Slap Technique - How to make that "click" sound.

[King Funk]

Hey, my name's Matt, I'm new.

Anyway, I've been playing bass for a while and I've heard a bunch of solo bassists and ... uh ... regular bassists make a cool "click" sound when they slap. It's kind of like filling in the quiet points between the notes. It's kind of hard to explain. A good example that probably everybody has heard is Sir Wooten's "Me & My Bass Geetar." I try to mimic this, but I don't know if there's some kind of trick to it or if I've been doing it right.

When I try to do it, I just mute pops n' slaps. I heard one technique is putting a fatty hair scunchie at the end of the fretboard so it mutes to strings anyway. This isn't too hard, but if there's an easier technique then I'm more than happy to find out.

And I'm not talking about doing this with the double thump technique, I'm talking the slap-equivilent to that. Help?

& I'm sorry if this has already been adressed, I couldn't find anything that fit my question when I searched.

[Pacman]

Are you just talking about ghost notes? Muted slaps against the strings.

The best way to tell if you're doing it right is if it sounds right.

[eljuapo]

Or you could be referring to a left had slap where you put your left hand across the strings but with a bit more force so that it "clicks". This is shown in "The Slap Bass Program" video if your familiar with that.

[nonsqtr]

Yep, I think you're talking about what people here call "left hand slapping". IMO this is the single most important technique for slap players to learn, and learn well. It takes a while to get it right (unless you're gifted, or all your planets happen to be in alignment), it took me the better part of six months to be able to do it passably well. So don't fret (yuk) if it's difficult to "get" in the first few days. Just keep practicing, and one day the light bulb will come on and it'll feel completely natural. Until then, it'll be a bit of work. But that's why they call it "practice". I used to practice by playing along with 80's dance music (Paula Abdul, Sheena Easton, stuff like that). It's a great technique once you get it right. I always see a few peoples' eyes start bugging out when I do that stuff at gigs, 'cause if it's done correctly it can make you sound like you're playing eight times as fast as you really are. Why that would be "cool" I don't know, but there it is.

[Matt Till]

Originally Posted by King Funk

Hey, my name's Matt, I'm new.

My name is Matt too. What a small world.

[eljuapo]

I would really suggest The Slap Bass Program if you're interested in learing a lot of slap techniques. It's a very good video.

I only mention it this much because I got it fairly recently and it has helped me improve my playing more than I can describe.

[EmmSee]

Originally Posted by StupidMatt

My name is Matt too. What a small world.

I'm new here and my name's Matt TOO ... WOW!