Immobilized Slap?

[brendanbass]

About 5 years ago and shortly before I picked up bass for the first time and started playing, I was involved in an accident that left me permanently without the ability to pronate or supinate my right wrist, meaning that I cannot go palms up or down in my right hand, which is my picking hand. Several years later, when I began to take the instrument of bass guitar seriously, I heard Les Claypool playing some of his inventive slap lines, and sought out to learn the technique by which he produces his sound. I found out that it was indeed slap bass I was hearing, but after many attempts I could never get my right hand to perform the way I wanted it to and could never get a slap tone to ring out on any bass I tried it on, and I eventually just gave up on trying to learn it.

Now, wanting to make myself the best bass guitarist that I can be, decided that in order to be well rounded I need to finally tackle the challenge of learning how to play slap bass. Obviously all techniques involving rotation of the wrist are out the the question, but I do have the ability to drop my wrist (up and down). Some people may say this is all you need to play slap, but make sure that you are using NO wrist rotation at all before offering this to me as a possible method. If anyone could give me advice as to how I can learn to play or possible other substitute methods to produce a similar sound, I would appreciate it greatly. I already considered the option of switching to left handed bass, but since my wrist cannot rotate, I cannot fit my right hand around the neck to reach the strings. I am also self-taught, so any fundamental techniques or exercises about slap I might otherwise miss would be greatly appreciated.

[mward69]

Wow, sorry to hear about your wrist, however...DON'T give up.
I'm self taught also, so my slap isn't really the "correct" way...more like thrash slap {think thats a Flea term}
Anyway, you can still learn it without rotating your wrist..Just have to learn to "bounce" your thumb off the string, or maybe learn to keep your wrist right above the strings and just bounce the thumb without moving wrist. It's going to be a bit of a challenge, but you can do it.
Also, alot of Les Claypool stuff, he "rakes" the strings too. Basically, in a up and down motion while in the "up" motion drag your fingers into a fist almost, and while going "down" point the fingers down, kinda like trying to sling something off your fingers {make since?}
I know it's not the same, but I have broke my fret wrist twice, once as a kid back in the 70's and again about 4 yrs ago while hitting a heavy bag, and I cracked my right wrist hitting the bag too {I wasn't using wrist wraps} So I get pain in both.....I adjusted my playing style to compensate.....
Good Luck and keep working at it...it will come.

[JimmyM]

Wow, that's tough. I think it would be near impossible to traditionally slap without being able to rotate your wrist. But I know a guy who does a pseudo-slap by using his fingers. He bangs one finger into the string at the end of the neck, and plucks hard with the other one. Sounds like slap to me. But if you want to learn how to do the traditional slap method, I would strongly suggest getting with a good teacher who can actually see how your hand works and doesn't work and can give you some ideas.

[HaVIC5]

Originally Posted by JimmyM

Wow, that's tough. I think it would be near impossible to traditionally slap without being able to rotate your wrist. But I know a guy who does a pseudo-slap by using his fingers. He bangs one finger into the string at the end of the neck, and plucks hard with the other one. Sounds like slap to me. But if you want to learn how to do the traditional slap method, I would strongly suggest getting with a good teacher who can actually see how your hand works and doesn't work and can give you some ideas.

Yeah, Doug Wimbish does that sort of thing for slap - it sort of stems from the Entwistle "typewriter technique". I'd say that's your best bet for getting a slapping sound when you don't have the ability to rotate your wrist. Most teachers, with the exception of those REALLY in the know of physiology and technique, won't know how to approach probablems like that.

[tswd]

It's going to be hard, no matter what you try. The traditional slap method, and especially what Claypool does, is largely based on rotating the wrist to get speed.

One thought would be to set your action insanely low and just use your thumb instead of rotating your entire wrist. So you'd look like a finger style guitarist. By having your action set low enough, the strumming and plucking would be enough to cause the string to hit the fretboard and give you the slap/pop sound you want. You'd need an amp that went to 11, though, and might have a terrible time playing frets above the 12th.

[Roland777]

Go with Ryan Martinie technique - pluck hard at the edge of the neck and make sure they hit the fretwire.. Maybe that's what the guys before were referring to, but just to be sure. Works perfectly fine with any rig - transposing traditional slaplines to this technique could be somewhat of a hassle though, concerning octave-pops and the likes.

[smeet]

Bill Dickens has some of the best slap technique around, and he does not rotate his wrist. Check out one of his instructional videos.

[brendanbass]

Originally Posted by JimmyM

Wow, that's tough. I think it would be near impossible to traditionally slap without being able to rotate your wrist. But I know a guy who does a pseudo-slap by using his fingers. He bangs one finger into the string at the end of the neck, and plucks hard with the other one. Sounds like slap to me. But if you want to learn how to do the traditional slap method, I would strongly suggest getting with a good teacher who can actually see how your hand works and doesn't work and can give you some ideas.

Thanks a lot to everyone, I'm gonna go practice trying a few styles in a few minutes, but I use a similar technique to what you said, kinda just invented my own way because it made a slap-ish sound, but playing that way definitely isn't very fast, conventional to many slap songs, if anyone knows how to play fast using an alternate slap method, please enlighten me.

[the_fonz]

i just slap by swinging from the elbow downwards
i sorta hold my bass with the pickups facing up
or maybe i just have horrible technique