our Slap Techniques Volume 1 course over at OnlineBassGuitar.com.
And if you've enjoyed this video and you're thinking, okay I really want to take this further,
I'd really encourage you to go over and check out the course.
I've left a link in the description
or you can click the YouTube card up here and that'll take you over to the site as well.
And
just as a little bonus, I've left a discount code in the description of this video.
So if you are
interested in taking your technique further, you want to check out the course, head over to the
website, use the discount code and you can get the whole course for $10.
There's a lot of stuff in
there for your money.
There's five backing tracks to play along to which are like fully arranged
songs.
There's loads and loads of exercises.
There's seven full HD video lessons as well as a load of
other bonus material.
So it's going to really do a great amount for your technique.
But of course,
if you don't feel that studying online is for you, then it's not a problem at all.
However,
if you have enjoyed this video, I'd really appreciate it if you could hit the thumbs up
button, subscribe to the channel or leave a comment.
I get back to all of them.
So it'd
be great to hear what you have to say.
Hopefully you found this really useful
and fingers crossed I'll see you in the next
Key:
D
A
G
E
F
D
A
G
How's it going guys?
I'm Hugh Richardson from OnlineBassGuitar.com. If you've always wanted
to learn slap bass but never known where to start, then stay exactly where you are.
This
is going to be a great video for you because in this lesson we're going to be going behind the
scenes on one of the courses that we've got on OnlineBassGuitar.com and looking through some of
the most important fundamentals of slap bass technique.
So if you're a complete beginner to
the technique or if you've been playing quite a while but you've never really gotten around to
slap, you've never been able to get the technique off the ground, this is going to be a great video
for you to watch.
And make sure you stick around to the end because if you are one of those people
who's really wanting to kick your slap playing into gear but not knowing where to start,
then I've got a great resource for you to check out.
But for now we're going to start looking at
some of the most important fundamentals of the technique.
A lot of the time when people start
to think about playing slap bass, they think about things that sound like this.
[G] _ _
_ _ [E] _ _ [G] _ _ _ _
[B] _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [B] _ [N] They might hear something like that and think, oh that sounds really cool, I'd love to be able to
do that.
But as a teacher what I've seen happen quite a few times in the past is people get to
this stage and don't really have the technical know-how or the understanding of all the technical
chops which go into putting something together like that.
So we're going to start right from
square one, right from the very start and we're going to start breaking down three of the most
important components of slap bass technique that all beginners should know.
So the basis of slap
technique is split into three fundamental movements.
The first is what we call the slap stroke or the
thumb stroke.
This is performed with the thumb [E] so it sounds like this.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [Db] You might all recognize the
sound of that from records you've heard before or from the demo that I played earlier.
So that's
the slap stroke, that's the thumb stroke.
[D] It can be played on any [G] string. _
The next one is the pop
stroke which sounds like this.
_ _ _ [D] _ _ _ [A] Again you'll recognize the [E] sound.
_ _ So that's the first and the second and
then the third component isn't actually one that you hear, it's the hand movement.
It's the movement
which kind of [N] combines the slap and the pop strokes.
So we're going to start out with the
thumb stroke but just a little bit of knowledge that we need to know before we start that is what
position our slapping hand should be in.
So when I say slapping hand I just mean whichever hand you
slap the strings with.
For me because I'm right-handed it's my right hand.
If you're left-handed and you
flip the bass around the other way then it's your left hand.
So the hand position that I favor,
really really quite simple.
If you take your slapping hand, hold it up like this and just let
your hand relax as much as you can.
So you can see what happens to mine is my fingers sort of curve
in a little bit, my thumb sticks out to the side.
You don't have to be in this exact hand position,
the key is that you're just super super relaxed.
So make sure you're as relaxed as you can,
put your hand up like that and then from there you want to take this relaxed hand position
and transfer it across to the bass like this so that your thumb is almost running parallel to the
strings.
So this is what I like to call the parallel thumb position.
Just there we are like
that.
So you can see there's the strings, here's my nice relaxed hand position, thumb sticking out a
little bit to the side.
Then I just take that and I put that across the strings here so that my thumb _
is resting just towards the end of the bass neck here.
You can slap further back here, personally I
just find it's most comfortable here.
So we've got our hands in that parallel thumb position, next we
need to look at how to actually perform the slap stroke.
So if you remember those three technique
steps that we talked about before, the slap stroke, the pop stroke and the hand position, this is where
we start to combine the hand position with the slap stroke a little bit.
So to perform a slap stroke
we want to try and contact the string with this bony joint of our thumb here, just like that, and
I'm trying to strike through the string rather than into it.
So try and think about the movement
of your thumb going down this way rather than across and into the bass.
And the motion you want
to have is a kind of rotational one, almost like you've got a key and you're turning it in a lock
to open a door.
It's got to be like this, so in that relaxed hand position with your thumb out and
then you rotate in to play a slap stroke like that.
Relaxed hand position, thumb parallel to the strings,
let's say if I want to play the E string, this one here, and then remember I want to go across the
string rather than into it, just rotate in _ _ _ and there's my slap stroke.
_ So [Db] it'd be a good idea
just to practice that a few times, just playing open strings, _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ nice and simple, nice and easy.
And this technique is the [D] same for every single string that you slap, so if you want to go to the
A string you've just got to move your hand again like this, try and keep your wrist nice and straight,
[A] _ there's the A string, _ _ [D] D string, _ G.
_ _ So the next part of this is the pop [Ab] stroke.
Now this, we [D] know the sound
of it, _ _ _
[N] again this is going to tie in with that rotational movement and that hand position that
we've talked about, so these are two really really important things.
So to perform the pop stroke,
it's really quite simple, all you have to do is take your index finger, get back in that hand
position, that relaxed hand position, _ hook the index finger just lightly underneath one of the
strings that you want to pop, so let's say I want to pop the D string, all I have to do, hook my
finger underneath a little bit and then again use that key turning rotation movement but this time
rotate away rather than rotating in.
So we rotate in to perform a slap stroke, rotate away to perform
a pop stroke.
So there we are, hands in the relaxed position, _ hook it slightly underneath the D [D] string,
_ rotate away. _
[Eb] Now when we start to combine the two of these, this is where the hand position and that
idea of rotating the arm really comes in quite nicely.
First of all, if you take a look at the
hand position, what's so great about it, what I really love is that the hand doesn't actually have
to do an awful lot of work.
If I go in, let's say if I want to combine a slap stroke followed by a
pop stroke, if I go in [F] to play a slap stroke, I rotate in as [A] we've seen, _ _ then if you take a look
at my index finger, it's already in position.
_ I can just rotate away to perform my pop stroke.
[N] So
just here in the close-up you can see, check out this [A] hand, _ rotate in, _ rotate away.
Nice and simple. _
_ _ _ _ _ _ So to [F] start with, if you are completely new to this technique, what I would
recommend is you practice slap and pop strokes [Gb] individually on their own.
So start out with just
slap strokes, you could try every single open string [E] and _ _ just get used [A] to the movement, just [D] get used to
the idea of using [Bb] that bony part of your thumb, brushing across the face of the string [D] _ _ _ [A] _ _
[E] _ [N] and then
the same for pop strokes.
This time get used to rotating away, hooking your finger a little bit
under [D] the string [A] and [E] _ you're not trying to pull with the finger like that, what you're trying to
do is use the power that your whole forearm has got in that [G] rotational movement to pull away. _
_ _ _ [A] _ _ [E] _ _ _
Now once you're comfortable with the two of those, of course what you could move on to then is
combining them.
So if we take an open octave E, so that's going to be open E string for a slap stroke
and then second fret of the D string for a pop stroke.
_ _ _ _ What you want to be trying to do here,
keep that rotational movement but you're just rotating in, then away, then in, then away.
So
in, slap stroke, away, pop stroke.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ And [N] of course as you get more comfortable with this you can start
moving it around the neck, so playing things like scales in octaves if you know any, can work really
really [F] nicely. _
[G] _ _ [A] _ _ [Bb] _ _ _ [C] _
_ [D] _ _ _ [F] _ _ [N] Or if you're not so comfortable with your scales, even just playing this up and
down every single fret is just as good a thing to do for your [F] technique. _ _
[Gb] _ [G] See there, [Ab] I'm still having
to [A] work on that rotational [Bb] movement, still [Bm] having to work my hand for [C] this.
So [Bbm] it's good technique
practice [N] for beginners.
Now as I mentioned at the start of the lesson, all these concepts and all
this technique advice is part of our Slap Techniques Volume 1 course over at OnlineBassGuitar.com.
And if you've enjoyed this video and you're thinking, okay I really want to take this further,
I'd really encourage you to go over and check out the course.
I've left a link in the description
or you can click the YouTube card up here and that'll take you over to the site as well.
And
just as a little bonus, I've left a discount code in the description of this video.
So if you are
interested in taking your technique further, you want to check out the course, head over to the
website, use the discount code and you can get the whole course for $10.
There's a lot of stuff in
there for your money.
There's five backing tracks to play along to which are like fully arranged
songs.
There's loads and loads of exercises.
There's seven full HD video lessons as well as a load of
other bonus material.
So it's going to really do a great amount for your technique.
But of course,
if you don't feel that studying online is for you, then it's not a problem at all.
However,
if you have enjoyed this video, I'd really appreciate it if you could hit the thumbs up
button, subscribe to the channel or leave a comment.
I get back to all of them.
So it'd
be great to hear what you have to say.
Hopefully you found this really useful
and fingers crossed I'll see you in the next
I'm Hugh Richardson from OnlineBassGuitar.com. If you've always wanted
to learn slap bass but never known where to start, then stay exactly where you are.
This
is going to be a great video for you because in this lesson we're going to be going behind the
scenes on one of the courses that we've got on OnlineBassGuitar.com and looking through some of
the most important fundamentals of slap bass technique.
So if you're a complete beginner to
the technique or if you've been playing quite a while but you've never really gotten around to
slap, you've never been able to get the technique off the ground, this is going to be a great video
for you to watch.
And make sure you stick around to the end because if you are one of those people
who's really wanting to kick your slap playing into gear but not knowing where to start,
then I've got a great resource for you to check out.
But for now we're going to start looking at
some of the most important fundamentals of the technique.
A lot of the time when people start
to think about playing slap bass, they think about things that sound like this.
[G] _ _
_ _ [E] _ _ [G] _ _ _ _
[B] _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [B] _ [N] They might hear something like that and think, oh that sounds really cool, I'd love to be able to
do that.
But as a teacher what I've seen happen quite a few times in the past is people get to
this stage and don't really have the technical know-how or the understanding of all the technical
chops which go into putting something together like that.
So we're going to start right from
square one, right from the very start and we're going to start breaking down three of the most
important components of slap bass technique that all beginners should know.
So the basis of slap
technique is split into three fundamental movements.
The first is what we call the slap stroke or the
thumb stroke.
This is performed with the thumb [E] so it sounds like this.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [Db] You might all recognize the
sound of that from records you've heard before or from the demo that I played earlier.
So that's
the slap stroke, that's the thumb stroke.
[D] It can be played on any [G] string. _
The next one is the pop
stroke which sounds like this.
_ _ _ [D] _ _ _ [A] Again you'll recognize the [E] sound.
_ _ So that's the first and the second and
then the third component isn't actually one that you hear, it's the hand movement.
It's the movement
which kind of [N] combines the slap and the pop strokes.
So we're going to start out with the
thumb stroke but just a little bit of knowledge that we need to know before we start that is what
position our slapping hand should be in.
So when I say slapping hand I just mean whichever hand you
slap the strings with.
For me because I'm right-handed it's my right hand.
If you're left-handed and you
flip the bass around the other way then it's your left hand.
So the hand position that I favor,
really really quite simple.
If you take your slapping hand, hold it up like this and just let
your hand relax as much as you can.
So you can see what happens to mine is my fingers sort of curve
in a little bit, my thumb sticks out to the side.
You don't have to be in this exact hand position,
the key is that you're just super super relaxed.
So make sure you're as relaxed as you can,
put your hand up like that and then from there you want to take this relaxed hand position
and transfer it across to the bass like this so that your thumb is almost running parallel to the
strings.
So this is what I like to call the parallel thumb position.
Just there we are like
that.
So you can see there's the strings, here's my nice relaxed hand position, thumb sticking out a
little bit to the side.
Then I just take that and I put that across the strings here so that my thumb _
is resting just towards the end of the bass neck here.
You can slap further back here, personally I
just find it's most comfortable here.
So we've got our hands in that parallel thumb position, next we
need to look at how to actually perform the slap stroke.
So if you remember those three technique
steps that we talked about before, the slap stroke, the pop stroke and the hand position, this is where
we start to combine the hand position with the slap stroke a little bit.
So to perform a slap stroke
we want to try and contact the string with this bony joint of our thumb here, just like that, and
I'm trying to strike through the string rather than into it.
So try and think about the movement
of your thumb going down this way rather than across and into the bass.
And the motion you want
to have is a kind of rotational one, almost like you've got a key and you're turning it in a lock
to open a door.
It's got to be like this, so in that relaxed hand position with your thumb out and
then you rotate in to play a slap stroke like that.
Relaxed hand position, thumb parallel to the strings,
let's say if I want to play the E string, this one here, and then remember I want to go across the
string rather than into it, just rotate in _ _ _ and there's my slap stroke.
_ So [Db] it'd be a good idea
just to practice that a few times, just playing open strings, _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ nice and simple, nice and easy.
And this technique is the [D] same for every single string that you slap, so if you want to go to the
A string you've just got to move your hand again like this, try and keep your wrist nice and straight,
[A] _ there's the A string, _ _ [D] D string, _ G.
_ _ So the next part of this is the pop [Ab] stroke.
Now this, we [D] know the sound
of it, _ _ _
[N] again this is going to tie in with that rotational movement and that hand position that
we've talked about, so these are two really really important things.
So to perform the pop stroke,
it's really quite simple, all you have to do is take your index finger, get back in that hand
position, that relaxed hand position, _ hook the index finger just lightly underneath one of the
strings that you want to pop, so let's say I want to pop the D string, all I have to do, hook my
finger underneath a little bit and then again use that key turning rotation movement but this time
rotate away rather than rotating in.
So we rotate in to perform a slap stroke, rotate away to perform
a pop stroke.
So there we are, hands in the relaxed position, _ hook it slightly underneath the D [D] string,
_ rotate away. _
[Eb] Now when we start to combine the two of these, this is where the hand position and that
idea of rotating the arm really comes in quite nicely.
First of all, if you take a look at the
hand position, what's so great about it, what I really love is that the hand doesn't actually have
to do an awful lot of work.
If I go in, let's say if I want to combine a slap stroke followed by a
pop stroke, if I go in [F] to play a slap stroke, I rotate in as [A] we've seen, _ _ then if you take a look
at my index finger, it's already in position.
_ I can just rotate away to perform my pop stroke.
[N] So
just here in the close-up you can see, check out this [A] hand, _ rotate in, _ rotate away.
Nice and simple. _
_ _ _ _ _ _ So to [F] start with, if you are completely new to this technique, what I would
recommend is you practice slap and pop strokes [Gb] individually on their own.
So start out with just
slap strokes, you could try every single open string [E] and _ _ just get used [A] to the movement, just [D] get used to
the idea of using [Bb] that bony part of your thumb, brushing across the face of the string [D] _ _ _ [A] _ _
[E] _ [N] and then
the same for pop strokes.
This time get used to rotating away, hooking your finger a little bit
under [D] the string [A] and [E] _ you're not trying to pull with the finger like that, what you're trying to
do is use the power that your whole forearm has got in that [G] rotational movement to pull away. _
_ _ _ [A] _ _ [E] _ _ _
Now once you're comfortable with the two of those, of course what you could move on to then is
combining them.
So if we take an open octave E, so that's going to be open E string for a slap stroke
and then second fret of the D string for a pop stroke.
_ _ _ _ What you want to be trying to do here,
keep that rotational movement but you're just rotating in, then away, then in, then away.
So
in, slap stroke, away, pop stroke.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ And [N] of course as you get more comfortable with this you can start
moving it around the neck, so playing things like scales in octaves if you know any, can work really
really [F] nicely. _
[G] _ _ [A] _ _ [Bb] _ _ _ [C] _
_ [D] _ _ _ [F] _ _ [N] Or if you're not so comfortable with your scales, even just playing this up and
down every single fret is just as good a thing to do for your [F] technique. _ _
[Gb] _ [G] See there, [Ab] I'm still having
to [A] work on that rotational [Bb] movement, still [Bm] having to work my hand for [C] this.
So [Bbm] it's good technique
practice [N] for beginners.
Now as I mentioned at the start of the lesson, all these concepts and all
this technique advice is part of our Slap Techniques Volume 1 course over at OnlineBassGuitar.com.
And if you've enjoyed this video and you're thinking, okay I really want to take this further,
I'd really encourage you to go over and check out the course.
I've left a link in the description
or you can click the YouTube card up here and that'll take you over to the site as well.
And
just as a little bonus, I've left a discount code in the description of this video.
So if you are
interested in taking your technique further, you want to check out the course, head over to the
website, use the discount code and you can get the whole course for $10.
There's a lot of stuff in
there for your money.
There's five backing tracks to play along to which are like fully arranged
songs.
There's loads and loads of exercises.
There's seven full HD video lessons as well as a load of
other bonus material.
So it's going to really do a great amount for your technique.
But of course,
if you don't feel that studying online is for you, then it's not a problem at all.
However,
if you have enjoyed this video, I'd really appreciate it if you could hit the thumbs up
button, subscribe to the channel or leave a comment.
I get back to all of them.
So it'd
be great to hear what you have to say.
Hopefully you found this really useful
and fingers crossed I'll see you in the next