Flea Style Slaping

[bassit]

I am watching flea's slaping Vedio. and try to play the bass
like him. and It is easy to maste the Slap of E string, but it
is very difficult to Slap A string, beacause when you Slap A
string, you have to keep away from E string,obviously,that
isn't so easy to keep E string slience when you "click" A string.
Anyone use Flea style Slaping can help me to avoid this?
I think the Slaping-thumb is down towards ( not like the up
or direct towards ), so it makes me fuzzy that how to slap
A string. Thank you in advance!

 

[JimmyM]

Just takes practice and better aim.

 

[Gomex]

I used to slap like flea does, with your thumb bouncing off the strings, I always just muted the strings that I wasn't playing with the palm of my right hand. A bit of a suggestion though if you really want to progress with your slapping you should swith to the thumb through the string method, in my opinion it gives better tone and accuracy

 

[popinfresh]

I really suggest using your wrist and making your thumb as parallel with the strings as possible.

Even better is to slap through the string and land on the string below.

No offence to the man, but flea doesn't have a great slap technique.

 

[JimmyM]

He's the first to admit it, too. Got to respect that. Hey, when we get that good, we can call him on it

 

[Chili]

what i do, i took this tip off louis johnson but Flea also does it, when ur playing in another key from E, always have ur left hand thumb archered over the top of the neck, so ur always have the e string in mute, there for if u accedently hit the E string it will just sound as a mute, it werks very well for me, but when ur playing on the A string it means u have to bring ur fingers round more but once u get used to that you will be sorted, Also remember Practice at it and you'll get it in ur own way eventually

 

[Sonic_Death]

As said before, it really is just practice. Instead of trying to think of a way to mute the other strings, just work on your accuracy and you should be fine. God knows I had my difficulty in the beginning, but I think I turned out allright

 

[Aj*]

Yeah in the long term it's better to work on accuracy, after a few months practice I can get a good slap on the A without hitting the E, the E still sounds better but there's plenty of time left to work on the A.

 

[Chili]

If u think playing in A is hard, its very very awkward slaping the D string, but once u get it, It come sin very handy (for me anyway) and makes slap pop sound alot slicker, but yeah, just practice at it, and u will most deffinitly get it eventually

 

[lethifold]

It doesn't take long to learn to slap like Flea. It's just sometimes he has obscure rhythm. He doesn't have a fantastic slap technique, but his slap does usually sound cool. I found that a good way to sound like flea is practise hammering drunk beats with mutes notes with your thumb on the E/A string and popping finger on G/D. Just my thoughts

Anyway, his slap technique is by no means his best skill

 

[Collin.A]

I would say first things first...Work on getting a perfect slap technique down. Use your wrist and bring your thumb down and through the string until it plants on the one bellow. Once you have that down with good accuracy and speed then you can try to imitate flea’s slapping style.

 

[burntgorilla]

If u think playing in A is hard, its very very awkward slaping the D string, but once u get it, It come sin very handy (for me anyway) and makes slap pop sound alot slicker, but yeah, just practice at it, and u will most deffinitly get it eventually

I never thought it was really harder to slap the D than the A, though I did think E was easiest. Try looking in a mirror and checking your thumb is parallel, it's kind of hard to tell sometimes from looking down at your hand.

By the way, playing on the A string doesn't necessarily mean you're playing in the key of A.

 

[Chili]

I never thought it was really harder to slap the D than the A, though I did think E was easiest. Try looking in a mirror and checking your thumb is parallel, it's kind of hard to tell sometimes from looking down at your hand.

By the way, playing on the A string doesn't necessarily mean you're playing in the key of A.

i was used to poping the D string and i got confused when i was learning to slap it aswell, i would always go for a pop

i never sed that If u play on the A string it alwasy means u in the key of A

 

[geoffkhan]

The trick to slap the A string is to mute the lower strings with the base of your slapping thumb. Also when you fret a note, let your fretting finger hold the side of the lower string to mute it, too.