• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Slap fill technique

3bc

3bc

Mar 12, 2010
1,189
3,076
In the boonies.
#1
Anyone have any insight on how to accomplish a particular kind of fill - specifically a Stuart Zender one he uses a lot. A perfect example of this can be heard on Virtual Insanity at 2:35 mark. He does it probably 5 times on this track and certainly in others.

It sounds like muted triplets like hammer hammer pluck (repeat) but even when I get close to tempo I’m not creating nearly the same kind of feel he is. Obviously he’s a great player, and I’m pretty above average at best. So there’s that.

Thinking maybe I’m missing a key ingredient here. Any thoughts? Anyone able to demonstrate this kind of technique in video format?

thanks all!
 
#9
3bc said:
This is not remotely the part I’m even talking about and his execution of the part youre referencing is not how it’s played on the record and not all that great even as an interpretation, very robotic and no groove.
Click to expand...

This video is close to the percussive riff in terms of execution in the track, although it may not be in the same place or have the same type of EQ. It’s a twist on the Marcus Miller muted string triplet lick. It very well may be overdubbed on the record, which is not unheard of.

Onto more pressing issues - OP, what’s with the jerky responses and insulting tone in response to those who are trying to help you? They don’t owe you anything and are taking their time to show you a solution here. If you have all the answers, why are you even asking?
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Spin Doctor, Anti-Product, mcnach and 4 others
#10
cxcxcx said:
This video is close to the percussive riff in terms of execution in the track, although it may not be in the same place or have the same type of EQ. It’s a twist on the Marcus Miller muted string triplet lick. It very well may be overdubbed on the record, which is not unheard of.

Onto more pressing issues - OP, what’s with the jerky responses and insulting tone in response to those who are trying to help you? They don’t owe you anything and are taking their time to show you a solution here. If you have all the answers, why are you even asking?
Click to expand...

I asked for insight on a very specific lick. The suggestion was that I look for it on YouTube, which in itself is fairly passive aggressive but I get it. I actually had spent a fair amount of time looking for it on YouTube, commented as such.

Then he/she linked me to a part of the song I’m not even talking about, a little frustrating.

I appreciate the trying to help, but they didn’t seem to understand the question because he/she is answering a question I didn’t even ask. That same video shows one interpretation of the lick in question, but it feels a bit too atonal to be the actual technique used, though it is pretty well done.

I definitely asked a very narrow question that probably requires a fair amount of very specific expertise (that I don’t personally have, playing very little slap) to answer.

Didn’t mean to completely snark up the joint.
 
  • Like
Reactions: gscroggin
#13
OP, I just checked the original track (I’m a big Jamiroquai fan in general) and I hear exactly what you’re talking about at 2:35. I think it’s a combination of a few things:
- The technique that @RattleSnack called attention to, specifically around the 2:22 mark. I hear Stuart’s line as rapid triplets, and the left hand technique the dude in the video demonstrated seems like the right feel for this particular fill.
- The filter that Stuart is using. In general I’ve always found Stewart’s funky filter sound to be unique in that he seems to cut all the highs out of it and is left with this thick, warbling filter that’s incredibly funky but also adds an additional percussive factor to his slap playing.
- The syncopated hi-hat feel against his fill.

I could be way off base…but I’m a fan of Jam and Stuart, and that’s what I’m hearing. Good luck in your quest!
 
  • Like
Reactions: 3bc
#15
Another example of the technique, but sped up and not groovy at all, can be found here:

Check out around 16:40. Like I said it doesn’t sound at all groovalicious like Stewart’s fill, but I do think the technique is the same, and the dude from Talkingbass always does a fantastic job at explaining stuff.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: mcnach and 3bc
#16
3bc said:
Anyone have any insight on how to accomplish a particular kind of fill - specifically a Stuart Zender one he uses a lot. A perfect example of this can be heard on Virtual Insanity at 2:35 mark. He does it probably 5 times on this track and certainly in others.

It sounds like muted triplets like hammer hammer pluck (repeat) but even when I get close to tempo I’m not creating nearly the same kind of feel he is. Obviously he’s a great player, and I’m pretty above average at best. So there’s that.

Thinking maybe I’m missing a key ingredient here. Any thoughts? Anyone able to demonstrate this kind of technique in video format?

thanks all!
Click to expand...
You slap the strings with your fretting hand. That's how everyone makes slap sound crazy fast.

1 2 3 4 in a roll. Slap, plap, slap, pop. In a roll

Thumb, hand, thumb, index. In a roll.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mcnach and 3bc
#17
gscroggin said:
OP, I just checked the original track (I’m a big Jamiroquai fan in general) and I hear exactly what you’re talking about at 2:35. I think it’s a combination of a few things:
- The technique that @RattleSnack called attention to, specifically around the 2:22 mark. I hear Stuart’s line as rapid triplets, and the left hand technique the dude in the video demonstrated seems like the right feel for this particular fill.
- The filter that Stuart is using. In general I’ve always found Stewart’s funky filter sound to be unique in that he seems to cut all the highs out of it and is left with this thick, warbling filter that’s incredibly funky but also adds an additional percussive factor to his slap playing.
- The syncopated hi-hat feel against his fill.

I could be way off base…but I’m a fan of Jam and Stuart, and that’s what I’m hearing. Good luck in your quest!
Click to expand...
You may be spot on. I wasn't thinking he was using a fretting hand slap because he seems to be getting more thump and a little more tone/pitch out of these kinds of quick runs he's doing than you would normally get out of a fretting hand slap/plop, but he has some heavy EQ/filtering going on that maybe is just beefing up those kinds of atonal movements.

I'm such a sucker for Stuart Zender's Jamiroquai playing. It's somehow (to me) so enjoyable, groovy, and unique, while being really pretty harmonically unsophisticated. It's mostly just running octaves around the chord changes and some chromatic notes here and there connecting the dots, but it's still so satisfying. Now there's some really nice harmony going on on the Space Cowboy album, but all the most popular tunes and bass lines are the octave ones.
 
  • Like
Reactions: gscroggin

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back