victor wooten thumping technique

[lewibassist]

does anyone have vics thumping technique down im tryin to play calssical thump but i can play up to the part before he starts using that thumb upstroke and thumb downstroke thing.if anyone can do it realy fast how long did it take you to learn it. i can play it but its realy slow.if anyone has got some tips on how to do this technique it would be great

PeAcE
lewi

[Wrong Robot]

just gotta practice man.

practice slowly, practice concise, and practice a lot.

There is no secret, that once you know will enable you to perform the technique flawlessly. I can play classical thump up to speed, it took me a while to learn, but I refined my double thump technique first, and that took nearly 6 months before I started feeling comfortable with it, I'm still not flawless, but I'm getting better..I've been doin it for a year now, and I practice constantly.

The only thing I can suggest, relax, don't be tense, don't Force the technique out, just let it happen.

that and, PRACTICE!

work out scales and songs in double thump, even if they aren't normally done that way, try and play every song you know with double thump, do exercises using only your thumb, down/up down/up

[labrat]

It's basically mimiking a guitarists alternate picking (down up down up), maybe do alternate picking exercises that a guitarist would practice. Alot of scales. Maybe take finger picked songs that aren't too hard and use the double thumbing. When I first started learning it, I practiced "would" by alice in chains. It's a simple line to start with and it helped.

If you understand what the technique is, and what you're weakest at with it, then you're the best person to make up exercises for you (just use common sense).

[cherevo]

I don't seem to have problems with the thumb. It's just a matter of practicing and relaxing.

It's more difficult for me to pluck the strings and combine it with this technique. My bass gets pulled upwards and moves. There even seems to be not enough space for my fingers because of the pick-ups...

How does He pluck and thumb on one string?

Does anyone recognize this?

[Nick Bassman]

If you can get hold of the Hudson Music DVD of Vic's show at Bass Day '98. You get the whole thing straight from the horses mouth (hand?) plus a lot of other good stuff. Oh yeah and it's fun to just watch and listen to it.

[cherevo]

Yeah, I own that VHS. Indeed, Wooten explains fine, except his plucking technique. But I guess I have to figure it out myself. As he said: there is no good or bad way.

But I'm still wondering who of you got his plucking and thumb techniques under control.