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Non-Slapsters Out there?

#104
sturmvogel said:
Greetings---

It seems that everybody is slapping and popping out there. I go to a music store to try out a few basses, and all I hear is----slapping and popping. Youtube videos---slapping and popping. Questions of technique usually center on---slapping and popping. Discussions about various basses usually have someone asking if it is good for----slapping and popping. I mean, it is an interesting technique, but it seems greatly overdone these days.

Is there anyone out there that likes to work a counter-melody now and again? I am curious about how someone likes to work a line without---slapping and popping. I'd like to hear your approach to bass---what you feel is the function of bass in an ensemble---and other such ideas. I suppose you could call it a sort of philosophy of bass.
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I can't slap or pop to save my life. I'm a finger plucker and I'm fine wid it. :p
 
#105
OK---for the slapsters and non-slapsters alike, I am curious what you see the role/function of the bass guitar within an ensemble and how you go about fulfilling that role. If you want to comment about different roles under different styles of music or some sort of universal role, please comment. This is a sort of philosophy sort of question---in other words, I am curious about your intellectual/emotional foundations of bass technique rather than the mechanics of the technique.
 
#106
For me the bass is the connection between the melody and the rhythm (nothing new there). I like:

- fluent walking lines
- melodic approaches
- finger style funk
- players who know how the "play" the spaces

Songs in which the bass line is unmelodic and/or all slap give me zero inspiration. I've also never been into metal.
 
#108
tranceFusion said:
I find that most of the time when people say "I like the beat in that song" they really mean they like the bass line.
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I never thought of that---seems like most people are completely unaware of bass playing unless the 30db range is really strong. Then you get, "I could really FEEL the bass."

I have always felt the function of the bass was the bridge between the pure melody of the guitar and the pure rhythm of the drums.
 
#109
sturmvogel said:
OK---for the slapsters and non-slapsters alike, I am curious what you see the role/function of the bass guitar within an ensemble and how you go about fulfilling that role. If you want to comment about different roles under different styles of music or some sort of universal role, please comment. This is a sort of philosophy sort of question---in other words, I am curious about your intellectual/emotional foundations of bass technique rather than the mechanics of the technique.
Click to expand...

Personally, I don't think the particular style you use has much to do with the bass's role.

I.e. in a supporting role, slap and fingerstyle work fine, i.e. listen to Louis Johnson, he holds the band together like glue when he's playing in a support role just as good as Carole Kaye does in her playing.

But in a lead role, LJ and, say, Billy Sheehan are still stepping out into a lead/melodic role just the same. LJ may choose a slap solo but BS may use only finger style.

I've never understood the hatred of slap among the naysayers. If I could play slap, you bet I would when it's called for by the style of song. Same with pickstyle - I don't see where the "pshaw" on it comes from.

Probably because the naysayers can't play either. I can't play slap or with a pick, but I don't fault it. It's like I heard Steve Bailey say once, any exploration of the instrument is valuable......

LS
 
#110
Im busy practising at the moment on my slap and pop, but im very poor at slapping the A string because i find it difficult to slap parallel to the strings, so i play perpendicular to the strings and cant hit the A string without hitting the lower string with the part of my hand below the thumb. I can never see myself veing able to get out of this so im accepting the fact that i can only slap the lowest string :) im fine with popping though.

And as for all these mentions to flea, only in his early days did he slap like a monster, if any of you actually listen to the RHCP nowadays, you will realise hes much more of a finger style player, and great at it, and when he does use slap and pop, its to a bare minimum and fits with the rythm of the song. Check out the songs Cant stop, so much i, torture me and Around the World.
 
#111
Back in the mid 70's I played in a casino band with a very talented trombone player. The guy practiced all the time. And through years of diligent work he became able to contort his embouchure in such a way that he could make a variety of incredibly authentic fart noises with his trombone. Everything from a soft little squeaker to a big raspy boomer like you'd hear in a Denny's restroom when they were running the baked bean and cornbread lunch special. He would occasionally let out a little fart noise during the comedy routines whenever a joke bombed. Then he started making the noises during the musical numbers whever there was a break in the horn parts. Everybody in the band had to fight to keep from cracking up. But after the second night of this he was let go. Whenever I hear slap bass it reminds me of those fart noises coming out of his trombone. Slapping and popping adds as much to the music as a trombone fart. But of course that's just my personal opinion. Apparently most people love hearing those sort of noises coming out of a bass. But to me it's like fingernails being scraped down a blackboard.........and about as useful as a trombone fart. :)
 
#112
With gospel and P&W the bass holds everything down. We tend to play with a little more liberty than most other genre's. Bassists use more fills and the bass is usually up in the mix on these recordings. I still treat the bass as the bridge between melody and rhythm. We help the drummer keep the time and the melody makers ride our notes. The technique you use is the preference of the player and what fits the song.

Unless you are to old and closed minded to see any other style as valid unless it is the one you prefer.:D:hiding:
 
#113
mart356 said:
Im busy practising at the moment on my slap and pop, but im very poor at slapping the A string because i find it difficult to slap parallel to the strings, so i play perpendicular to the strings and cant hit the A string without hitting the lower string with the part of my hand below the thumb. I can never see myself veing able to get out of this so im accepting the fact that i can only slap the lowest string :) im fine with popping though.
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I struggle with this same thing and it is the reason that I feel that there is not a single best technique for slapping. Maybe someone can prove me wrong, but I haven't found it (though I think what you are calling parallel is what I call perpendicular).

There are two ways I combat this problem.. One is to use the technique that I find to give a better tone (thumb perpendicular), and use my fretting hand to mute the E string. The other is to adjust how I am wearing my bass. If the neck is at the right angle, my thumb can be mostly parallel to the strings but the fat part below my thumb will be to the side of the string.
 
#114
I enjoy and respect allot of bassist that use slapping as a technique in there music. I can't really say i'm not one of those guys you'll find at guitar center slapping away on a hot lil fender because on occasions I am that guy lol. But I think having a knowledge on a wide variety of techniques is not such a terrible idea and slapping is a just one of those things I caught house hold names doing like victor wooten, louis johnson and the whole crew of those bassist doing. In my opinion I find it a really fun technique to build rythems and bass lines with but then again so is all the other techniques out there. So thats my little spiel on the topic of slapping and popping and such and a merry christmas to all and a happy new year.
 
#115
I think of bass as the link between rhythm and HARMONY personally. Both Ron Carter and Mike Watt essentially said the same thing, which is if you isolate the bass, you should still be able to hear what song is being played. I also like Watt's philosophy of the bass player "Hollerin' and steerin' the boat".

I'm not as big a fan of the Wooten double-thumb/early Flea wank-fests. I'm more into slappers who really move a song along like Larry Graham, Marcus in a side-man role or "Ready" Freddie Washington on Patrice Rushen's "Forget-Me-Nots". I also prefer a slap tone that is more "oomph" than "boink". I like to think of a slapped bass as another percussion instrument.
 
#116
You know.

It's cool if a lot you don't like slapping and popping, it's just a technique you don't have to like it. Though..When you say its not very musical and just annoying, that's mainly because a huge percentage of people just try to go fast.

There's a lot of ways slapping and popping can incorporate Melody and rhythm at the same time.

Who doesn't like a groovy Melody? Slapping can be very melodic, check out, oh I don't know, Marcus Miller lol.

I like to slap and pop with Harmonics. But yea those fast poppers in music stores make me go ugh.
 
#117
JB696 said:
Back in the mid 70's I played in a casino band with a very talented trombone player. The guy practiced all the time. And through years of diligent work he became able to contort his embouchure in such a way that he could make a variety of incredibly authentic fart noises with his trombone. Everything from a soft little squeaker to a big raspy boomer like you'd hear in a Denny's restroom when they were running the baked bean and cornbread lunch special. He would occasionally let out a little fart noise during the comedy routines whenever a joke bombed. Then he started making the noises during the musical numbers whever there was a break in the horn parts. Everybody in the band had to fight to keep from cracking up. But after the second night of this he was let go. Whenever I hear slap bass it reminds me of those fart noises coming out of his trombone. Slapping and popping adds as much to the music as a trombone fart. But of course that's just my personal opinion. Apparently most people love hearing those sort of noises coming out of a bass. But to me it's like fingernails being scraped down a blackboard.........and about as useful as a trombone fart. :)
Click to expand...
I laughed for about 10 minutes after reading this. I like to play pick style but switch to fingers for the songs that require it. Sometimes while playing with a pick I'll use my ring finger to do a pop, but that's about the farthest I'll get. And yes, Slap = Trombone Fart.
 
#119
I like slapping and popping. I can and occasionally do slap and pop.

That said, when I go to the bass section of one of my local unnamed guitar mega-stores all I hear are seemingly random harmonic buzzes produced by the percussive sound of bass strings bouncing off fret boards. It makes it seems as if slapping and popping is all anyone plays when they are testing a bass or amp or whatever in one of these places. It is a bit distracting.

I am actually surprised to read that some of you don’t hear much slapping and popping these days; we must be going to different unnamed guitar mega-stores.
 
#120
i dont like slap, i also dont like idiots who think slap is all complex bass can be. thats my philosophy on slap. i approch the bass with rhythm in mind. since i listen to alot of progressive/ metal stuff my compositions are often on the more technical side of things but that doesnt mean i dont love playing blues and motown. besides "finger funk" sounds better IMO.
 

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