lukeward2004

Nice Hartke/Aguilar rig their Syed - I bet that Valve Pre kicks out some jams!

Ped actually has an interesting style of technique, whereby he uses his right hand entirely to pull off slapped triplets - however i tend to use the left hand slap method to do this....

Buy yourself three things: 1 - A Metronome 2 - A copy of Ed Friedland's Ultimate Slap Bass DVD 3 - A copy of Stu Clayton's Ultimate Slap Bass Book Then all you need is to put the time and effort in - job done.

Hehe - he looks like a cheeky b*gger! Nellie is mad, she loves me too - really sweet dog you have there ped.

[quote name='Josh' post='24235' date='Jun 28 2007, 01:00 AM']But back to slap, you really need to feel it, you need really whack hard with your thumb to great the best tone and when your strating it when your young it does hurt but you will get use to it. Where your slapping now is right, just on the last fret is the perfect place to get the right bounce to feel comfortable.[/quote] I have to disagree with this point - you do not need to slap hard to get a good tone. This depends on the action of your bass - I find a nice low action and slapping over the heel of the neck gives me the best tone, but some, like Larry Graham, play nearer the bridge when slapping and thus the tone is slightly different. If you have a high action then yes, you would probably need to play harder to get a good slap tone, but a nice low action means you dont need to hammer the living daylights out of your strings. And if it hurts, its not doing you any favours - you may get some sore/tender bits on the side of your thumb until the calous develops, but if you experience pain in your arm, STOP - you could be doing more harm than good. If you can, check out Ped's playing - hes a dirty slapper and he plays with a very low, slick action and doesnt hit the strings hard at all. Let the Volume do the work!

+1 for the Afro CUban Basslines book - I have it and its tough but awesome. Great book!

There is a book by Joaquin Des Pres called 101 Disco/Funk basslines - wit tab and notation - that I bought from amazon. Ideal place to start methinks!

Hi Parker_Muse, The first thing I noticed was that your playing was out of time, and was speeding up and slowing down. The second thing I noticed about your playing was your technique, which I imagine will be a large part of the issue. I will try to help where I can and please dont think im having a go at you or your playing - but you need to be honest with yourself about your playing to progress. I was in the same position ab out a year or so ago and I have spent a lot of time and daily practise improving my slap technique, and its only just getting there if im honest. The first and most important thing you must do, whether playing slap or fingers or whatever, is to play IN TIME - if you dont it wont matter if you have the best technique in the world, it will still be crap. As bass players we have to be bang on the money for every beat, or we wont be doing our job properly. Firstly, get yourself a Metronome, set it to a nice slow tempo (60-80 bpm) and ALWAYS play along with it when you practise - it will be hard and will show you how out of time your playing is, but it will improve your own sense of time and space within music and this is one of, if not THE most important things any bassist needs to learn. Secondly, you need to look at your technique - I noticed that you had your thumb angled downwards, towards the floor, which is similar to how flea slaps but ultimately may not be right for you. There is no right or wrong way to slap, merely your own personal preferace. I started off like you with my thumb angled down, but found that I had trouble keeping the slaps clean and round sounding, especially on the A to G strings. I spent a lot of time adjusting my position, playing with my bass virtually under my armpit and using my thumb angled upwards, ALA Mark King, but found I couldnt quite get the pops sounding right. In the end I came to the conclusion that for me, I needed my bass at the same height standing up as it would be sitting down, so although it may not look "cool" to some, it meant that I could actually play comfortably with some conviction. I realised that by playing with my thumb angled in line with the strings, with a slight bend on the end, I was at my most comfortable. Look at my playing position here: Also, study other players, like Mark King, such as in this video: [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jpcBq3EJNI"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jpcBq3EJNI[/url] Equally, have a look at Marcus Miller's playing position: [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHdN_O5k3WM&mode=related&search="]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHdN_O5k3WM...ted&search=[/url] I think the first thing you need to do is find a comfortable playing position, and play around until you find something that suits you. There are many different ways to play this style of bass, but you need to get comfortable before anything else. The next thing you need to do is concentrate on how clean your slaps & pops are - start with a nice slow beat on the metronome, and start off just using your thumb - DO NOT RACE AHEAD, wait until you are 100% confident with your thumb and then start dropping in some pops and doublestops. There are two fantastic resources that will help to no end - Ed Friedland's "Ultimate Slap Bass" DVD, which is the first port of call and will explain some of the points made so far in a more visual way, and secondly is a book by our very own Stuart Clayton, called "Ultimate Slap Bass" coincidently. I would highly recommend buying both of these as they are very informative and have improved my slapping 10 fold since I started a year ago! Hope this helps and if you are in my area im happy to show you a few things to get you started mate. Luke

What, No HEAD? Man, that relationship must suck

Nice, very Mad, made me smile and funky indeed. Man, I wish I could double thump like that!

Cheers mate - will most definately hang on to Lee, he is by far the best drummer ive played with and he seems to be able to play anything - Latin, Funk, Jazz, Samba, you name it! He is most of the reason my new funk band sounds so good!

Hi All, Recently been asked to join forces with my very good friend Rob for his next attempt at becoming a full time rock star! The project is called "Angle Fiction", and you can hear it here: [url="http://www.myspace.com/anglefiction"]http://www.myspace.com/anglefiction[/url] So far, this has all been written, recorded and produced by Rob - the former frontman for my old band ScienceMurdersDreams - and i for one am impressed and pleased that he wants me to play bass for it. We will also be recording some old SMD tracks we wrote before, to fit in with the theme of the album. Once the album is finished, we will only need to find a guitarist as I have an awesome drummer who is up for playing for this project in the pipeline. So, feel free to post thoughts/constructive criticism here! cheers Luke

Yeah, Natalie talks way too much sh*t between songs, we've told her about it before but she doesnt stop - IMO its unprofessional, songs should flow into one another, but hey. The only part of britney I didnt screw up was the midsection!

Not sure about your area but we ususally pay £40 for 4 hours, which is basically a soundproofed room with a PA and Mics/monitors provided. We have to bring our own kit, which is better, but there are a few other studios ive used that provide a ful backline for additional hire.

Those Overwater's are painfully beautiful! Lovely stuff!

The Mix from my amp was taken from the DI on the back of my Hartke 3500, and I just used my Cab for monitoring on stage. The guitars where a bit too low in the mix and the volumes between clean/overdriven guitar where off IMO. It was annoying actually, as the band before us decided to turn down all our amps, despite using thier own kit, before they left the stage, so we where left needing a quick line check before we played. Luckily I made a note of my master vo The Sound and light guys are very good at the venue, really nice sound live and managed to get my ton through without any issues.

I think if its going to work at all, it needs to be a free event - all gear supplied and whatnot. Unless we all donate a couple of squid in for the hire of a venue, with the bumber of users we have here just a quid or two would be a big help!

I use my BassPOD xt, but I also have a Pockit Rock-it Bass headphone amp - its a little hissy, but clean and does the job thru a pair of AKG K-77's.

I try to place my rig so that it is elevated to at least come up to my shoulders, as I find that the sound seems to project across the room over distance this way. It also means I can hear myself if the house monitors arent up to much. It ultimately depends on the room and stage size, but I would try to elevate the amp off the floor whenever I can.

Oh by the way - I was using my Jazz bass and my Hartke 3500 rig with a single 410XL cab for my sound - im quite chuffed with it!

Hi All, Thought I would pop up a few tracks from the live recording we got from the desk at the Clapham Grand from last Friday's gig. It wasnt the best we've played, but our drummer is awesome and ive managed to hijack him for my funk band, so check him out! OK, so here is the first track, You will ever know - featuring some nice 3 part harmonies with me doing some higher vocals [url="http://media.putfile.com/Natalie---You-Will-Ever-Know-Live-2007"]http://media.putfile.com/Natalie---You-Wil...-Know-Live-2007[/url] Next up, a nice little number called Two Worlds Apart, featuring some groovy regae verses and my aweful balls'd up vocals in the mid section: [url="http://media.putfile.com/Natalie---Two-Worlds-Apart-2007"]http://media.putfile.com/Natalie---Two-Worlds-Apart-2007[/url] Here's one for a laugh - a cover of Britney Spears "Hit me Baby", complete with aweful messed up slap bassline. I was wearing a longsleeve shirt for the gig and my cuffs where muting the strings I was slapping, thus resulting in the verse lines sounding crap. The best part, IMHO, is the midsection, where I managed to roll my sleeve up enough to stop muting the string! [url="http://media.putfile.com/Natalie---Hit-Me-Baby-Cover-2007"]http://media.putfile.com/Natalie---Hit-Me-Baby-Cover-2007[/url] Finally, Natalie's best track IMO - called "Whatever" - really chuffed with the 3 part harmonies throughout the chorus, whilst keeping it all tight: [url="http://media.putfile.com/Natalie---Whatever-Live-2007"]http://media.putfile.com/Natalie---Whatever-Live-2007[/url] Let me know what you think, ive got more tracks but ive left them out as they where a little shoddy and didnt sound that great live. These are the pick of the bunch in my opinion, and my favourites. Cheers Luke

This is a very informative thread - im going to Pin this.

That MTD is SEXY!

Im of Jamie's school of thought - i hate using other rigs but my own. Unfortunately I cant get to the Jazz Cafe then, though I would like to, I have a practise with my funk band that night! Im sure you guys will kick bumcheeks, and If you get any more in the london area, I will try and get there. Also need to check out Foolish Earthlings - Syed is a top fella!