Hi, I just wanted to say this is an amazing resource, so thank you in advance.
I have been playing bass for just over a year, and I have learned to slap from watching other people, and developing my own technique. But my problem is I cant seem to create good slap lines. I have been teaching myself all kinds of scales, and I now know all major, and the modes of the major scale, as well as other fun scales. So what am i doing wrong? Is it just trial and error, and just playing? Or is there a formula for making slap lines? Thank in advance


Marshall

Great question! I'm glad to hear that you know and are working on your scales. That will definitely help you as far as note choice in the slap style. Just like anything in music, there really are not any rules of what you can use or not, BUT, I will say that a lot of slap bass lines are derived from your pentatonic, mixolydian, dorian & blues scales.
Having said that, I really would recommend developing a vocabulary of slap grooves from players you dig using this style.
A good approach is to Imitate, assimilate, and innovate. In other words first learn the grooves of these players you like, break down what they are doing THEN you absorb these into you vocabulary THEN you create your own grooves. Make sense?
A lot of times I will learn a particular groove and then I just start to expand on it. This might include changing some notes, changing some rhythms, whatever.
I really feel the more slap lines you learn from CDs, books, etc
the more you will be able to create your own from the knowledge you gain.

Great question! I'm glad to hear that you know and are working on your scales. That will definitely help you as far as note choice in the slap style. Just like anything in music, there really are not any rules of what you can use or not, BUT, I will say that a lot of slap bass lines are derived from your pentatonic, mixolydian, dorian & blues scales.
Having said that, I really would recommend developing a vocabulary of slap grooves from players you dig using this style.
A good approach is to Imitate, assimilate, and innovate. In other words first learn the grooves of these players you like, break down what they are doing THEN you absorb these into you vocabulary THEN you create your own grooves. Make sense?
A lot of times I will learn a particular groove and then I just start to expand on it. This might include changing some notes, changing some rhythms, whatever.
I really feel the more slap lines you learn from CDs, books, etc
the more you will be able to create your own from the knowledge you gain.This is definitely great advice, but Ray, What are some good slap lines to listen to? In other words, what do you recommend?

Great question! I'm glad to hear that you know and are working on your scales. That will definitely help you as far as note choice in the slap style. Just like anything in music, there really are not any rules of what you can use or not, BUT, I will say that a lot of slap bass lines are derived from your pentatonic, mixolydian, dorian & blues scales.
Having said that, I really would recommend developing a vocabulary of slap grooves from players you dig using this style.
A good approach is to Imitate, assimilate, and innovate. In other words first learn the grooves of these players you like, break down what they are doing THEN you absorb these into you vocabulary THEN you create your own grooves. Make sense?
A lot of times I will learn a particular groove and then I just start to expand on it. This might include changing some notes, changing some rhythms, whatever.
I really feel the more slap lines you learn from CDs, books, etc
the more you will be able to create your own from the knowledge you gain.
Wow, thanks so much!
And I just got Tony Oppenheim's Slap It a few days back too, I have not had a chance to look at it really good yet, but its has inspired me to make a notebook of lines, and riffs I come up with.
Really, thanks ALOT for the advice man, I just wish I had known about all the great things on Talkbass when I started.
Thanks so much!!

That's great! Transcribing the lines you learn and documenting your own grooves is one of the best things you can do as a musician in my opinion.
I also wanted to let you know that I am currently working on a slap book/CD/DVD for a major publishing company. It will be a good resource for this particular style. We hope to have it available sometime next year.

Start off by getting your hands on all material with Larry Graham as possible-He pretty much invented slap
Also some RHCP for a slightly different style of slapping, just to broaden your horizons
a few tracks
Pow-Graham Central Station
Hair-Larry Graham
Get Up and Jump-RHCP
Tell me Baby-RHCP

Blackeyed Blonde - Red Hot Chili Peppers

The best way to make your own bass lines in my opinion is getting together with a good drummer and just jamming, doesn't matter what comes out, eventually you'll hit something good.

As for slap grooves to listen to....wow, there's a lot of great stuff out there. Here are some artists to checkout:
Larry Graham, Louis Johnson, Stanley Clarke, Marcus Miller, Victor Wooten, Stu Hamm, Mark King, Flea...to name a few. Oh yeah, I have some CDs too! LOL
Some good books for grooves are:
Slap It, Ultimate Slap Bass...
Good slap instructional DVDs:
Alex Sklarveski , Ed Friedland, Victor Wooten

I'm sure some other people can post some more suggestions as well.
This is a good start.

That's great! Transcribing the lines you learn and documenting your own grooves is one of the best things you can do as a musician in my opinion.
I also wanted to let you know that I am currently working on a slap book/CD/DVD for a major publishing company. It will be a good resource for this particular style. We hope to have it available sometime next year.

Great, I'll be interested in that when it's released! Loved your work with Jeff Kollman. Any future collaborations planned with those guys?

Start off by getting your hands on all material with Larry Graham as possible-He pretty much invented slap
Also some RHCP for a slightly different style of slapping, just to broaden your horizons
a few tracks
Pow-Graham Central Station
Hair-Larry Graham
Get Up and Jump-RHCP
Tell me Baby-RHCP
Yeah, I wish I could play hair, that is probably my fav slap riff, EVER

That's great! Transcribing the lines you learn and documenting your own grooves is one of the best things you can do as a musician in my opinion.
I also wanted to let you know that I am currently working on a slap book/CD/DVD for a major publishing company. It will be a good resource for this particular style. We hope to have it available sometime next year.
Cool man! I will defiantly pick it up when its out! Thanks soooo much for getting back to me so fast, and being so cool about everything, most other people I talk to, even on TB are dicks about alot of stuff, so thanks!!!!!

The "Bass Extremes" DVD with Wooten and Steve Bailey will give you a whole lot to work on - there's a book/cd combo of the same stuff, depending on your preferred acquisitional mode. There's just a few things that Wooten says, and demonstrates, that opens up a whole world.

Thanks so much for all of the help eveyone!