This is the second part of a two-part lesson. In a real/live lesson situation, I'd probably cover both
the first part and this second part in the same half hour. Please do check out
the first part if you haven't already, it lays the groundwork for this exercise.
What we're going to do now is apply the basic skills we learned earlier to a more musical situation. We'll start with a basic slap groove, and then we're going to add some rhythmic variations by using our right hand (for us right handed folk) as a metronome. We'll play the same basic bass line throughout, we'll just add rhythmic chatter by injecting alternating slapped and popped 1/8 notes or 1/16 notes.
So let's start with the basic bass line. It's comprised of 4 simple bits:
1 - Open "E" string on 1
2 - D-E hammer on "A" string (A5 -> A7) on "&" of 2
3 - D-E hammer on "G" string (G7 -> G9) on "&" of 3
4 - D-E hammer on "A" string (A5 -> A7) on "&" of 4
So pick up your bass, play along with me and then keep playing after I drop out!
SlapEx2B-Basic
Just for reference, here's the bass line without the drums:
SlapEx2B-BasicNoDrums
Got that? Simple stuff, right? But it feels great!!
So the next step is to take our alternating 1/8 and 1/16 note slaps and pops and add them to our new basic slap groove. In the clip below, I'll play in sequence:
- 4 bars of the straight line
- 4 bars with 1/8 note chatter
- 4 bars staight again
- 4 bars with 1/16 note chatter
- 4 bars straight
Here's what it sounds like!
SlapEx2B-Variations SlapEx2B-VariationsNoDrums
I'll let you guys work out the details. I'll just say pay attention to your right hand. It should be a rhythmic machine with a steady up and down motion. Then pay attention to where the slaps and pops fall. It changes with each variation.
