Who Started Calling It Slap?

[mcrracer]

Who started this calling it slap? If you do the technique as originally done it is more thump and pluck, which is what it was called by the early pioneers. I know as I was there among some of them back in the 70s. I couldn't do it very well but I fancied myself a Jazz ,Fusion and Blues player. I admired those who could thump well. Just wondering when it started being called slap and by who. Even today I don't "slap" my bass. I thump and pluck it. I was talking with one of my buddies recently who was one of the early guys and we could not figure out where "slap" came from..

 

[chicago_mike]

Wish I knew. Cause all the books and vids that came out call it Slapping and Popping. Coinkydinky..the books basically tell you the way the inventors slap is incorrect too.

And then cats would correct you if you said pop when they slapped.

Names given to techniques..... never a good thing.

 

[lunarpollen]

I also find it strange that it is called slap... Slap was and is a technique for playing double bass, common in early 1930's jazz as well as rockabilly music. It can be approximated on bass guitar depending on the set up. But it bears no relation to the technique most people associate with "slap" for bass guitar, which possesses a plucking style very similar to a finger popping style some country guitarists have used for ages.

 

[JimmyM]

Wish I knew. Cause all the books and vids that came out call it Slapping and Popping. Coinkydinky..the books basically tell you the way the inventors slap is incorrect too.

ya, larry graham says to hit the string with force if you want a big sound, and all the instruction books say not to use a lot of force. i'm with larry on that one. you don't want to kill the string and cut off its vibration, but you want to give it a good smack and a good pluck...it does sound bigger. for fast stuff slapping lighter might make you better at it, but i never slap fast anyway. not often, at least. hell, these days i might slap once a gig if that.

 

[thecool]

In Japan they call it "Chopper Bass"

 

[JimK]

Yeah, I've heard that.
...back in the Chuck Rainey "Work Shop" columns for '70s-era Guitar Player mag...he called it "Wood Chop". Some of the columns were even called "The Sound Of Wood".
I'm guessing the Japanese derived "chopper bass" from that.

Dave Larue's Bass Player magazine columns did have a few things on Left-Hand Slap.

 

[Staccato]

In Japan they call it "Chopper Bass"

Wondering if 'chopper bass' is a direct a.k.a. literal translation from the Japanese word used in their language...

 

[Captain_Arrrg]

Milt Hinton was slapping on a double bass long before Larry Graham even held an electric.

Edit:

Wondering if 'chopper bass' is a direct a.k.a. literal translation from the Japanese word used in their language...

They are non-Japanese words and therefore basically are their English equivalents. Most likely "Choppa Bassu".

 

[champbassist]

Who started this calling it slap?

Jeff Berlin. He also invented slap, btw.