Chords for Slap Guitar 101

[F#] _ Hey everybody, in this short video I'm going to try my best to teach you everything that I know about playing slap. _
Let's get it going.
_ _ [D] The [E] _ _
_ _ [F#m] _ _ _ [G] _ _ _
_ _ [D] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [Gm] _ [F#m] _ [F#] _ _ _ _ _
_ [G] _ _ _ [A#] cool thing about playing slap [G#] _ _ is that it's [D#] very percussive.
It's a lot like playing a drum.
[G#] It's a lot like mixing playing a drum and [N] playing a guitar at the same time.
_ Kind of like what I'm doing now. _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [G] _ _ [E] So let's start from the beginning with the thumb.
_ You're going to have your thumb in kind of a flick of the wrist and smack [F#] it into the strings. _ _ _ _ _
Kind of like with the bony side of your thumb. _ _ _
_ _ _ But the real hero here is the left hand, which is stopping all the other strings that I don't want to play from playing. _ _ _ _ _
[G] So you'll [F#] see that while I'm [D] threading some notes that I [C#m] want there,
_ [G] I also [F#] got a finger [G#] stopping the other strings, [G] muting them, _ [F#] from also [D] playing.
_ [F#] _
[G] And if I [F#] don't do that, _ [F#m] _ _ _
_ [G] _ [B] _ _ [F#] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ it's not really [C#] what we're looking [G] for.
So I'll find that when [F#] I'm playing slap,
_ [G] I'm usually concentrating more on the notes [F#] that I'm not wanting to play than the notes that I do want to.
[G] _ [F#] _ _ _ But that's not all you can do with the left [G] hand.
[F#] _ _ _ [G#] _ Another important part is to use the left hand to get some dead notes here.
_ _ And a dead note _ is when you're playing a string, _ but you don't get a regular note.
You just hit it like a drum.
_ Like I'm doing now.
I got my [G#m] index finger _ _ [G#] _ going over all the strings and then the other three are just hitting into them. _ _
You can also get some dead notes with your thumb. _ _ _ _
_ Let's add those in now.
[N] _ _ _ [Gm] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [N] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ When you're playing slap, _ most of the notes you're going to be playing are dead notes.
[F#] It's very percussive. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ Now I'm adding in _ another technique to get a dead note.
_ And that's where you take your finger and your right hand, bring it underneath the string,
and you smack it into the fretboard.
_ _ And it gives you a cool, like, snare drum sound.
_ _ _ Yeah, let's add that in.
_ _ [N] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ And you don't need to just use it to get dead notes here.
_ You can also get in _ and get some regular notes. _ _ _ _ _
Let's try that now. _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [A] And that brings [A#] us to our next point, which [E] is _ [B] _ _ _
_ _ the octave.
So if you're playing a note right here with your index finger,
_ two frets over, two strings up,
you got the same note there, _ _ _ _ just in a higher octave. _
And slap players, especially slap bass players,
_ will then hit the low note with their thumb and pop the high one. _
Sounds something like [E] this. _ _ _ _
_ _ [B] If this [E] feels right, it just sounds so [A#] right. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [B] I'm kind of having trouble with it now.
It's a little bit harder on the [E] guitar,
or at least that'll be my excuse for now.
_ _ [A#] _ _ _ _ It feels a little bit better on bass because the strings are a little bit further apart.
_ [N] _
_ _ _ Now let's move on to something that's a bit more geared for the guitar,
_ and having strings really close together.
This is something I call sprinting.
So instead of having my hand over here, my right hand,
I can bring it into the fretboard.
Still hitting it with my thumb, but on the upstroke,
I'm hitting it with my ring finger.
Something kind of like this.
[G] _ _ _ _
_ Kind of like strumming, _ but a little bit more hectic.
_ [C#] _ You can do some different rhythms [G] with it. _ _ _ _
Pretty useful.
Let's [N] add in some notes. _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [F#] _ _ _ [N] I also like to add in my middle finger to get some triplets.
Like that. _
Throw that in there.
_ _ I _
_ _ _ _ _ [A#] _ [F#] _ _
_ _ [G] _ _ started referring _ to it as sprinting
because it kind of sounds like, you know in those old cartoons,
[F#] _ where the character would want to run off screen real quick
and their feet would turn into a little tornado? _ _
_ _ [N] Kind of sounds like that. _ _ _
_ _ [F#] _ _ _ _ I also use [C#] this with a bit of strumming.
[A#] Like, [N] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ really any way you can get a dead note.
[F#] It's all fair game.
_ [B] _ [E] So back to the octave we were doing earlier.
_ [B] You got that index finger there, two frets over, two strings up.
_ You got an octave.
But more specific to the eight string,
another reason why I love playing slap on the eight [E] string
is that if you take that same relationship two frets over,
[B] bring it all the way to the top, _ _
you got another octave, but now three octaves [Em] up.
_ [B] _
_ But I won't play that note on its own, the high note.
_ _ _ _ I'll play the two top strings on that same fret.
And it feels very similar to that octave trick we just showed.
It sounds pretty cool. _
_ [Bm] _ _ _ _ [A#] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [B] _ _ _
That was some sprinting.
Feels [A#] pretty good on an eight string guitar.
_ _ _ [B] _ Also, instead of just using the top two notes,
you can use the top three.
_ [Bm] _ And then you got a cool minor thing going on. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [A#] _ _ And that is pretty much everything I know about [Bm] playing slap.
_ _ [B] _ [E] _
_ [A#] _ And now I can just put it all together.
_ [N] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [D] _ [F#] _ _ _
[Em] _ _ [B] _ _ _ I hope you enjoyed the video,
and I hope you enjoy getting the bejesus out of your instrument.
[A#] _ _ _ [D#] _ [B] _ _ [A#] _ [G] _
_ [Bm] _ [D#] _ [N] _ _ _ _ _
_ Yeah, thanks for watching. _ _ _ _
_ _ _ That was a good one.
Yeah, I think that's it.
_ _ Thanks _ _ _ y'all.
_ Yeah, let's go get some food. _
That actually felt way better than this one.
Yeah, I think so too.
_ All the cameras were recording, all the audio recorded well.
Sweet.