left hand slap

[Son of Bovril]

hey guys - i was reading another thread, where someone was talking about left hand slap - can't find it again? anyway , his description of the technique didn't really explain clearly how to actually do this?
could someone maybe explain o me exactly how to do this?
thanx

[lemur821]

It's probably the easiest bass technique I've ever learned. The goal is to produce a whack sound, as opposed to a slappy note. Just straighten out two or three fingers (I usually use middle through pinky) then whack them against the strings. Don't put so much force in one place that you tap a note. Left hand slap is another way to add dead notes.

[Son of Bovril]

ok cool, so you mean thats all there is to it!? I thought this was some hectic technique like double thumbing or something!

[Vorago]

Nonsqtr had an excellent post about it, here it is:

I'll try to explain double handed slapping. Basically, this technique revolves around "left handed slapping" (assuming you're a right handed bass player). In this case, your right hand is doing the
typical thumb-and-pluck thing that's most often associated with the slap style. BUT, your left hand is also active. What it's doing is actually
"slapping" the fingerboard, but without hitting a particular note. The result is something that sounds like a "click", if it's done correctly. It takes a while to get it right, basically you can start by loosely dropping the flat of your left hand across all four (or however many) strings at once. If your hand is flat enough, you'll hear a "click" when the strings
hit the fingerboard. This is the sound you're after. Once you've gotten that technique down, then the next step is to combine that with what your right hand is doing. So, let's define some terminology. I'll use "thumb" and "pluck" for the right hand, and "slap" for the left hand. The most
basic double handed slapping sequence is thumb-pluck-slap, so your left hand click goes "between" the thumb and the subsequent pluck. When you're in 4/4 time, you can thumb-pluck-slap-pluck, and if you repeat that again and again with a 4/4 beat, you'll hear the basic sound of two handed slapping. This technique can be made "very" fast, and
it can be combined with double thumbing and double popping to get some delicious two handed slapping runs. For example, try repeating this one over and over: thumb-slap-pluck-thumb. The "double thumbing" thing (which is slightly different from the way Victor Wooten uses the term) allows your left hand to "interleave" between the quarter notes, so you can hold a 1/16th note run against a 4/4 beat and it sounds like you're playing four times as fast as you really are. Left handed slapping is a very useful technique, and it can be a lot of fun too. Hope this brief description helps. Cheers

[JimK]

http://66.77.27.26/z1998/9809/larue.shtml

This is THE LINK for Dave Larue's "Left Hand Slap".
Print it out!

[Son of Bovril]

thanx guys your explanations and links have been very usefull - I'm sure I'll have it down in no time - plenty of practice required...

[Superdave]

Can someone toss up a groove using this technique?

[Alvaro Martín Gómez A.]

Originally Posted by Superdave

Can someone toss up a groove using this technique?

Try this one. T= Thumb. P= Pop. LH= Left hand slap.

[JimK]

Example 7 on the Larue link is a sample groove.

Something I have been constantly working on-
LH Slap plays a Clave rhythm(1--a--&-3-&-4---)
RH freelances with Thumb & Pops

And for cross-rhythms/polyrhythms-
Example: '6 Over 4'
This rhythm on ONE(1) line looks like-
l1_2&3_4_5&6_l

LH Slaps play the "4" component
l1_2&3_4_5&6_l

RH plays the remaining 'beats'
l1_2&3_4_5&6_l

[leanne]

Here's a sort of exercise, I think I got this from a Louis Johnson video, but who knows how close it is to what I saw...

- Mute the strings with your left hand, probably your 1st finger. Pop a muted string with your right hand.
- Slap down the other fingers of your left hand to make a percussive sound.
- Keep the strings muted and thump with your right thumb.

Do this as a triplet, over and over. Then once you've got it down, do what you want with it. I have fun practicing this. Hope it helps.