Hi ,
well, it's not slap bass - to play slap bass and keys at the same time, he'd have to switch round which hand he was playing which instrument with, and only play open strings. He's tapping notes to get the line on the bass.
It's a pretty cool party trick, and if he's happy with the music at the end of it, then that's fantastic. There's a guy in LA called Scott Brannon who plays kit and bass at the same time, and makes a great sound - seems to work well being the whole rhythm section in one.
For me, the down side would be the same as I see with playing Chapman Stick, you're much more limited in terms of the kind of attack you can get if the only way of starting the note is to tap it. Right hand articulation is so central to the way I conceive of the sound of my bass, that the idea of removing it completely baffles me.
But, as I said above, it's all about whether the technique produces the music he wants to hear - if it does, then it's a success, and he's hit on a great way of getting his music out there and hopefully get paid double scale for holding down the bass and keyboard chairs in the band...
Steve
www.stevelawson.net
