Slap Bass Orgins Argument

[friendlybass]

Its always reminded me of that guitar technique where they pull the strings off the board to get that super twang sound. Been a thing since the turn of the century if my understanding of blues can be trusted. Imma say several early guys were probably inventing it at similar times. Meh, at the end of the day the kids will still think modern slap shredding is funk and led zeppelin is a new band

 

[Rocktometrist]

Lol! I thought Al Gore invented Slap!

No he invented the internet.

I'll just leave this here: snopes.com: Did Al Gore Claim He Invented the Internet?

 

[St. Louis Scot]

Here's how Larry tells it:

 

[Roy Vogt]

Milt Hinton famously played Slap Style with Cab Calloway:

 

[ahc]

I have a bass only version of Stevie Wonders "I Was Made To Love Her" where Jamerson was playing bass and at the very end of the song Jamerson is slapping the bass in a funk style groove.

Please post this!!

 

[Kmonk]

I would say that slapping an upright is not at all the same thing as slapping an electric - different hand movements entirely, I would think. Larry Graham is believed to have invented the electric slapping technique using the thumb. Upright slap, as I understand it, or at least the rockabilly version, involves the fingers and palm in an open handed slap on the fingerboard, followed by popping pulls with the fingers and thumb - there is some similarity, but different beasts, in my understanding.

I don't think a specific technique defines what slap is or isn't. In my opinion, slap originated with upright players. Once amplification and electric basses were developed, players started using more of a finger and/or pick style. Slap on an electric bass may be relatively new compared to how long bass (acoustic or otherwise) has been around, but bassists were slapping long before Larry Graham did it on an electric bass.

 

[Roy Vogt]

I have a bass only version of Stevie Wonders "I Was Made To Love Her" where Jamerson was playing bass and at the very end of the song Jamerson is slapping the bass in a funk style groove.

That's Marcus Miller's track from the Book/CD series Standing in the Shadows of Motown. Marcus starts out playing conventional fingerstyle and then eases into the typical Marcus Miller "slap".
Whoops! Someone beat me to that. I guess I'll forward it to the Department of Redundancy Department.

 

[Mugre]

I do understand that the techiques differ but Guitar Playing orginated from acoustic guitar double bass to electric etc...John Bohnam took triple beats from Big Band made them independent and different but the orgins lay with big band drummer and its what i was trying to tell my dad

OMG, Triplets are WAY older than swing and almost everything JB does, I mean did, with triplets he stole from B. Purdie and Cozy Cole. The Yoruba tradition was doing stuff with 3 and 3 against 4 that would have blown all three of their minds a couple of hundred years ago.

 

[Sav'nBass]

Regardless to what anyone says for all intents and purposes Larry Graham if not invented slap on electric bass brought it to the world.. Without his slap Sly and the Family Stone never would have been what they were and bass as we know it today would not have the same history. Given the nature of creativity it is very likely that someone else would have done it.. had he not done it but that is not how it happened.. It is what it is... and it's all good as far as I can see...

 

[I Need a six...]

Hello TB So me (bassist) and my father (Drummer) where listening to Larry Graham when the discussion of the true orgins of slap bass. I told him that It was originally a way for double Bass players to be heard over the band before electric basses he proceeded to tell me I didnt know what I was talking bout saying it didnt come around till the 70s... does anyone know a song from the Swing/Jazz era that clearly shows the orgins of slap bass need talkbass help

Not exactly that era, but charlie feathers "get with it" was mid 50's. And he even used the term "slap the bass" hard to dispute that.

 

[Gaolee]

I suck at slap, both on the upright and on the electric. They are very different techniques.

 

[aesopslyre]

The style may go back a lot further than the advent of the double bass:

 

[FronTowardEnemy]

Please post this!!

I downloaded it of napster way back. Apparently it was Marcus! Never knew that until right now. For years I thought it was Jamerson. Funny

 

[ahc]

I downloaded it of napster way back. Apparently it was Marcus! Never knew that until right now. For years I thought it was Jamerson. Funny

Oh well.

 

[chuck3]

The style may go back a lot further than the advent of the double bass:

that is some excellent stuff. Is that a 2-string bass? Maybe we should all take a lesson.

 

[aesopslyre]

It is a guembri, or sintir... Read about it here:
Sintir - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Arthur U. Poon]

Along with Larry Graham being a pioneer of Slap Bass, Louis Johnson's (RIP) name also gets brought up frequently with the older bass players I know.

 

[Alex J]

If anything, Larry Graham and Doug Rauch should also get more credit for being the first on the electric bass to double thumb. They were doing it in 1969!