Is slap necessary for me?

[Clef_de_fa]

Here is an exemple of slap in a metal setting

 

[casbonano]

I've never found "slap" to sound very musical. Just my opinion of course, and obviously, yes, it does take skill. It just annoys me when I hear it. Sort of like the harpischord. I just really dislike it.

From time to time I might slap a note or two in a particular song or passage, but as an accent. An even then its rare. But the whole slapity-slapity pop thing just turns me off.

So no. Please feel free to not learn slap.

PLus there's nothing like going to guitar center or any given instrument shop only to be bombarded with what i like to call "showroom-slap"

 

[Jrussblues]

Yeah, except every how to slap video I've ever seen shows the right thumb bent back at almost a 90 degree angle, creating a nice big round bump on the side of the knuckle. Mine doesn't bend at all past dead straight. I still haven't seen a slap video that was slow motion enough for me to understand what's actually going on - anyone know of good examples?

The thumb bent back thing is because the idea is your knuckle needs to be rigid when it strikes the string. It does not. I play slap with my thumb rigid, neutral and sometimes bent slightly forward. It just depends on what is needed from the rest of my fingers for what I'm playing. The only real somewhat constant is that you are attempting to get the strings to hit the fret or fretboard to change the way the attack sounds. The specific approach comes down to what work for you.

 

[PauFerro]

It depends on the style of music you want to play. Some styles don't require it (like Motown, or classic rock). Jazz doesn't either unless you go smooth with it. And even then, I play in a smooth jazz and and I rarely ever slap unless playing a Marcus Miller tune. And even then, I do it in my own style and get no complaints.

Now, if you want a full schedule playing everything under the sun, I would learn to slap so you can get the gigs the other cats can't.

 

[Hounddog409]

Hello all. I play bass more then 10 years but I practice seriously for 2 years.

I play with two metal bands that include covers from heavy metal to progressive. I play Iron maiden to Dream Theater to Death etc. And I have 2 hours practice routine for weekdays and 4-5 hours for weekends. But routine does not include any slap practices because I don't need slap for our genre.

when I talk with other bass players, they measure my qualification with slap playing and most of them are amazed when they hear I don't play slap also one of my guitarist too( we play death metal and he knows there is no place for slap). I don't have any motivation to practice slap because I have lots of to do with finger style - fast plucking, shredding, tapping, fretless playing etc. Do I miss something without slap? Maybe practicing slap improve other bass technics too, I don'n know? Should I stoop over to slap?

people who base your playing on slap and slap only are idiots. I do not slap - I HATE the way it sounds. Plus I have no need to learn in my current band.
You are missing nothing.

 

[Alex O]

Hello all. I play bass more then 10 years but I practice seriously for 2 years.

I play with two metal bands that include covers from heavy metal to progressive. I play Iron maiden to Dream Theater to Death etc. And I have 2 hours practice routine for weekdays and 4-5 hours for weekends. But routine does not include any slap practices because I don't need slap for our genre.

when I talk with other bass players, they measure my qualification with slap playing and most of them are amazed when they hear I don't play slap also one of my guitarist too( we play death metal and he knows there is no place for slap). I don't have any motivation to practice slap because I have lots of to do with finger style - fast plucking, shredding, tapping, fretless playing etc. Do I miss something without slap? Maybe practicing slap improve other bass technics too, I don'n know? Should I stoop over to slap?

I find slap can be very expressive in extreme metal genres. Matched with some suitable compression you can get some percussive sound that not even a pick could match. While Death, DT, and Maiden don't slap, it's a technique that is becoming more experimented with in the genre. Who knows: perhaps the next classic DM band could be ripe with slap, and the practice you put in now could put be all it takes to master those sounds while they are current!

Or just do what you feel is most fun and musical. That's the most important place for slap.

 

[jalapejoe]

Its taken me a very long time to get the whole slap thing down and I am still not that fluid with it, some of us can just do it some either cant or never master it. I am one of those who will never master it but try damn hard to get it down. I hear these cats that just do it so fluidly, I cant and probably never will but oh well don't use it all in my 80s-90s hard rock band and frankly none of my band mates aren't into it at all, they just look at me like "ok shut up now" so. We are all in our mid 40s and 50s...

One thing I would like to add for about 15 years I slapped with thumb aiming downward like flea, robert trijillo etc. I like Marcus Miller and that slap style so after 15 years I changed my style to the thumb more parallel technique and double thumb. Been at the new technique for about a year now and its like I started over now I am not a proficient as I was with the old slap style. But oh well its a much better technique, faster more versatility wish I had did this style from the beginning.

 

[buldog5151bass]

Playing in the pocket and grooving with a drummer will get you gigs. Slapping likely won't, especially with what you are playing. Learn the technique if it interests you.

 

[Aidenn7]

Try it you might like it. seriously. this is my idea of things to remember move at the forearm - elbow not the wrist. a hair tie on the neck cleans up your sound. turn down the volume on your bass. cause you can clip your amp easily. move through string. don't worry about string rattle or fret buzz. low string height has that effect. if you like distorted slap simply down tune. if you want overdrive a clean boost or eq pedal is better than a Distortion in a lot bands Distortion will muddy up your sound, because the guitars are distorted too. upper mids and lower mids. are better than direct mids. basically where 60 cycle hum. but clackyness is half the swank for funk. for metal you'll playing more percussiveness than swank.. remember there are no rules. try these things if you want. they might work for it might not. Have Fun!!

 

[jalapejoe]

I'm terrible at it. It's fun for ten minutes, but for what I play it's rarely musical.
I'd say a lot of bass players don't 'need' to slap. Especially metal players.
If you go to a NAMM show, all you can hear coming from booths with basses is, "clickity, clickity, chang, chang, clickity."
Strangely, most popular music doesn't sound like that.

Nothing against it. I just don't see it as a necessity.

I think its just a technique for us bass players to show off like guitarists doing ripping solos. I wish I was better at showing off (better at slap).

 

[elgranluis]

It is great to learn stuff that youll never need. Right now i enrolled in college again for a degree in upright bass (this is after a degree in engineering and quite a few years of working as an engineer).

I do not have any realistic expectations of working as a full time upright bassist. However, I do expect to get my degree in upright bass performance.

I'm doing this for me (soul food) I guess my point is, if your music doesn't require slap, it's really up to you if you want to learn it - you'll never use it but you'll know its there.

 

[elgranluis]

Btw, I only ever slap for covers that require it. I think people judge bassists with slap because of how the notes easier to understand.

Ever heard the original jack chromatic fantasy recording? You can barely hear it...

 

[Admiral Akbar]

I read Anthony Jackson once referred to slap as "grooveless clap-trap."

And Jeff Berlin stated, "no one ever gets hired to slap."

That said, whether you elect to use it in your own music, it's probably good to have some familiarity with the technique and it's application. If nothing else, it's kind of a way of playing bass that shows off its role as a percussive instrument really well.

 

[ray fan]

Many answer, few are actually called. In reality, not really.

 

[Batmensch]

Slap is not NECESSARY for anything if you don't want to use it. Don't force yourself to learn it simply because some unimaginative bassists say you should.

Nobody I really admire as a bass player slaps. At all. Sounds like you don't feel you have a reason to besides to placate some people with a misguided sense of what bass does most of the time in most genres.

The thing is, if you watch YouTube videos, that's what you would think, that slap is the only way to play. I remember checking out a bunch of demo vids for the Squier 70's VM Jazz, before I bought one, and after watching about a dozen of them, only ONE didn't slap, and did a proper demo of the bass's capabilities. Which, BTW, solidified my desire to buy one. All the others were useless as demos because all they were doing was showing off.

 

[el_cody_loco]

I'm with a lot of others here. Everybody should try to pick it up at some point, just so that you have another tool in your toolbox. You may be in a band that incorporates it later on, or your band may write a song that could use a little of it here and there. When the time comes to use it, it's good to know how to use it tastefully.

 

[someguyfromNC]

While not needed I do think a nice slap or a pop is a nice change of pace on certain breakdowns or parts where the bass sort of goes out and comes back in with a drum fill (or whatever). Unless its just a slap happy song by Flea or Thunder Thumbs... you should be alright. Especially I metal.

For metal I'd probably spend more time practicing pick and fingerstyle at different spots and work on right hand dynamics.

If you are set on learning it though Flea has a GREAT beginner slap video on youtube.

 

[TrevorOfDoom]

Nope.
I can't slap and i've never lost a gig because of it, nor have I even been asked to do it for a gig.
These days slapping seems mostly for Youtube.
I know it has a time and place, but 15 yrs in, I still haven't found it.

 

[okcrum]

It depends on the style of music you want to play. Some styles don't require it (like Motown, or classic rock). Jazz doesn't either unless you go smooth with it. And even then, I play in a smooth jazz and and I rarely ever slap unless playing a Marcus Miller tune. And even then, I do it in my own style and get no complaints.

Now, if you want a full schedule playing everything under the sun, I would learn to slap so you can get the gigs the other cats can't.

Agreed. If you play contemporary funk, you'd better slap. It pops up in other places, too.

Slap is kind of like sight reading. You may not need it often, but when you do, you really do. So it's nice to have in the toolbox, along with thumb, fingers, pick, as Bobby Vega says.

 

[MojoPenguin]

It's always useful to know Slap, but don't expect to use it much in band context. It's just another tool.