evenin' all! I've been playing bass for about 5 years now and have the slap technique down nicely. However, I seem to lack imaginaton - as in I don't know where to go/what to do other than the same old octave/5th things with some ghost notes thrown in!

Anyone got any advice? any excercises, or specifically theory to learn? My theory lacks heavily by teh way :P

Buy Slap It! Best investment ull ever make for slap ;)

hi yoshi,

slap it is a really good instruction book but i think you won't get around learing some theory. here are some scales you can practice to creat more melodic slap-basslines

major pentatonic
minor pentatonic
blues scale
mixolydian scale

if you don't know these scales yet you better learn them now :-)

here are two examples using these scales in two short slap-riffs:

http://www.bass-me-up.de/audio/SlapMeUp01_Steffen_Knauss.mp3

http://www.bass-me-up.de/audio/SlapMeUp02_Steffen_Knauss.mp3

hope that helps a little bit. i will add some exercises on my website soon.

hi yoshi,

slap it is a really good instruction book but i think you won't get around learing some theory. here are some scales you can practice to creat more melodic slap-basslines

major pentatonic
minor pentatonic
blues scale
mixolydian scale

if you don't know these scales yet you better learn them now :-)

here are two examples using these scales in two short slap-riffs:

http://www.bass-me-up.de/audio/SlapMeUp01_Steffen_Knauss.mp3

http://www.bass-me-up.de/audio/SlapMeUp02_Steffen_Knauss.mp3

hope that helps a little bit. i will add some exercises on my website soon.


isnt mixolydian the same thing as the blues scale?

isnt mixolydian the same thing as the blues scale?

No Mixolydian is the mode built off the 5th note of the major scale. (basically same as the major scale but with the 7th flatted)

Blues scale is a minor pentatonic with a chromatic note between the 4th and 5th.

Bass-me-up nice tone! What bass are you using for that?

No Mixolydian is the mode built off the 5th note of the major scale. (basically same as the major scale but with the 7th flatted)

Blues scale is a minor pentatonic with a chromatic note between the 4th and 5th.


isnt that more like maybe what a guitarist might use to solo in blues though??? like in many many blues songs the bass bassically just plays the mixolydian scale right??? i mean the songs that go..buh, ba duh, ba duh, ba duh duh duh....and so on and so forth

you are sort of right... the bass can do mixolydian (i usually use the blues scale) but I know exactly what you're talking about.

The reason peoploe do that is because the chord progression is all major chords with the flat seven. (i want to say major 7 chords, but that is incorrect, right? What do you call D7 if Dmaj7 is major 7 chord? I need to refresh my theory)

The correct term is "dominant 7th."
Getting back to the original question, I'd recommend listening to, and playing along with, recordings by the usual people (Larry Graham, Louis Johnson, Marcus Miller, et al.), just to get ideas.