Slap Bass Lesson: Victor Wooten

 

You can never get tired of Victor Wooten. 

Enjoy!

Mina (Girlfriend)

Just discovered this Japanese Bassist.

Nice and fast slap.

This is her Youtube channel - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCc0ozrEKAuZzBfazHFROTJA

Enjoy!

Funk Slap Hammer-on

 This is simple but useful.

Keep grooving.

Homer on Bass

Check out Homer Simpsons' slap bass at the end.

Federico Malaman Slap Lesson

Just enjoy it. Don't be stress.

Dave Larue Slap Bass Example

Hi,

Check out a sample from Dave Larue's DVD.

A nice "click" sound to give that snare drum feel.

Add that Pentatonic scale in and you got it!

Have fun.

Slap Bass Secret #1 - Miki Santamaria

Hi,

I believe you will benefit from this Slap Bass Secret by Miki Santamaria.

Nice tone too.

Cheers!

Run For Cover - Marcus Miller

Hi,

This is how I would play "Run For Cover" by Marcus Miller.

I think his version is more complicated. This is just the first part.

It is a fun piece to attempt.

Give it a try.

Slap Arpeggio - Mark King

Hi,

This exercise helps you to play "Lessons in love" by Level 42.

The chords are G B7 Em C.

The challenge is to get a consistent sound when slapping the arpeggio.

Have fun!

Rhythm Slap

Hi,

This rhythmic exercise can give our slapping a drumming feel.

 




The pattern is TPTT | slTPT

Just try it slow and repeat the pattern.

T is thumb (slap)
P is Pluck (pop)
sl is to slap the fretboard using your fretting hand

If you are having difficulties with the above pattern, my suggestion is to try one pattern first.

E.g. TPTT | TPTT - repeat or slTPT | slTPT - repeat

Some Bass Players to listen to for such slapping are:

1. Mark King
2. Anthony Wellington
3. Alexis Sklarevski
4. Yoshihiro Naruse (Casiopea)

Have fun.

C Major Scale Slapping Groove

Hi,

Recently I was playing around with my bass and came out with this simple exercise which sounded quite impressive when I slowly increased the tempo.





The notes from the above exercise are all in the C major scale.

Please note that the ghost note(x) is crucial for this exercise.
Make sure that you do not skip it.

(h) is hammered on. This technique will help you play fast when you slap.

Do practice this exercise using finger plucking as well.

Have fun!

Power Chord Slap

Hi,

A Power Chord is a chord that consist of the root and the fifth.

For example, to play a F Power Chord, you press the F note (root) and the C note (5th).

Now the exercise below is a triplet slap exercise.


---------5(p)--------7(p)---------9(p)-------
--0-(h)3------0-(h)5------0-(h)7------------
----------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------

Practice slowly and gradually increase the speed.

Have Fun.

Open Hammer Pluck

Hi,

Just to follow up on the previous post.

If you gave it a try, you will be surprise how fast you can play with little effort.

Now let's try another technique called the open hammer pluck.

All you need to do is add a pluck after the open hammer.

------------6(p)--------8(p)--------9(p)---
--------------------------------------------
----0-4(h)-----0-6(h)------0-7(h)---------
--------------------------------------------

Have fun!

Basic Paradiddle on Bass

Hi,

A paradiddle is a drum rudiment which consist of a four-note pattern of the form Right Left Right Right(RLRR) or LRLL.

This pattern can help us improve our rhythmic and percussive style of slapping.

Let's try this pattern on the bass where "R" is your right hand slap thumb and "L" is using your left hand to slap the fretboard.

Slapping with your left hand on the fretboard requires some practicing.

Now try the pattern RLRR LRLL and repeat it.

To get the percussive feel, mute all the notes.

Once you are more comfortable, you can increase the speed.

Experiment and you will be surprise what you can do.

Cheers

Basic Flea Slap Style

Hi,

For those who are interested in Flea's slap style, this lesson is a good starter.







Slap on the C and hammer on to D, followed by a mute slap and pop.

The mute slap and pop is crucial to create the percussive feel.

Try it slow and as you increase the speed, you will be amazed that such a simple exercise make you sound so experience.

Enjoy!

G Major Scale Octave Exercise

Hi,

This G major Scale Octave exercise can help you to practice for Stanley Clarke's "School Day".

First you try to play it using finger style, next move to slapping and popping.






When you pop, try to keep the note short.

Try to practice it with a drum machine or metronome.

Have Fun.

Slap Exercise

Hi,

The key to slapping the bass and allowing people to enjoy and tap along with you, is by adding ghost notes to your playing.

The above is a cool slap groove which is not too complicated but yet a good practice.

Make sure that the ghost notes (X) can be heard.

Have fun

Slap Pop Exercise

Hi,

This is a nice and not too difficult slap pop exercise.

You can loop it over and over til you get a nice slap tone and also slowly increase the tempo.

Just note that the G and A are triplets.

Slap G on the 3rd fret twice and pop the octave G on the 5th fret.

You can break it into 3 parts

1. TTPT
2. TTP - triplets (123)
3. TTP - triplets (123)










Ok have fun

Slap Bass DVD

Hi, usually the good slap materials out there are pretty dry and those fancy ones we can't learn much.
I would like to recommend this Dvd by Ed Friedland - Slap Bass (The Ultimate Guide).
This Dvd provides the essential of playing slap style(beginner, intermediate) and it's not boring.

You will learn the techniques of playing triplets, 16th notes and more using the slap style. Very useful material to guide you play like Louis Johnson, Marcus Miller, Victor Wooten and etc.

Go for it man!!

Basic Slap Concept

Been messing around with some pentatonic scales lately. This slap concept is not exactly following the pentatonic runs but using the notes within the minor Pentatonic.
I used quite a bit of ghost notes in between to fill up the gap and also give a slight funk feel. This groove is done in key of A and plays around with the 7th in the beginning. Ending with a Asus to Gsus chord, making it a bit rock. Sorry for the not so good video quality and sound.



For those who are not sure about pentatonic scale, the basic are the major and minor pentatonic scales.
Just like the pentagon is a polygon with 5 sides, the pentatonic scale has 5 notes.
Take a look at the formula below:

G major scale - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 (G A B C D E F# G)
G major pentatonic scale - 1 2 3 5 6 (G A B D E)

G natural minor scale - 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7 1 (G A Bb C D Eb F G)
G minor pentatonic scale - 1 b3 4 5 b7 ( G Bb C D F)

Have fun!