My thumb doesn't help my slapping and popping practice

The B · #1 02-19-2005, 11:21 PM

I have been playing with 2 fingers and an ocassional pick, and about 2 months ago. As a drummer, my speed is pretty good with just slapping, but when i try to pop, my thump ALWAYS pushes down on the string i just popped and it mutes the string. This is especially annoying when i try to do things fast, becuase the slapped string won't sound when it is muted by my thumb. Could you give me some excercises on how to get rid of this extremely bad and annoying habit? Any help will be much appreciated! Thanks in advance,
The B - Adrian

lemur821 · #2 02-20-2005, 12:36 AM

What's your thumb even doing near the string you're popping? Try pulling away from the bass to pop, so your hand isn't so close to the strings.

Samurai · #3 02-20-2005, 01:51 PM

Just practice popping over and over again by itself and then slowly bring the thumb back in.

The B · #4 02-20-2005, 03:32 PM

holy cow...i had a typo. Ok...my thump always mutes the string i just slapped...and so on. Could you help me out with that? Sorry for the confusion.

The B - Adrian

bass element · #5 02-20-2005, 05:10 PM

you gotta find some really simple, slow exercises on slapping and popping. you shouldnt start off going fast, even if you are decent at it right now. download some videos, look around this site for instructions. before you start trying to go fast, learn the basix.
by doing this, you'll prolly find out what your weakness is and see how to fix it.

lemur821 · #6 02-20-2005, 10:14 PM

Quote:

holy cow...i had a typo. Ok...my thump always mutes the string i just slapped...and so on. Could you help me out with that? Sorry for the confusion.

That makes a little more sense.

I think you're probably rotating your wrist to pop, which naturally brings your thumb down. I recommend rotating the other way and pulling away from the bass a little more. It's also possible that you're just letting your thumb droop. I'm always careful to hold mine up, although it's automatic by now. Don't forget, a lot of the time it's good to mute quickly.

The B · #7 02-20-2005, 11:07 PM

So in some cases it's good to do that? But overall i would want to learn how to do both huh? This stuff takes a lot more time than i thought it would, compared to drumline practice. Then again I've been drumming for about 8 years, and bassin' for one.

Well thanks a lot. Any more comments would be much obliged!!!