I'm not a huge slap player by nature, but I was recording my new bass and just generally fooling around. I was able to play this awesome little lick that I've heard great players do, and no matter how hard I try, I can't do it again! It's right after the five second mark of this short clip - a note followed by some fast triplets. I know I can do it, as I have a recording, but I've been trying for a half hour and can't do it again! Dangit!

Sounds like a muted triplet to me. I throw that in my licks all the time. Vic plays it in almost every song.

It's because you're thinking about it too much. Don't think about it. You weren't thinking that hard when you played it to begin with... turn the analysis off.

If you just keep faking it and/or approximating it, you'll either A: Eventually get it "right", or B: Get it "wrong" in such a way that it's cooler than it was before. It's kinda like when a person does an impression in order to make fun of an opera singer, and uses all the proper tone and breathing without "knowing" all that stuff.

I think that's funny. I work so hard on recording myself, as if it's all I've got, like I could never replicate what I save, but it's not true. Recording and playing your self back is excelent for practice.

LOL.

I can't tell you how many times I've heard a live recording of myself and wondered, where the heck did that come from?

I'm not a huge slap player by nature, but I was recording my new bass and just generally fooling around. I was able to play this awesome little lick that I've heard great players do, and no matter how hard I try, I can't do it again! It's right after the five second mark of this short clip - a note followed by some fast triplets. I know I can do it, as I have a recording, but I've been trying for a half hour and can't do it again! Dangit!

Nice tight sound, great tone! What bass are you playing?

Sounds like a muted triplet to me. I throw that in my licks all the time. Vic plays it in almost every song.

+1 Don't think to hard on it and it will come again very naturally. I had the same thing happen to me years ago while in concert playing lead guitar in a band. I was given the green light for an extended solo which was being recorded. During playback by bandmates looked at me and said that they didn't know I could play those types of scales and phrasings. I took me 2 weeks to learn what I had already did in concert. I impressed myself.

Yeah, I'm going to give it another go soon and see what I can do. :hmm:

RWP - It's a Warwick Corvette double buck through a Sansamp.