Hi I am basically (No pun intended!) a jazz player--getting into slap style. I can single slap / double slap / triple slap / quadruple slap- but find it hard to mix the slaps and mixing the slap style into 4/4 walking jazz bass style. Any tips? --apart from 'more practice!' Joe Fick is such an amazing player. Any exercises out there?
I just play songs real slowly at first with a metronome then speed up. I only use slapping on scales to warm up because there is so much more random string hopping during a song. Stray cat strut is a nice one to mix a lot of slaps with. I'd never go as nutty playing it live as I do when I'm at home but the note layout is nice for mixing up different slaps (IMO)
Little hijack for a related question. I’m working on doubles with Pete Turland’s video as my guide. We ‘re not really a rockabilly, but for some tunes I’m pushing it along / injecting a little slap, though it’s more like a hard ‘pat’ yielding a soft clack. I realize I’ve been fudging a double and I wonder if my “technique” has a name. With apologies for making up my own symbols (help me out if there are more standard ways)... One of our tunes has A-E-A-E sequence on the G and D strings, and it might call for A || E | A || E | (Where “|” = “slap”) But I play A |x\ E | A |x\ E | Where “x” is a muted A And “\” is the rake down to the E. Or maybe in words: A - slap - MuteRake - E - slap A - slap - MuteRake - E - slap So the MuteRake replaces a slap. Does this have a name? Can you point me to a YouTube where I can watch someone else? Thanks!
By "Mute Rake" are you saying that you hit with the heel of your hand first due to trying to go fast? Does it sound like "A and a E and A and a E"? Or "A and then a E and A and then a E" Without a soundclip, I can only guess that you're doing a sort of triplet (like a heel drag or drag triplet) from the description. It goes Heel, fingertip, Pull --
Think beat by beat at first. Go real slow over a blues using alternating a single slap with a double for a chorus, then the next chorus alternating a single with a triple, then another chorus alternating a double with a triple, etc. Of course, listening to Milt Hinton, Steve Brown, Welman Braud, and Bill Johnson helps.