Victor Wooten's technique

[nspark]

Firstly, I'm new here to Talk Bass, but I go by "jazzbasseveryday" on The Dude Pit (it was too long a name to register here).

Secondly, the reason that I chose "lonelyjazzbass" is because I have no one to play the bass with. Church, high school...can't play there for various reasons. I'm also not that interested in playing rock, so no local bands to join either, really.

Anyways, my big thing is that I would like to play (even if just to myself) solo-ish stuff that isn't just a bass line I learned from a song I heard. Now, in no way do I ever expect myself to be able to play like Victor Wooten, and I'm sure it's naive to ask, but I was wondering if anyone out there could enlighten me as to how (or at least some tips of) how Victor Wooten does what he does. I guess that the biggest thing would be his "double thumbing," I think. Two-hand tapping too. I mean, he's just flat-out good, so there's no "one" thing. But, those two elude me. Is a certain bass setup also helpful/essential to doing either of these proficiently? Surely, though, it is the player, not the bass that makes all the difference.

-Nick, the naive high-school senior bass player in Tampa

[Wrong Robot]

Nothing is impossible.

Vic's primary technique is (as you mentioned) "double thump" or double thumb. Slap a note but instead of bouncing off the string go through it then come back up with your thumb to pluck it again.

I recommend getting the DVD "Victor Wooten:live at bass day '98" He goes over double thumb pretty extensively in it. He also is very proficient at tapping and fingerstyle playing, which he talks about on the DVD as well.

Vic's basses have VERY low action and he uses VERY light gauge strings(.040-.090), but that doesn't mean you can't do what he does with High action and heavy strings

Don't get discouraged because it sounds impossible, I never thought I would ever learn "classical thump" but after plugging away at it for a coupel weeks I now have it down pretty well(good enough for me





some webpages of interest:

Some of vic's tech. and ideas:
http://www.victorwooten.com/lessons.htm

This guy has videos of double thumb, and stringed triplets:
http://www.welcome.to/vadimhandmadebasses

Live at Bass Day dvd(to purchase):
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...44842?v=glance

Live at Bass Day DVD transcriptions:
http://www.hudsonmusic.com/transcripsWootBD98.html


Hope this helps some, Also you may want to do a search on this forum, as the topic has been discussed before.


Welcome to talkbass!
hope you enjoy

-Wr

[amac]

I second getting Victor's Bass Day '98 DVD. Good lessons, great footage, and nice info on Vic's influences. Plus, you get to see/hear vic's oldest brother, Regi "the teacha" Wooten, and Oteil Burbridge.