Slap - Bounce or strike through?

[matti777]

I’ve been playing awhile but never worked on slap much. I really don’t plan on playing too many songs that need it except Peg and Forget Me Nots (Freddie Washington) and a few other 80s songs. I’ve watched a few of Freddie’s videos and see that he bounces. I have a terrible time getting a proper A or G string fretted note. Since I’m going to spend some time learning should I focus on bouncing or strike through. It seems strike through will take a lot of time to master.

 

[TOOL460002]

The only use I have found for the strike through method is double thumbing, and I have to adjust my wrist position. I can do it but the benefit isn't there for me. I slap parallel and the bounce both felt natural and, in the end, is much more efficient. They sound a bit different. If you are going to start with one I'd go bounce and slap parallel. I also believe it is better ergonomics, which, again, adds to efficiency which is speed.

 

[matti777]

The only use I have found for the strike through method is double thumbing, and I have to adjust my wrist position. I can do it but the benefit isn't there for me. I slap parallel and the bounce both felt natural and, in the end, is much more efficient. They sound a bit different. If you are going to start with one I'd go bounce and slap parallel. I also believe it is better ergonomics, which, again, adds to efficiency which is speed.

That would be my preference. It seemed to work for Freddie However, it seems like there is not enough room for the string to vibrate. I've tried it on 4 basses. Some are a bit better than others. There are hundreds of threads and videos but something is not clicking for me....short on talent I guess. I will keep working on it.

 

[Lance Bunyon]

I'm a bouncer. The Victor Wooten Strike Through seems to be beyond me if I want to pop a G string afterwards.

 

[Killing Floor]

I use lively rounds for that, I don’t know what Washington used. I’m sure there are a lot of techniques. They all have benefits. For G in particular I hear you, it takes a while to get that punch off a bouncing thumb edge. Keep working on it. Another thing you can do (I’m thinking of the Rushen song) is pull/pop the lighter string but again the trick in my dumb opinion is still control. You really can’t tell from ear whether a string is thumb struck or popped if the impact is equal. Work on that pop but without brute force.
Whatch… his pull off is really light. His motion is not extreme at all. This is a great groove but on the surface it’s not a difficult one.

 

[matti777]

I use lively rounds for that, I don’t know what Washington used. I’m sure there are a lot of techniques. They all have benefits. For G in particular I hear you, it takes a while to get that punch off a bouncing thumb edge. Keep working on it. Another thing you can do (I’m thinking of the Rushen song) is pull/pop the lighter string but again the trick in my dumb opinion is still control. You really can’t tell from ear whether a string is thumb struck or popped if the impact is equal. Work on that pop but without brute force.
Whatch… his pull off is really light. His motion is not extreme at all. This is a great groove but on the surface it’s not a difficult one.

'on the surface it's not difficult'...yeah that is what I thought when I started out This is one of the videos I have been watching. He has a fairly light touch which I am trying to emulate. I've seen others playing the song successfully with various styles.

 

[Killing Floor]

'on the surface it's not difficult'...yeah that is what I thought when I started out He has a fairly light touch which I am trying to emulate.

Yep. That’s straight up good technique.

 

[InhumanResource]

I’ve been playing awhile but never worked on slap much. I really don’t plan on playing too many songs that need it except Peg and Forget Me Nots (Freddie Washington) and a few other 80s songs. I’ve watched a few of Freddie’s videos and see that he bounces. I have a terrible time getting a proper A or G string fretted note. Since I’m going to spend some time learning should I focus on bouncing or strike through. It seems strike through will take a lot of time to master.

I was taught strike through by a pretty prolific slap player and I feel that is the cleanest, most controllable technique (for me). Try both I guess? Either way it takes a lot of practice to get it right and in time.

 

[Rib 13]

Strike through is actually the first part of Double Thumping. I broke down the mechanics between Double Thumping and Traditional (Bounce) slap in this video

 

[matti777]

Strike through is actually the first part of Double Thumping. I broke down the mechanics between Double Thumping and Traditional (Bounce) slap in this video

Excellent explanation of the mechanics and differences! I really don't plan on getting into double thumping (playing the upstroke) but will experiment more with both. It seems that the learning curve would be steeper with double thumping as you need to be more precise.

 

[sethlow3]

I’ve been playing awhile but never worked on slap much. I really don’t plan on playing too many songs that need it except Peg and Forget Me Nots (Freddie Washington) and a few other 80s songs. I’ve watched a few of Freddie’s videos and see that he bounces. I have a terrible time getting a proper A or G string fretted note. Since I’m going to spend some time learning should I focus on bouncing or strike through. It seems strike through will take a lot of time to master.

I did both strike through and bounce for years, and also had some issues with keeping them quiet.

Since Oct ‘23, I’ve settled back into the Abe Laboriel all plucks technique with thumb and three finger plucks (he uses thumb and two in this vid). For my hands, it allows me to always mute the lower strings. If you use thumb and three fingers, can get nice groups of four, if you use thumb and two fingers, you get groups of three and twos and threes etc… pretty cool and tonally consistent.

He shows how to do this at about 2:30 of this video:

 

[jtg]

That video reminds me I've never seen anyone thump and pop quite like Larry. Sure wish I could. So thick and beefy.

 

[groooooove]

focus on the sound you want, and figure it out from there.

i've taught so many people to slap over the years.

no two are alike.

larry graham, flea, les claypool, stanley clarke, victor, all do it differently in ways that suit them.

i personally find larry's technique a bit underused, which is a shame considering how practical it is.

 

[jerry]

Bouncer!

 

[Rib 13]

focus on the sound you want, and figure it out from there. i've taught so many people to slap over the years.
no two are alike.

larry graham, flea, les claypool, stanley clarke, victor, all do it differently in ways that suit them.

The part in bold^. My video divides Traditional Slap and Double Thumping into two (mainstream) generalities but a lot of guys have their own unique twists on it. At times, Larry Graham himself goes in and out of his own version of Double Thumping before the term "Double Thumping" was even coined

 

[FullumMusic]

Just start with whichever method feels more natural in your hand, and then worry about expanding to the other slap types when you feel comfortable enough with the first. Unless someone who is paying you is demanding a certain slap type, it doesn't really matter which you use so long as you make it sound good. I prefer going through the string when i'm playing funkier stuff and bouncing when i'm playing more rock or aggressive slap, but it really depends on what makes playing a certain song easier more than the tone it produces. Also, i feel like (for me) part of playing slap is having fun with it as opposed to overthinking nuanced technique tweaks. It's not called Gentle Nuanced Bass. It's SLAP BASS! Just have at your bass and see what works best for you!

 

[matti777]

I'm having a little more success with the bounce method today (Forget Me Nots). I don't see myself learning the double thumping method. I'm using a rental P bass with rounds which has surprisingly low action (I rented this one to see if really wanted one to go with my P with flats).

 

[Kuskah]

Still learning it as well but so far, I'm finding strike through technique to fit me better. I also want to move on to double thumb so striking through should lay a better ground work for that.

I started with bouncing but it felt way too uncontrolled and noisier, I was bouncing too high so I had to come back down for popping. Of course, all of this could be remedied with practice but since I want to learn double thumb as well, I decided to just focus on striking through. The initial learning curve was steeper than bouncing when it comes to accuracy and the note ringing out properly but that's just a matter of patience and practice as well.

 

[onda'bass]

Bounce is not ideal if you don’t get out of the strings way. I personally made more progress and had a better sound using strike through and resting on the next string. Ymmv

 

[micguy]

OK, I'm a bit unusual. I don't use my thumb for slap - I never could understand why I would get that digit involved - it's big, it's clumsy, it's fat, it gets in the way a lot, and you have to reposition your hand when you want to slap. I use my thumb for muting and sometimes for gently plucking the B string, but mostly it stays out of the way.

For slap, I use my index finger - strike through. It's already there, lined up, plucking strings, I just adjust my technique a bit and the string is clanking on the frets, just like a thumb strike would. The middle finger is used for the pop part - I use those two fingers for plucking a lot of double stops (index on the lower string, middle on the higher string), slap is just another kind of double stop.