A Nice Clean Slap

[ZachOrem]

Alright guys; I'm learning to slap and pop. It's going well. My accuracy has been improving quickly, and I'm speeding up, but now I need your help.

My problem is in muting the strings. I'm finding it absurdly difficult (the 'E' string in particular) to keep the sound clean. I've been told that I'll tighten it up as I gain accuracy - and I can see how that might be true, but after watching videos of veteran slappers I think I need to change how I'm fretting the instrument.

So how do you do it? Do you keep a finger on each string with your fretting hand to mute, fretting only when a sound is desired? If so, how do you keep the lower strings mute when playing the higher strings? I'm at an indecision here. Please, somebody help me out.

 

[ridgeback]

everyone does it different..maybe instead of working on getting faster, slow it down and work on the muting,you have to find your own way that comes natural to you..start slow and steady and the speed will come,some take to slap really easy some need to work hard at it,i know i did..there are so many styles of slap out there have a look here ..
thomas is a good teacher and makes things easy to understand..

 

[millsbass5]

Although Marlow's vids are pretty darn good,this vid shows so much more about a clean slap technique......






You're welcome.

 

[BassBerg]

everyone does it different..maybe instead of working on getting faster, slow it down and work on the muting,you have to find your own way that comes natural to you..start slow and steady and the speed will come,some take to slap really easy some need to work hard at it,i know i did..there are so many styles of slap out there have a look here ..
thomas is a good teacher and makes things easy to understand..

Thank you for posting that linc. I've all but gave up on trying to teach an old dog new tricks. This sheads some much needed light on Slapping.

 

[guitardefector]

Although Marlow's vids are pretty darn good,this vid shows so much more about a clean slap technique......