troubles with slap

Practice makes perfect!!

You have to give yourself permission to suck. You're a beginner, so of course you sound like a noob. It's normal for it to take more than 1 week to learn slap bass. Please be patient and forgiving with your progress!

A really good exercise, is to practice switching back and forth between fingerstyle and slap, while keeping an even volume level. Have a listen to this funky bassist, Jerome Preston, and notice how he is able to seamlessly switch back and forth between fingers and slap, with a consistent tone and volume level:



If your slaps are too loud, that just means you are hitting the strings too hard because of your inexperience. Practice slapping the strings softer, so that your volume level stays consistent. As you practice and gain more experience, you will have more control. To use a sports analogy, an experienced baseball pitcher is going to find the strike zone a higher percentage of the time, compared to an inexperienced pitcher. It takes a lot of practice to consistently throw strikes.

 

The slap is more like a ricochet. Don’t thunk your thumb down on the string. It strikes and immediately bounces off. It is akin to the motion of popping a towel on someone’s behind.