I resolve not to slap

[TheApostlePaul]

I was at my local guitar store yesterday. I tried out a bunch of nice basses and ended up getting a new amp. The thing that got me was everybody in there was slapping. Slapping has become the "Stairway to Heaven" Or "Smoke on the Water" Of the bass world.

I resolve not to slap. It is a cool technique and when done well, it is very impressive. The madness just has to stop!

Who is with me on this. Maybe we should start a club. We can call it the "No Slappers."

[James Hart]

Every technique has it's place in a well rounded musicians vocabulary. No reason to boycott it IMO.

[RWP]

Originally Posted by James Hart

Every technique has it's place in a well rounded musicians vocabulary. No reason to boycott it IMO.

Agree with both aspects. Slapping has become the litmus test for bass playing. I like to slap but I rarely find it actually useful for the type of music I play. So for me it's just for fun. And it seems that every bass player is expected to know some funky slap groove to be any good.

[905]

I'm definately in.

At least for now, as I can't slap :<

[Johnny Crab]

If it's a litmus test I guess 40 years of playin' just went out the window.

Kain't do the Wooten, Clarke, Beaver Felton thing at 120 mph YET. Never been in a band playing tunes that REQUIRED it. Learned enough off of the above three guys to be able to "make the noises"(i.e. percussion with tone) correctly and in time with the song/drummer/like everyone else does. It gets fit "tastefully"(I hope) into about 4 songs of the 125 on our "know list" of originals and covers and then sparsely. If used any more in this band, it would sound silly and showoff-y. Other than that, I've got more important things to do with my finite amount of time on this planet.

[ZombieGhosTrain]

Slapping...meh. Don't like to hear it too much, don't need to play it. I can, a little bit, but I was just messing around. I don't need to be "well rounded" for my electric bass purposes. So forget slapping. A bit odd, since I play alot of (rockabilly) upright bass and I slap all the time. That's a whole different ballgame.

[Stinsok]

I don't dislike it, but NONE of the tunes we play has any slapping involved. I see alot of players that shoe horn slapping and popping into some of the same songs. As far as trying out different basses, I play very slowly, fingerstyle in order to hear what the bass actually sounds like. To me, all basses sound alike when being slapped. It's just an opinion...

[saxofunk]

I resolve to slap enough to make up for you.

But I ain't no Wooten, and I don't care to be.

However, I feel your pain. There are lots of inconsiderate musicians at the music store, some of them even play country.

[chaotick]

Slapping really does nothing for me when I hear it.

I was never able to pick it up, admittedly, I tried very little, though.

If I had a teacher I might want him to learn me some slap-bass but it's not my scene and everyone in my band, with the exception of the drummer (a primus-nut), doesn't care to hear it either.

[Grueber]

Originally Posted by TheApostlePaul

I was at my local guitar store yesterday. I tried out a bunch of nice basses and ended up getting a new amp. The thing that got me was everybody in there was slapping. Slapping has become the "Stairway to Heaven" Or "Smoke on the Water" Of the bass world.

I resolve not to slap. It is a cool technique and when done well, it is very impressive. The madness just has to stop!

Who is with me on this. Maybe we should start a club. We can call it the "No Slappers."

were any of them good?

[Alec W. Conway]

I use it only when I really feel it can add something.

I'm more of a tapping freak.

[Pacman]

Stop the madness of slap/no slap threads.