Slap not happy - slap help

[Warlock]

Sorry guys to raise this again. I've search the archive and still need help.

I'm a returning rocker and have re found the Bass again at 40! A 20 year gap!! I've decided to re-learn and I need to. How do I slap? Where do I start?

Yours a mad Stnaley Clarke fan,

Dave.
Rosliston, UK

[LoJoe]

Outside of a teacher, I've read on here numerous times that this is the best thing going for slap:

The Slap Bass Program

[Warlock]

Thanks LoJoe - ordered and sorted.

Thanks again,

Dave.
UK

[Howard K]

I'm a returning rocker and have re found the Bass again at 40! A 20 year gap!! I've decided to re-learn and I need to. How do I slap? Where do I start?

Yours a mad Stnaley Clarke fan

LOL!! HA, that's funny!!!

Stanely Clarke is a slap machine!

Have you heard his new CD? Is it good?

[Warlock]

I haven't heard it - I'm trying to catch up with all he has recorded. I first came across SC in 1980 or so when I was told by a funk bassist to catch a listen - what a bass player! I then heard Jacko on the Weather Report album and all of a sudden I didn't want to play in a rock band

[corinpills]

Just to offer a different perspective: don't. Slapping is 1987, it's not cool. It's for showing off in music stores. Tons of people do it poorly, very few do it well. It's for kids and guys in wedding bands (not there's anything wrong with that). I know that one isn't supposed to have an opinion like this on this board (I can hear the march of the "well I slap and I love it" people already), but I just can't believe people still do that. It's like seeing a guitar player still shredding Yngvie licks like it's the 80s.

Welcome back to bass. The world can always use more rockers. There are already a few thousand people trying copy Stanley and Jaco. What kind of stuff did you used to play 20 years ago? just curious.

[Fliptrique]

Originally posted by corinpills
Just to offer a different perspective: don't. Slapping is 1987, it's not cool.

. The question wasn`t "should I slap", it was: "how to slap". I think that most of us here will probably be able to decide ourselves...

[Sojhen]

I personally dislike slap myself.... but hell my opinion means ****... lol
but so does everyone elses

[yoshi]

Originally posted by corinpills
It's like seeing a guitar player still shredding Yngvie licks like it's the 80s.

My brother does that all the time, he even got a malmsteen sig axe not so long back! It does sound impressive though (to me) but the backings so naff!

[Warlock]

I missed this post before - so sorry. It's now a year on since I took the bass back up and I reckon I'm where I left off all that time ago. The slap is about there but to be frank it doesn't do much for me. I love playing the blues now, I really, really like playing the blues I mean to say. If I really think about it I still really like the punchy rock bass lines of the 1980s. I have set-up on my Boss Gx-700 that sounds like to ruanchy basses playng harmony - it's such a thrill to knock out a heavy riff nowadays.

[Goldsac]

Originally Posted by corinpills

Tons of people do it poorly, very few do it well.

+1
The one thing I do agree with you on

[XTONYX]

Originally Posted by Goldsac

+1
The one thing I do agree with you on

I do agree too....and i slap poorly.

[Adam Barkley]

It is another techinque for bass therefore it cannot be bad. More options for sound is always good. I enjoy slap as much as fingerstyle or picking or tapping or chords. All are a means to get a certain sound.

Don't dislike the style, dislike the poor player.

[x182]

so you only play for coolness?

[Aaron Saunders]

Originally Posted by abark000

It is another techinque for bass therefore it cannot be bad. More options for sound is always good. I enjoy slap as much as fingerstyle or picking or tapping or chords. All are a means to get a certain sound.

Don't dislike the style, dislike the poor player.

All ye naysayers of slap, listen to this man, for he speaks the truth!