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In Defense of Slapping
- Thread starter Bassist4Eris
- Start date
I started this thread almost 10 years ago, back when I was still young enough to think my opinions mattered. At this point, I can't imagine why someone would waste one iota of time or energy arguing about this one way or the other.
Thumpin and poppin was what Larry Graham called his technique. It's more organic and more musical.
I don't expect slap fans to agree, but I equate modern with the likes of Mark King. Which IMO is a more technical exercise.
Threads are conversations. Just chatting is a great way to "waste" time, and maybe learn stuff in the process.
Well, those two terms are used interchangeably (is that even a real word?) quite frequently.
I like the term thumping and plucking more, because I'm a fan of Graham, but that doesn't really mean much tbh.
I pretty much love Les Claypools style. I think it fits the power trio very well to have such busy lines. But they're usually very repetitive and digestible. Even stuff like Tommy the Cat, which seems very fancy and busy to many none musicians, is really just a fast simple line. And much more in the vein of Larry Graham, because he uses alot of deadnotes.
Mordern slap is often more just a bunch of quick notes and patterns. When you start jumping around like many people like to do, then I'll get annoyed too.
The conventional term amongst musicians and the public is slapping and popping.
Larry Graham invented the technique and that's not what he calls it.
Graham calls it thumping and plucking.
Interview: Larry Graham - Sheer Energy
Personally, I don't care for the term "slapping", but I'm not about to lose any sleep over people calling it that.
I admit the "slappa da bass" from I Love You, Man annoyed me and is part of the reason I don't care for the term.
I generally call it thumping in deference to Graham.
No conversation on a message board is necessary or original.
Every topic here has been discussed to death before.
People like to exchange ideas based on shared interests, so here we are.
Personally, I'm not trying to "argue" with anyone about anything.
But I do wonder where all of the anger comes from.
I knew there were snobs who think slap is a parlor trick, doesn't require musicality, and is low brow (all wrong, BTW).
But I had no idea that that some dudes blood pressure rises just from mentioning slapping.
So much so that they come into a thread about about slapping, piss and moan, hurl insults, then claim to not care.
It's immature, insane, and hilarious all at the same time.
I'm not a fan of playing bass with a pick.
I can see the benefit in doing it (watching Bobby Vega will do that to you), so I learned how even though I rarely use the technique.
When I see the pick come out in a bass demo video, I don't freak out. I just skip that part.
I don't feel the need to berate those who choose to play bass with a pick.
I don't see why people can't live and let live.
No matter with he calls it, what Larry Graham did/does is slapping. What Mark King or Marcus Miller or Victor Wooten etc. do is also called slapping. It's just an evolution of the same technique. So each player sounds different and each adds their own thing to it, but the technique is called slapping or slap bass for all of them.
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