ok I've been playing DB for 5 years now orchestrally, about a year ago i started listening to some rockabilly and since then I've been vaguely trying to learn to play slap, I can do the slapping alright, but the problem is after about 2 minutes of playing my right hand gets so sore and tired that i can't play any more and have to give it a rest, obviously thats no good for practice and defiantly makes it useless to even try in a band setting. So what I'm wondering is, is it the strings I'm using (I don't know exactly what they are but they are orchestral steel strings) or is it my technique (does anyone have any pointers on how to keep playing for a long time) or do i just need to practice more to get my strength and endurance up? Dropping the strings a semitone helps a bit, I'm also wondering if action is a problem at the moment i can't get my fingers fully under the strings. Thanks for any help.

Relax your hand, get a tennis ball and squeeze it for excercise. If you know any, have a rockabilly player check out your strings, it does make a difference. I would suggest some Eurosonics or Supernils for playing, they have low tension and stay in tune. If you have an adjustable bridge, raise the strings a bit and see if that helps. Remember higher strings puts strain on your left hand, so don't get too carried away. The Eurosonics can be bowed also. Good luck

Your hand is going to get tired until you develop some of the small muscles in your hand to handle the activity. It's a natural response. Nothing better for it than just slapping. Also, everyone's technique is a little different from the others'. You don't need to get your fingers fully under the string to pull up. You'll get that single slap if you just pull toward you at a slightly upward angle. If you're trying to get you fingers under the string, your speed is going to suffer. I suspect you'll have more blisters and soreness than necessary too.

Remember when you first picked up the bow and got tired in two minutes? It's just a matter of slowing down and taking the time to develop a relaxed motion. I see so many players that slap with a kind of bear claw thing happening, ouch? It's a myth that it takes a lot of effort to slap the bass. Slow down your practice and try to make your hand "flow like a reed in the water". How Zen? But really, if you bow German bow you know how your shoulder, elbow, wrist and fingers flow back and forth like, well, a reed in the water? Same with slapping. All the motions should be rounded and curved. If you want I can take a little video and send it to you (my new mac is a dream) to show you what I mean....

Yeah and slapping on orchestral steels IS gonna hurt. :hmm:

You need lower tension strings. If you like steels try solo steels tuned down to eadg. Or get some strings made to slap.

I had the same problem when I started slapping. It definitely takes time to build up stamina but it can be done. Getting some lower tension strings definitely helps, I started on spirocore mittels and it killed my hand not to mention arm and shoulder. If your doing a lot of bowing I wouldn't recommend plain nylon, wrapped nylon like Obligatos are good but maybe still a little tense, I suspect the solo gauge ones would be great but haven't gotten around to trying them, plus they bow good. I've got corelli 370 mediums on right now and they're super easy to play, almost gut like in tension and are great to bow, a little on the thin bright side but you can't have everything. Learning how to stay relaxed helps a lot, +1 on the reed in the water approach. try not to keep your hand tense in between the notes, it only needs to stay tense long enough to snap the string, kind of a lightning fast snap then for the clicks you ca relax your hand muscles. How high is your action? Mine is a about 7 mm on the g up to about 9 mm on the e. I think that's somewhere in the middle range, some slappers prefer it higher but I don't really know what's standard. Hope this helps!

Your action is definitely a factor. I just completed a long bluegrass gig and while I don't slap per say, I do play a light back beat on the FB. Finally in the last week of the 8 week gig I realized my groovey low jazz action was killing my right hand! Raising it was a little strange at first but I got use to it quickly. (I raised it an hour before the show no problem.) Not to mention with the added tension my bass became a cannon. I was blowing away the guitar and piano. Played the rest of the gig with no fatigue.