Extended Bass Techniques?

[Blackbird]

Do you work on techniques that do not easily fit the music that you usually play? Do you try to extend techniques (I.E. Victor Wooten's "triple hammer pluck" is an extension of the slap technique)?

Do you practice techniques that may never have any musical value whatsoever? What? Why?

[Wrong Robot]

Heh....of course.

I guess, I don't like thinking I just play certain styles of music, I want to be competant in as many styles as possible, so I make sure I know as many techiques as possible.

the one technique I practice, but rarely use is tapping, sure every once in a while I might tap a couple notes in a solo, but never any of the tap lines I practice.

I actually use double thump when I jam with friends, so while it isn't very musical( )
I do it because it's fun!
believe it or not, but I have fun, doing syncopations with double thumb, it's very...satisfying, I was a drummer before I turned bassist, and I've always had a soft spot for playing with rhythm, complex or otherwise.

I also rarely pinch harmonics in my playing, but I practice those too

[mark beem]

At times I do. I try to focus more on fundamentals such as timing (with metronome/drum machine), dexterity (string crossing can get tricky on a 7 string!! ), and sound ( making sure that striking notes with each of my fingers {index/middle/ring} all have the same attack and volume. Tapping and chording I focus on, but less than I do the basics. Chording especially has been creeping up a lot in the prog band Im playing in.

Dont do much slap-n-pop stuff.. I dont know, but that technique never really appealed to me much..

[The Mock Turtle Regulator]

Originally posted by ProgZilla
Dont do much slap-n-pop stuff.. I dont know, but that technique never really appealed to me much..

unlike a lot of people here I've got no inclination whatsoever to learn double-thumbing. I like simple slap lines, and the odd triplet thrown in, but I just don't like the ultra fast Wooten style (or Mark King's speed merchant slap solos)- I like the composition of "classical thump", but would prefer it if he played it fingerstyle....

[Wrong Robot]

I tried playing classical thump fingerstyle....very very very very hard...much harder than thumped...of course...it might have been easier if I had used 3 fingers

[The Mock Turtle Regulator]

Originally posted by Wrong Robot
it might have been easier if I had used 3 fingers

yep- I find using 3 fingers (in a sort of sweep picking way) makes ascending arpeggios a lot easier.
-in Jaco's "modern electric bass" video he remarks that ascending arpeggios are difficult fingerstyle-
I wondered whether he considered adding a third finger..
maybe guys like Bill Dickens and Abe Laboriel add their thumb (plucking, not slapping ) and pinky to this approach too?