The nuance of plucking and thumping is what I'm trying to sort out now. Mechanically I don't have any issues from being ABLE to do it in different ways. I'm just not sure what works best for different sounds yet- COUPLED with the EQ/voicing issues. To use thumping as an example; I can thump INTO the string, I can thump THRU the string, I can thump heavy, light, rebound (or not) and any manner. Slapping happens so fast and in such a smaller space that it is diffcult to read what others are doing. How hard do you thump? Light or heavy? Where is the best place on the strings to do either?
And then I'm watching Cooper and I noticed something: Most tutorials provide the example of rotation from forearm as if you're "opening a door knob". But to watch Cooper do it, he does that rotation on the thump, but then he does a lifting away as he plucks... and I can see that's both fast and effective....[if I may digress for a moment]...
FWIW I am a Level III certified ski instructor. I took the Level III exam SIX TIMES and failed five of them. Why? BECAUSE THE COACHES WERE INSTRUCTING ME ONE WAY AND DEMONSTRATING IT ANOTHER. And somehow they never spotted my bad mechanics, causing me to fail the exam. One day an examiner coach that we visited in another division straight up showed me how I was doing it wrong and how they were teaching it wrong... I practiced, went to the next exam and passed without a sweat. BTW... These were 3 day exams! Since then having passed the test I was free to teach as I like and pretty much "re-wrote the book" (for myself and students). [OK, I'm done digressing... back to bass].
It's probably time to go take some bass lessons.
I take your point. Unfortunately we talk about slap as if it's one consistent technique, but it's not. If you look at a player like Victor Wooten and break down what he is doing, it's actually integrating several discrete techniques into one fluid style. Of course Victor is a bit of a freak and quite exceptional...even if some people think what he does with slap equates to noisy wankery. FYI I think he is incredibly musical.
Ultimately I think you will find that you will learn different aspects of playing from different people, but come to your own unique way of doing things. Part of this is because we think a bit different and have a bit different physiology, so what works for one person may not work for the next.
If you study for an extended time, it's likely that you will need to find different instructors to learn different aspects of playing; unless of course, you find someone who is truly a master who you really click with. I believe both Victor Wooten and Bill Dickens have some decent and relevant instructional material on YouTube. I have studied some of it in the past.
I am by no means a slap monster. Single thumb slap and pull offs with index and ring fingers came naturally to me, but this technique has some pretty severe technical limits. I have since studied using left and right muting and ghost notes to make percussive sounds; double thumb; and flamenco style plucking and pops that uses thumb, index, middle and ring finger. IMHO it's a bit tricky to effectively integrate all of these techniques into one fluid style because they require different hand positions and shapes, and also different ways of anchoring the hand. I haven't figured it all out, but I can do some cool stuff.
I think what most separates my level of competence from someone like Victor Wooten or Bill Dickens is discipline and level of obsession. Especially with Bill Dickens I get the feeling that he will practice something until his fingers are literally bleeding, and then practice some more. I don't have a long enough attention span to practice like this. Between the two, IMHO Victor is the more musical player, but Bill is an absolute beast. I actually feel like a lot of Victor's playing builds on what Stanley Clarke did.
. Mostly musical theater and worship (not gospel, sadly... love that stuff).
